NSBA Annual Conference Highlights

Speakers with diverse experiences set to address school board members in San Antonio

ASBJ caught up with veteran broadcaster Deborah Norville and award-winning education leader Khalid Mumin, two of the noted speakers set to deliver keynote addresses at NSBA’s Annual Conference in April.

March 23, 2026

Inspiring speakers who uplift, educate, and resonate with audiences are a hallmark of the National School Boards Association’s Annual Conference. 

American School Board Journal caught up with two of the speakers slated to address Annual Conference 2026 attendees from April 10-12 in San Antonio. 

Deborah Norville, the opening keynote presenter, earned her status as a familiar and trusted news broadcaster over a near-five-decade television career, including 30 years as anchor of the syndicated news program “Inside Edition.” Khalid Mumin, Ph.D., the keynote speaker at the Council of Urban Boards of Education Luncheon, has the distinction of having successfully led urban, suburban, and rural school districts, a statewide education agency, and a national nonprofit. 

To learn more about the other motivational speakers, world-class programming, top education solution providers, experiential learning site visits, and innovative networking opportunities available during this year’s conference—and to register—go to the Annual Conference page.

NORVILLE: TEACHER SPARKED HER CAREER IN JOURNALISM
Deborah Norville says she is as stunned as anyone by her 30-year tenure as anchor of the TV news magazine “Inside Edition.” That three-decade run tops Johnny Carson’s tenure as host of “The Tonight Show” and edges out Oprah Winfrey’s 25 years as host of her eponymous show and Barbara Walters’ 25 years on “20/20.”

Norville’s broadcast career also includes anchoring NBC’s “Today,” serving as an anchor and correspondent for CBS News, and a run as a popular reporter and news anchor in Chicago. Along the way, she’s earned two Emmy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Broadcasters Foundation of America. She also is an inductee of the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame. 

Norville credits her fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Louise Eddings, with channeling her burning curiosity into assignments to the school library, sparking a love of research and writing and laying the foundation for a career in journalism: “Mrs. Eddings taught me that the answer to anything I might wonder about was something I could discover if I were willing to put in the work and do the research. And that’s what you do as a reporter. She gave me the tools for my career by sending me to the library.”

During her Annual Conference keynote, Norville says she hopes to emphasize the importance of creating environments where teachers like Mrs. Eddings can use their best instincts to support their students. She also plans to draw from research conducted for her best-selling books on the science behind respect, resilience and gratitude. They underscore how one’s business life, personal relationships and even the educational environment can be enhanced through specific actions, Norville says.

The veteran broadcaster, who stepped away from “Inside Edition” in May 2025, has embraced a new chapter as host of the syndicated game show “The Perfect Line.”  She says she loves the energy, the fun, and chatting with the show’s contestants. She also welcomes the opportunity to do something completely different from her longtime news role. 

While calling the career change terrifying, she adds that it’s liberating because you no longer have to do things the way you always did. “The challenge is you have to figure out what the new thing is going to be and how you are going to do it.”

MUMIN: ‘BE MORE EFFICIENT, ACT FASTER, MOVE FASTER’
Last year, Khalid Mumin returned to Pennsylvania’s Reading School District for a repeat performance as superintendent. When he served there from 2014 to 2021, he helped steer the district through a period marked by financial distress, the brink of state takeover, and a revolving door of superintendents. His management was praised by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, who said Mumin “demonstrated visionary leadership right from the start to get the district back on a positive track and focused on academic growth and support.”

Mumin, who grew up in an underserved, low-income neighborhood of Philadelphia, recalls that when it came to school, “I loved ninth grade so much, I did it twice.” Mentors and family members helped him find his motivation and passion, charting a career in education, first as a secondary English teacher. Today, he says the strength in his leadership revolves around being a student-centered educator who has a vision of success for all students. He writes about the steps needed to help students living in tough environments defeat the odds in his book, Problem Child: Leading Students Living in Poverty Towards Infinite Possibilities of Success.

The opportunity to serve in a variety of school settings over the years has reinforced his understanding that students everywhere share many of the same needs, Mumin says. It’s up to school leaders, however, to identify and focus on “local needs in regard to workforce development, college and careers, military opportunities, and now, this big push towards innovation.” The focus should be on the local district’s needs for funding, resources, and access, and then “map those needs and expectations onto the students and staff.”  

The importance of aligning education with the local economy and creating opportunities for students was underscored during Mumin’s tenure as superintendent of Reading, an urban district in southeastern Pennsylvania, of rural Caroline County Public Schools on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, and of the affluent Lower Merion School District in suburban Philadelphia. He also served as Pennsylvania’s secretary of education, and as the chief of education strategy and global development for the Goldie Hawn Foundation’s MindUp program. The nonprofit focuses on the mental and emotional well-being of young learners.  

Among the lessons Mumin took away from his statewide role overseeing 500 public school districts in 67 counties—and that he hopes to share with luncheon attendees—is the critical need for school districts to move at the speed of business and prioritize empowerment, efficiency, and effectiveness. “Be more efficient, act faster, move faster,” he says. 

“School systems don’t do that well,” Mumin adds. “We get locked into our five-year strategic plans, and we try to play that five years out.” He’s become a strong advocate of “reimagining the strategic plan, reimagining the work that we do,” and providing “a refresh” with intervals to examine effectiveness and efficiency. There needs to be the ability to adapt quickly to changing circumstances, workforce demands, and student needs and interests, Mumin says. “We have the opportunity to turn things around and find things that work for our young people, that they can really use as the key to chart their own course.”