Many teachers and academics have cultivated a deep base of knowledge in the fields that they teach and/or research but may not consider themselves “experts.” If Malcolm Gladwell is right that it takes 10,000 hours to achieve mastery in any given field, most people are experts in something once they’ve put in the time. This SXSW EDU 2020 panel will outline how teachers and academics can use their knowledge to become experts with opportunities for speaking, consulting, and book publishing.

1. I’m a Business, Man: How Educators Can
“Expertize” Themselves

3. greatness
Ten thousand hours
is the
magic
number
of
Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell

4. This panel will:
1. Explain how and why teachers and academics
are perfectly suited to serve as experts,
especially in the fields that they teach and/or
research.
2. Provide strategies to turn experience into
expertise which can lead to speaking, consulting
and writing opportunities.
3. Offer suggestions for the unique considerations
teachers and academics face in becoming
experts in their chosen fields.

5. Panelists
• Moderator/Submitter
– Shontavia Johnson
• Associate Vice President, Clemson University
• Founder, LVRG
• Expertise: intellectual property law, innovation, and internet culture
• Other Panelists
– Tonya Evans
• Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Director of the UNH Law Blockchain
Online Professional Certificate Program, UNH Franklin Pierce School of Law
• Expertise: intellectual property, new technologies (including blockchain and
distributed ledger technology), entrepreneurship and innovation (including
advisor to startups), entertainment law, trusts and estates, and municipal
finance.
– Tressie McMillan Cottom
• Associate Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University
• Expertise: inequality, higher education, technology and culture