Jane Sadler '73, president of a
company that sells portable, inflatable planetariums, has been named the
keynote speaker for an educator awards dinner to be held during the upcoming Summit
in Tech Valley.
Sadler, president of Learning
Technologies Inc., of Somerville, Mass.,
will make her remarks on May 5. A former school principal, she is the wife of
the inventor of the inflatable planetarium, who started the company 27 years
ago.
The planetarium comes in two
sizes, one accommodating up to 35 people and one that will fit up to 80 people,
and is capable of fitting in the hatchback of a small car. The product, called
Starlab, is billed as a low cost way to provide access to a planetarium in
areas where it would otherwise be unavailable. It is said by the company to be
the most used planetarium in the world, and is used in thousands of schools.
“Jane Sadler is an extraordinary
fit for the dinner that honors cutting-edge educators in Tech
Valley,” said Ann Wendth, senior
vice president of the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce and lead
organizer of the Summit. “As a
former teacher and school principal, she understands the educational
environment, and at the same time, her company is using technology to help
prepare students for the future.”
During the awards event, three
teachers representing an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school,
will be honored. The teachers will also receive funding to attend a national
professional conference.
A panel of judges is continuing to
determine who will win the award this year among educators in the 18-county
Tech Valley region, based on their contributions and innovation in teaching in
the fields of math, science, or technology.
The summit, which is organized by
the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce, will be held May 5 and May 6
at the Empire State
Plaza Convention Center.
The Sadlers' son, Benjamin, is a first-year student at Union.
Sadler and her company were
profiled in a recent “Newsmakers” (“The Universe in a Duffel Bag”) in the Union College magazine: http://www.union.edu/N/DS/s.php?s=4362.