2025 APCSSP
Asia-Pacific Conference on Education, Social Sciences and Psychology
November 06-08, 2025Chiang Mai, Thailand!

Conference Venue: Chiang Mai Marriott Hotel
108 Chang Klan Road, Tambol Chang Klan, Amphur Muang,
Chiang Mai, Thailand, 50100

About Dr. Johan van Rooyen
Dr. Johan van Rooyen is an esteemed scholar and author, widely recognized for his significant contributions to the fields of educational theory, finance, and economics. He possesses a Doctor of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Edinburgh and an MBA from Harvard University.

With over two decades of experience in the academic sector, Dr. van Rooyen expertly combines teaching, research, and policy consultation.

He has authored numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals and his latest book, “Beyond the Blackboard, The Evolving Landscape of Education” explores the impact of emerging technologies on education. This work discusses the challenges these advancements pose and proposes innovative strategies for educators to adapt effectively. This publication has garnered significant acclaim, positioning him among the top 50 most influential authors of 2023 in India.

As a renowned figure in international academic circles, Dr. van Rooyen is frequently invited to speak at major global education conferences. His expertise and insights are highly valued across various regions, including Asia, Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa, underscoring his reputation as a leading educator, and thought leader in his field.

Dear Distinguished Colleagues and Esteemed Participants,
Allow me to begin with a short story. More than 700 years ago, Chiang Mai was a vibrant hub where travelers, merchants, and scholars converged. Along its winding roads and bustling markets, ideas were exchanged as freely as goods. This city was not just a meeting place of cultures, it was a meeting place of minds. Today, centuries later, we find ourselves in that same spirit of exchange, gathered here in Chiang Mai as modern explorers of knowledge, united by a shared mission to advance the future of higher education.

It is with great pleasure that we welcome educational leaders, researchers, and visionaries from across the globe to this important gathering. Your participation represents the truly international scope of our shared commitment to advancing higher education worldwide. This forum is not merely a conference; it is a crossroads. Representatives from universities and institutions spanning multiple continents come together here to engage in cross-cultural dialogue and collaborative problem-solving. Just as Chiang Mai once linked ancient trade routes, we now link intellectual routes that transcend geography, politics, and traditions.

The challenges before us are vast and complex, digital transformation, evolving student expectations, global mobility, sustainability, and the democratization of knowledge. Yet, they also represent opportunities. By bringing together diverse perspectives, we create spaces where:

This forum provides the fertile ground for solutions that no single institution, or nation could achieve alone.

We are honored to learn from two visionary leaders whose work has already influenced global education:

Throughout this forum, we will grapple with questions that strike at the very core of our profession:

The conversations, connections, and collaborations we begin here in Chiang Mai will resonate far beyond these halls, shaping classrooms, influencing policies, and inspiring students across the globe. As we embark on this dialogue, let us remember that each voice contributes to a larger movement. Together, we are not only responding to the needs of higher education today, we are shaping the future of learning itself.

Together, let us continue the journey of discovery, collaboration, and transformation.

Dr. Laurine LeBlanc-White is a nationally recognized trauma-informed clinician, transformational speaker, and author of Unapologetically Resilient. With over 15 years of experience in mental and behavioral health, she has helped families, veterans, and diversecommunities move from trauma to transformation. As co-founder of Xponential Growth Academy LLC in Hawaii, Dr. LeBlanc-White brings powerful insights on resilience, epigenetics, and healing that inspire audiences worldwide to lead, heal, and transform.

ElDon White is an Executive Leadership Strategist,Transformational Speaker, and retired U.S. Army Sergeant Major with over 21 years of distinguished service, including 15 years in Special Operations and the elite75th Ranger Regiment. As the first enlisted ICF-Certified Executive Coach in the Department of Defense and Joint Special Operations Command, he has led thousands through high-stakes environments and now brings that same expertise to corporations,schools,and organizations worldwide. Based in Hawaii, ElDon empowers leaders, teams, and individuals to ignite purpose, build resilience, and achieve lasting transformation.

This talk explores the lessons of a 1% Leader by integrating lived military leadership experience, the neuroscience of trauma and epigenetics, and the evolving nature of healing-centered leadership. It distinguishes the often-misunderstood terms resilience and healing and examines how unresolved generational trauma, via epigenetics, can become an unseen barrier to growth. Using the Eight Principles of a 1% Leader as a framework, the talk proposes a new leadership model built on emotional intelligence, somatic awareness, and the legacy of transformation. This research provides practical recommendations for training and policy implementation across institutions.

Leadership is the art and science of the fabric designed for healthy success. Every living organism needs an example, direction, and motivation to connect and thrive in purpose. Leaders act as the bridge, while leadership is the path. However, before we get to the leadership principles, we must first address trauma and how it impacts our lives.

True leadership is not about recovering from adversity. It is about being transformed by it. Trauma disrupts identity, but healing redefines it. The work of a 1% Leader is to walk that path first for themselves, then for others. Through integrating emotional intelligence, addressing inherited trauma from epigenetics, and leading with intentionality, the new standard of leadership emerges: not perfection, but transformation.

People feel the negative impacts of trying to resemble resiliency by doctrine and definition, which provides an unstable platform for those fielding multiple traumatic events. Trauma creates an environment that forces personal, internal change. Trauma creates a person you were not before the event. Resiliency acts as an attempt to reform you to the previous version of yourself.

However, strength remains in the healing and growth from the event instead of recovery. Resiliency resembles sustainment, while healing represents positive transformation. The skills needed include grief recovery or learning to deal with loss, emotional intelligence, and a baseline understanding of personal mental health disposition. When a basketball loses air, resiliency acts as the pump that recovers the lost air and places it back into the basketball. However, the ball takes on a new form as the leather compresses and stretches. The ball will not move the exact same as it did before. Understanding the relationship between the ground (trauma), it bounces off or how the hand influences the direction and represents the healing. Once the relationship is understood, then transformation can begin. Healing leads to complete exposure of potential and maximum health optimization.

In this talk, you will understand how to lead the person, not just the process, apply 1% Leader principles in daily leadership roles across industries, develop emotional intelligence and self-awareness as leadership assets, understand the science of epigenetics and its impact on behavior, identity, and leadership, and explore how inherited trauma and learned behaviors affect leadership style and workplace culture. This will lead to a clearer sense of identity, purpose, and leadership philosophy, reconnection with purpose and identity beyond roles or trauma, and the ability to lead with greater empathy, clarity, and discipline.

Benjamin Schmeiser is Professor of Spanish at Illinois State University. He is an award-winning educator with over thirty years of experience teaching Spanish at the university level. His research concentrates primarily on Spanish linguistics. He has published in, and served as an invited reviewer for, premier journals, conferences, and publishers. In addition, he has either taught, conducted field work, presented and/or published his research in the United States, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, England, Finland, Greece, Guatemala, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Thailand.

He is the author of Las variedades del mundohispano: Introducción a la dialectologíaespañola and the accompanying website, www.lasvariedadesdelmundohispano.com. Follow him @lasvariedades1 on Twitter/X and Instagram.

Dr. Benjamin Schmeiser, Professor of Spanish
Illinois State University, USA

This talk explores academic writing and discusses the many common types of publications. In what follows, I discuss different writing styles, how to adapt, and offer pointers to help you become a better writer; an additional benefit is that you will become more familiar with the U.S. system, should that be relevant to you.

First, I briefly discuss the process of writing a thesis (often a requirement at the Master’s level) and a dissertation (often a requirement of completing a PhD). I discuss how to research ideas, challenges, and how to stay mentally focused during a time in which a student is under a lot of stress and deadlines.

Next, I discuss book chapters and conference proceedings. For book chapters, I include discussion on, among other things, the ability to adapt to the editor’s demands, the publisher, as well as their deadlines. For conference proceedings, I discuss the distinction of peer-reviewed reviews, as well as the different style sheets and expectations the editors may have.

I then discuss the challenges of writing a book. Last year, I published a book on the different varieties (or “dialects”) of the Spanish-speaking world. Writing a book is a testament of will and requires resolve and self-discipline, especially in a world with so many distractions. In this section, I discuss four general aspects of writing a book to consider as you improve your writing.

First, your schedule and routine. How you schedule your time is crucial to your success. Whether you are a night owl or a morning person, have family commitments, you commute, or have other responsibilities will have to be juggled as you find a pattern for writing. Some writers have a fixed schedule, while others prefer to write when fully inspired. Here I talk about the type of schedule you should consider keeping, given that ultimately, the best schedule is the one that produces the best results.

Second, your environment. It is important to know yourself in this regard, as you can easily get distracted or feel unmotivated. We will consider working at home, at a coffee shop, at work, etc. as well as whether to listen to music (and what type), among other things.

Third, other aspects of the book-writing process. You will need to be your own editor, copy editor, and to a certain extent, production editor. You will also need to be your own administrative assistant (e.g. secretary) and possibly, website developer. In this section, I talk about areas you will need to consider as they can take up a lot of time and are often underestimated.

Fourth, the mental factor. So much about doing something arduous is believing in yourself, which must come from having good habits. Stress, worry, Imposter Syndrome, and more can be huge hurdles to overcome. I will talk about each point, as well as give advice on how to fight through this challenging part.

In short, we learn so much about our subject matter, yet not enough time is dedicated to learning about the writing process itself. In this talk, I hope you leave with a better understanding and gain some tips to help you improve.