One of the featured speakers at the annual conference of the Illinois Association for Gifted Children is Dr. Sally Krisel. Sally has been a strong and vocal leader in the field of gifted education and is currently the president of the National Association for Gifted Children. She strongly believes that gifted education practices are best practices for transforming education. Sally asks, “What if gifted education turned out to be our country’s secret weapon in total school improvement? What if the best way to improve education for ALL children is to focus on ways to engage and challenge those who are gifted?” Sally enacted her beliefs about the value and effectiveness of gifted education practices in the design of a special school in Hall County, Georgia. Educators at DaVinci Academy implement personalized programming with a problem based curriculum, enabling students to create projects and showcase their work to authentic audiences. Sally’s sessions at the conference will help teachers understand how they might also use gifted education practices to recognize and develop the abilities of many students and impact their schools.