GAP Summit - Request to Attend

Featured Speakers

Please note this is a partial list. The web site will be updated periodically.

Jamal Abedi
Jamal Abedi is a Professor at the Graduate School of Education of the University of California, Davis and a research partner at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST). Dr. Abedi's research interests include studies in the area of psychometrics and test and scale development. Among his interests and his recent work are studies on the assessment and accommodations for English learners (ELs) and research on the opportunity to learn for ELs. Results of his recent studies on the impact of linguistic factors on the assessment and accommodation for ELs have been used and reported nationwide. Abedi is the recipient of the 2003 National Professional Service Award in recognition of his “Outstanding Contribution Relating Research to Practice” by the American Educational Research Association. Abedi’s educational background is in psychometrics and research methodology. He holds a Master’s and a Ph.D. degree from Vanderbilt University in psychometrics.

Russlynn Ali
Russlynn Ali is the Vice President of the Education Trust and founding director of the Education Trust—West, the west coast partner of the EdTrust. The organizations work towards the high academic achievement of all students at all levels, with an emphasis on serving Latino, African American, Native American and low-income students. Ali has held several senior positions at various organizations serving youth education, including: liaison to the president of the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington, DC; chief of staff to the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education President; and deputy co-director of the Advancement Project. Ali attended Spelman College and graduated from the American University with a bachelor’s degree in Law and Society. She also holds a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law. Ali practiced corporate and civil rights law and served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Southern California School of Law prior to her non-profit advocacy career. Ali is a member of the State Bar of California and serves on the boards and advisory committees of a number of education related organizations, including the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education’s Curriculum and Instruction Committee and the California Governor's Committee on Education Excellence.

Ramona Bishop
Dr. Ramona Bishop has been in education for over 15 years, with the bulk of her experience being in educational administration. She obtained her Bachelors degree from University of California, Berkeley, her teaching credential from University of San Francisco, her Master of Science from California State University, Hayward, and her doctorate from University of Pacific. She has been the recipient of numerous awards including, but not limited to, Student of the Year from University of San Francisco, the Governor’s Performance award for a 122 point API gain, the Above and Beyond Award from the Special Education Department in Sacramento City Unified School District, and Distinguished Educator award from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. The topic of her doctoral thesis was “Leadership Strategies that Lead to Success with African-American Students”. This year, Dr. Bishop became Superintendent of Del Paso Heights School District.

James E. (Gene) Bottoms
Gene Bottoms is the Senior Vice President of the Southern Regional Education Board, an organization with a firm commitment to the High Schools That Work initiative, an initiative that Gene has spearheaded since 1987. High Schools That Work (HSTW) is the largest effort in America to improve high schools for career-bound students. The program involves over 1,000 high schools in over 32 states. Numerous other states and school districts throughout the nation are adopting the HSTW goals and key practices as a way to improve high school for all youth, especially career-bound students. Dr. Bottoms has served as the Executive Director of the American Vocational Association and as the Director of Educational Improvement for the Georgia State Department of Education. In addition, his career has included service as a school teacher, principal, and guidance counselor.

Sal Castro
Sal Castro, school teacher, Chicano student advocate, and legendary activist, was born during the Great Depression in Los Angeles, California. Sal attended schools in Mexico and in Los Angeles, served in the United States Army, and received his MA and teaching credential through CSU Los Angeles. His father’s illegal deportation back to Mexico during the mass raids of the Repatriation Movement, and elementary teachers that made him sit in the corner for not speaking English, marked the beginning of Sal’s awareness of, and lifelong battle against, the discrimination against Mexican-American students that he came to find rampant in the Los Angeles schools where he taught social science, history, and government. During the 1960s Sal helped build the Chicano Youth Leadership Conferences to raise awareness among Chicano students, teaching them how to work within the educational system, achieve and go to college. The annual conferences set the stage for action that would shake the system. Through an organized walkout, thousands of Mexican-American high school students protested the inequities they faced in school in what came to be known as the 1968 Blowouts—the largest strike of high school students in the history of the United States. As a consequence, Sal was arrested and charged with thirty counts of conspiracy—150 years in prison. The case was later thrown out by the State Supreme Court under the First Amendment. The HBO movie Walkout is based on Sal’s story. Sal Castro was the galvanizing force behind these walkouts that signified what has been called the beginning of the urban Chicano cultural and civil rights movement.

Michael Cohen
Michael Cohen is a nationally recognized leader in education policy and standards based reform. He has been the President of Achieve since 2003. In 2006, Education Week ranked Achieve as the 6th most influential education policy organization in the nation, and ranked Achieve’s landmark report, Ready or Not: Creating a High School Diploma That Counts, as among the most influential research studies in the past decade. Under Mike’s leadership, Achieve formed the American Diploma Project Network, a growing network of 30 states committed to improving preparation for postsecondary education and 21st century careers. Mike held several senior education positions in the Clinton Administration, including Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education at the U.S. Department of Education, Special Assistant to the President for Education Policy at the White House, and Senior Advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley. Earlier in his career, Mike held key positions in several national organizations that work with state education policymakers, including as Director of Education Policy for the National Governors Association, and Director of Policy Development and Planning for the National Association of State Boards of Education. Mike began his career at the National Institute of Education, where he led the Effective Schools research.

Duane Crum
Duane Crum received his PhD in Physics from Ohio State University and has since worked in a San Diego’s high-tech community. He has held positions as President, CEO, General Manager, Vice President of Development, and Vice President of Marketing in various companies where he garnered experience raising venture capital, selling his company, as well as going public. He has been responsible for the design, sale or support of products that include MRI magnets, cardiac ablation instrumentation, neuromagnetometers, systems for non-invasive liver biopsies, uterine ablation instruments, systems for physics research at ultra-low temperatures, magnetic susceptometers for chemical analysis, several classified DOD projects, and systems for remote monitoring of civil structures including the Washington Monument and an oil platform off the coast of Nigeria. Two years ago, he volunteered to take on the role of CA State Leader for Project Lead the Way (PLTW) and now holds positions at San Diego State University and San Diego Community College. In this role, he is responsible for recruiting new schools into the PLTW network and supporting them after they have joined. In addition, Duane is an instructor in the Summer Training Institute for PLTW teachers.

Linda Darling-Hammond
Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University, where she serves as principal investigator for the School Redesign Network and the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute. Her research, teaching, and policy work focus on educational policy, teaching and teacher education, school restructuring, and educational equity. Prior to Stanford, Darling-Hammond was the William F. Russell Professor in the Foundations of Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. There, she was the founding Executive Director of the National Commission for Teaching and America's Future, the blue-ribbon panel whose 1996 report What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future, catalyzed major policy changes across the United States to improve the quality of teacher education and teaching. Among her more than 200 publications is Powerful Teacher Education: Lessons from Exemplary Programs (Jossey-Bass: 2006), The Right to Learn (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997), recipient of the American Educational Research Association’s Outstanding Book Award for 1998, and Teaching as the Learning Profession (co-edited with Gary Sykes), recipient of the National Staff Development Council’s Outstanding Book Award for 2000. She began her career as a public school teacher and has co-founded several schools, including charter schools in East Palo Alto, California.

Sue Nelle DeHart
Sue Nelle DeHart of Denton, Texas, has been a professional educator since 1964. She has served as a classroom teacher, teacher of the deaf, special education teacher, elementary principal, and central office administrator. Before becoming an elementary principal, Dr. DeHart served as the gifted and talented coordinator for the Denton Independent School District developing the program, training teachers, and writing curriculum. Throughout her career, Dr. DeHart has taught graduate courses in the areas of gifted education and special education administration as an adjunct professor at the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University. She has given hundreds of workshops on gifted education, cooperative learning, multiple intelligences, classroom management, brain compatible learning, and has worked with teachers and administrators, both nationally and internationally. Sue Nelle DeHart retired in June of 2000 to work full-time as a consultant for aha! Process, Inc. Although being considered a low socioeconomic campus, with Sue Nelle at the helm, aha! Process, Inc. has repeatedly been recognized for its innovative techniques, inclusive practices, and outstanding academic gains of at-risk students.

Susana Dutro
Susana Dutro is a founding partner of E. L. Achieve, an organization dedicated to assisting educators in equipping English learners for academic achievement. She has an extensive background in second language literacy as a bilingual teacher, district and county office administrator, director of English learner initiatives for the California Reading & Literature Project, adjunct education faculty and author. Susana developed A Focused Approach to Instruction for English Learners and is principal author of several handbooks based on that approach, most recently Systematic ELD Instruction and Constructing Meaning: Explicit Language for Content Instruction. The state of Oregon, and dozens of districts, have adopted this approach in their reform efforts. Her articles include Rethinking English Language Instruction: An Architectural Approach and What’s Language Got to do with it? Considerations for Secondary E.L. Programs. She speaks and consults nationally, working side-by-side with teachers and administrators to design effective programs for English learners.

Jana Echevarria
Jana Echevarria, Ph.D., is a Professor of Education at California State University, Long Beach and is Co-Principal Investigator with the Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES). Dr. Echevarria has taught in general education, special education, English as a Second Language (ESL) and bilingual programs. She has lived in Taiwan and Mexico where she taught ESL and second language acquisition courses at the university level, as well as in Spain where she conducted research on instructional programs for immigrant students. Her UCLA doctorate earned her an award from the National Association for Bilingual Education's Outstanding Dissertations Competition. Her research and publications focus on effective instruction for English learners, including those with learning disabilities. She is an internationally known expert on English learners and has co-authored nine books including, Making Content Comprehensible for English Language Learners: The SIOP Model and Sheltered Content Instruction: Teaching Students With Diverse Abilities, both published by Allyn & Bacon. The SIOP Model of instruction is used widely in all 50 states and several countries. In 2005, Dr. Echevarria was selected as Outstanding Professor at California State University, Long Beach.

Christopher Edley
Christopher Edley, Jr. joined Boalt Hall as dean and professor of law in 2004, after 23 years as a professor at Harvard Law School. He earned a law degree and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard, where he served as an editor and officer of the Harvard Law Review. In 2005, he completed a six-year term as a member of the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. With his abiding interests in administrative law, education policy, and race, Christopher served under Presidents Carter and Clinton and also served as a special adviser on President Clinton’s Race Initiative in 1997-99. He was appointed in 2006 to the national nonpartisan commission created to conduct an independent review of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and is a trustee of the Russell Sage Foundation and The Century Foundation, and a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, the Council of Foreign Relations, the American Law Institute, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. At UC Berkeley, he is founder and faculty-Co-Director of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity, a multidisciplinary think tank.

Ronald Ferguson
Dr. Ronald Ferguson is an MIT-trained economist who has taught at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard since 1983. His research publications cover issues in education policy, youth development programming, community development, economic consequences of skill disparities, and state and local economic development. For much of the past decade, his research has focused on racial achievement gaps, appearing in publications of the National Research Council, the Brookings Institution, the U.S. Department of Education, the Educational Research Service and various books and journals. Dr. Ferguson is the faculty co-chair and director of the Achievement Gap Initiative (AGI) at Harvard. The AGI is a university-wide initiative to help close the nation’s achievement gaps by supporting new research and connecting research to policy and practice. He is also the founder and director of the Tripod Project for school improvement, in which over two hundred schools across ten states have participated.

Fluke Fluker
Born and raised in the projects of Brooklyn, New York, Fluke Fluker was inducted into the United States Marine Corp at the age of 17. By the time he was 19 ½ he became one of the youngest sergeants in Marine Corp peacetime history. After leaving the Marine Corp, Fluker followed his dream of playing basketball and football on a college team. He attended Mira Costa Junior College and received an Associate of Arts degree. Fluke went on to play basketball at California State University, Northridge where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Kinesiology. His care and concern for young people led him to pursue and complete a Teaching Credential in Secondary Education. As a teacher, Fluke participated in the Independent Living Program at Pierce Community College in Winnetka, California. This program assisted troubled youth in transitioning from the court system to independent living. During his 22 years of teaching, Mr. Fluker has demonstrated his leadership skills by developing and implementing conflict resolution, cultural awareness, life skills and transitional services curriculums. His vast experience and passion for teaching has not only made him an effective mentor, teacher and coach, but has led him to appear on the Oprah show, present at the Essence Music Festival, and receive numerous awards and commendations.

Joseph Johnson
Dr. Joseph Johnson is the Executive Director of the National Center for Urban School Transformation and the QUALCOMM Professor of Urban Studies at San Diego State University, in San Diego, California. In this position, he works with school district leaders, researchers, and educators throughout the nation to improve academic achievement in urban schools. Previously, he has served as a classroom teacher in San Diego, as a school district administrator in New Mexico, as a state department official in both Texas and Ohio, as a researcher and technical assistance provider at the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas, and as the Director of Student Achievement and School Accountability at the U.S. Department of Education. In 1987 Dr. Johnson received the Special Educator of the Year Award from the New Mexico Council for Exceptional Children. In 1989 he was the founding president of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. In 1993 and again in 2000, he received the Educator of the Year Award from the Texas Association of Compensatory Education. In 2003 he received the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Award from San Diego State University’s College of Education.

Kevin Johnson
Kevin Johnson is a twelve-year veteran of the National Basketball Association. Johnson spent most of his basketball career with the Phoenix Suns. Johnson was raised in the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento, an economically disadvantaged area which is confronted by many of the social ills affecting inner cities across America such as drugs, gangs, teenage pregnancy and high unemployment. Early on, Johnson made a commitment to Oak Park resolving to assist the community in areas of need. In the summer of 1989, Johnson founded St. HOPE Academy (“SHA”), a nonprofit after-school educational program located in the heart of Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood. In 2000, SHA transformed into a full-fledged nonprofit community development corporation designed to revitalize inner city communities through public education, civic leadership, economic development and arts enrichment. SHA’s purpose is to tutor young people and provide them with the opportunities for educational, social and spiritual growth to assist them to one day become leaders in their communities. Johnson’s work continues to focus on revitalizing education programs for inner-city neighborhoods.

Odis Johnson, Jr.
Odis Johnson, Jr., completed his doctoral training at the University of Michigan and has been a recipient of the National Academies Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship and the Spencer Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Chicago. He is currently an Assistant Professor in African American Studies, and Faculty Associate at the Maryland Population Research Center at the University of Maryland. Prior to his current appointment, he served as an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Education. Dr. Johnson’s research is in the areas of urban/community sociology, the sociology of education and social policy. He offers courses in program evaluation, quantitative methods, policy analysis and urban/community studies. Dr. Johnson is a member of the editorial board of the journal, The Urban Review.

Shelley Jones
Shelley J. Jones has devoted her work to high priority schools previously serving as teacher, coach, assistant principal and principal. She also serves as a Master's supervisor at California State University, Sacramento and co-founder of Skema Consultants who specialize in providing consulting services to urban schools determined to increase achievement for African American and Latino students. Her contributions both within the classroom and as an administrator have led to academic and professional growth for both teachers and students. Ms. Jones is currently furthering her education by studying for her doctoral degree at the USC Rossier School of Education.

Sharon Lynn Kagan
Sharon Lynn Kagan is the Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Early Childhood and Family Policy, Co-Director of the National Center for Children and Families, and Associate Dean for Policy at Teachers College, Columbia University and Professor Adjunct at Yale University's Child Study Center. Scholar, pioneer, leader, and advocate, Dr. Kagan has helped shape early childhood practice and policies in the United States and in countries throughout the world. Author of over 200 articles and 12 books, Kagan's research focuses on the institutions that impact child and family life. She consults with numerous international, federal and state agencies, congress, governors, and legislatures, is a member of 40 national boards and panels, and is Past President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children and Family Support America. She is currently working around the globe with United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to establish early learning standards in Armenia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Ghana, Jordan, Mongolia, Paraguay, Turkmenistan, and Viet Nam. She is the only woman in the history of American Education to receive its three most prestigious awards: the 2004 Distinguished Service Award from the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the 2005 James Bryant Conant Award for Lifetime Service to Education from the Education Commission of the States (ECS), and the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education.

Kate Kinsella
Kate Kinsella, Ed.D. is an adjunct faculty member in Secondary Education at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and provides consultancy nationally regarding effective instruction of adolescent English learners. She has maintained active involvement in classrooms, grades 4-12, by coaching extensively and teaching academic literacy skills to high school English learners in SFSU’s Step to College Program. Dr. Kinsella is co-author of Scholastic’s (2006) Read 180 Literacy Intervention Program and is spearheading efforts nationally to develop more multi-faceted and explicit academic English language development curricula for secondary English learners. She was co-editor of the CATESOL Journal from 2000-2005 and serves on the editorial board for the California Reader. Dr. Kinsella led the development of the Longman Study Dictionary (2007) for English learners in grades 4-9. A former Fulbright professor in teaching English as a Second Language, Dr. Kinsella has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Marcus Foster Memorial Reading Award, offered by the California Reading Association in 2002 to one California educator who has made a statewide impact on policy and pedagogy in the area of literacy. In 2005 she received the California Department of Education’s Award of Excellence for her contributions to improving the education of immigrant youth throughout the state.

Ted Lempert
Ted Lempert is the President of Children Now, a national research and advocacy organization based in Oakland, California. Previously, Mr. Lempert was the founding CEO of EdVoice, a California grassroots organization advocating for education reform and support for public education. He serves on the San Mateo County Board of Education and is a visiting Lecturer in the Political Science Department at U.C. Berkeley. As a California State Assembly member, Mr. Lempert served as chair of the Assembly Higher Education Committee and the Select Committee on Education Technology, and co-chair of the Joint Committee to Develop a Master Plan for Education. He authored landmark legislation including the Golden State Scholarshare Trust (California’s College Savings Plan) (1997), the Charter Schools Act (1998) and the Local School Construction Bond Act (2000). Mr. Lempert received the “Al Rodda Lifetime Service Award” from the California School Boards Association; was named "Legislator of the Year" by numerous leading education groups, including the National Association of Educational Service Agencies, the California Association of School Administrators, the California Community College Faculty, and the UC and CSU Students Associations; and was recognized five times with the "High-Tech Legislator of the Year" award from the American Electronics Association.

Kathryn Lindholm-Leary
Kathryn Lindholm-Leary received her Ph.D. at UCLA, where she worked at the Spanish Speaking Mental Health Research Center and the Center for Language Education and Research. She is currently a professor of Child and Adolescent Development at San Jose State University, where she has taught for 19 years. At San Jose State, Dr. Lindholm-Leary received a Teacher-Scholar award, was a finalist for the Presidents Scholar award, and was a San Jose State nominee for the prestigious Wang Family Excellence award. Her research interests focus on understanding the cognitive, language, psychosocial, and societal factors that influence student achievement, with a particular emphasis on culturally and linguistically diverse students. Dr. Lindholm-Leary has worked with two-way immersion and other bilingual programs for the past 22 years and during that time has evaluated over 30 programs and helped to establish programs in over 54 school districts in 11 states. Dr. Lindholm-Leary regularly consults with various state departments of education and also the US Department of Education. She has authored or co-authored four books and many chapters and journal articles on the topics of dual language education and child bilingualism and has presented her findings at over 100 local, state, national and international conferences.

M. Magdalena Carrillo Mejia
Dr. Maggie Mejia began her tenure as the 23rd superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District on January 5, 2004. She serves as the first Latino and first woman in this position. Previous to her service in Sacramento, she led the Montebello Unified School District. She has worked to raise student performance and close the achievement gap, increase parent involvement and develop and strengthen partnerships throughout the district. Among other accomplishments, Dr. Mejia has led two innovative initiatives in Sacramento: becoming the first district in California to earn international certification from ISO 9001 for standardizing procedures and practices at the central office and undertaking a rigorous district review with the guidance of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. Only ten districts in the nation have engaged in the process designed to improve centralized support services for students and schools. Besides her extensive professional credentials, Dr. Mejia was named Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) Superintendent of the Year in June 2006. She also received recognition from the prestigious Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). Honors and professional recognition include the Milken National Educator of the Year, and most recently she was one of two California superintendents selected by State Superintendent Jack O’Connell to represent the state at the National Academy of Superintendents in Ohio.

Julie Mendoza
Dr. Mendoza is the Southern California Director for the Alliance for Regional Collaboration to Heighten Educational Success (ARCHES). Her primary responsibility includes promoting and supporting mature, emerging, and new collaboratives in the Los Angeles area. Recently, she served as the Director of Research and Evaluation for the University of California College Preparation (UCCP) Online. Prior to this position, she was Co-Director of the California Opportunity Indicators Project, with the University of California All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity (UC/ACCORD) in which she participated in the conceptualization of the College Opportunity Ratio (COR), an indicator that reports the effectiveness of the state's high schools in producing college-ready graduates. Dr. Mendoza was also a contributing author for the 2005 Harvard Civil Rights Project study, Confronting the Dropout Crisis in California. She currently serves as the Vice President of the Los Angeles Public Library Board of Commissioners, a Member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent's A-G Advisory Implementation Committee, a Member of Mayor Villaraigosa's Council of Education Advisors, and a Steering Committee Member for Los Angeles Communities for Educational Equity. Dr. Mendoza earned a B.A. in Communications Studies and M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA, and an Ed.M. and Ed.D. in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Lowell Milken
Over two decades of education research, visits to thousands of classrooms, and the creation of major national initiatives have earned Milken Family Foundation Chairman Lowell Milken the reputation as an education reform leader and pioneer. In 1985, Lowell conceived the Milken Educator Awards, the nation’s largest teacher recognition program, to recognize outstanding educators and encourage young people to teach. Recognizing that a sufficient number of quality teachers would never result from current education practices, Lowell launched the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) in 1999 as a comprehensive, research-based strategy to revitalize the profession through sustained opportunities for career advancement, professional growth, teacher accountability and competitive compensation. Strong results and rapid growth led him to establish a public charity, the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, to operate TAP and provide technical expertise for teacher quality initiatives. Lowell has been honored by the National Association of State Boards of Education, the Horace Mann League and the National Association of Secondary School Principals. An accomplished philanthropist and businessman, Lowell graduated summa cum laude from UC Berkeley. He earned his law degree at UCLA with distinctions of Order of the Coif and UCLA Law Review.

Theodore Mitchell
Ted Mitchell is President and CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund, a venture philanthropy firm focused on transforming public education for underserved children. Prior to joining NewSchools, Mitchell served as President of Occidental College. He also served as Deputy to the President at Stanford and Dean of the School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Mitchell is a national leader in the effort to provide high-quality education for all students and has long been active in California and Los Angeles educational reform initiatives. He currently chairs the Governor’s Committee on Educational Excellence, charged with making recommendations to improve California’s system of K-12 finance and governance. Mitchell received his BA in History and Economics, his MA in History, and his Ph.D. in the History of American Education all from Stanford. Mitchell also served as a member of the Stanford Board of Trustees from 1985-1990.

Steven Nover
Dr. Stephen M. Nover is the Director of the Center for ASL/English Bilingual Education and Research (CAEBER) at the Gallaudet University. CAEBER, the only national center of its kind in the United States, is devoted to supporting the ASL/English bilingual professional development of K-12 teachers/mentors and universities’ deaf education program instructors. Deaf since birth, Dr. Nover actively reaches out to schools and the general public on the importance of ASL/English bilingual education for deaf children. Dr. Nover earned a B.A. in Psychology from Gallaudet University, an M.A. in Educational Administration and Supervision from California State University, Northridge, and a Ph.D. in Language, Reading and Culture from University of Arizona, Tucson. With his wife, Jill Naumann, a deaf woman, Dr. Nover is raising both of his own children, one hearing and one deaf, using the bilingual communication of American Sign Language and English.

Jeannie Oakes
Jeannie Oakes is Presidential Professor in Educational Equity and Director of UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education & Access (IDEA) and the University of California’s All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity (ACCORD). Oakes’ research focuses on schooling inequalities and follows the progress of educators and activists seeking socially just schools. She is the author of 17 scholarly books and monographs and more than 100 published research reports, chapters, and articles. An updated edition of her landmark book, Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality was published in 2005 by Yale University Press. Oakes newest book (with IDEA colleague John Rogers), Learning Power: Organizing for Education and Justice (Teachers College Press), released in April 2006, reports on students, parents, teachers, and grassroots groups struggling for more socially just schools. Oakes' awards include three major awards from the American Educational Research Association and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the California Education Research Association. She is also the recipient of the National Association for Multicultural Education's Multicultural Research Award, the Jose Vasconcellos World Award in Education, and a Distinguished Achievement Award from the Educational Press Association of America. Oakes teaches courses in urban school policy and history in the Urban Schooling division of UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

Paul Ogden
Paul W. Ogden, who was born Deaf, is the youngest of four sons born to hearing parents. Two of his brothers are hearing and one is deaf. Paul is a professor in and director of the Deaf Studies program in the Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Studies at California State University, Fresno. Paul received his Ph.D. in 1979 from the University of Illinois at Urbana. In 1995, he was voted “Outstanding Professor of the Year” by the faculty, staff, and students at California State University, Fresno, and nominated for the California State University System Honors. Among his major publications are The Silent Garden: Understanding Your Hearing Impaired Child, Chelsea: The Story of a Signal Dog; The Silent Garden: Raising Your Deaf Child, and El Jardin Silencioso: Criando a Su Hijo Sordo, a Spanish translation of the first five chapters of The new Silent Garden. Gallaudet University Press lists The Silent Garden book as a classic.

William Ouchi
William G. Ouchi is Distinguished Professor at the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management. He is the author of four books on organization and management, one of which was on the New York Times best seller list. At UCLA, Professor Ouchi teaches courses in corporate governance, management, and organization design. He founded and continues as Chairman of the Riordan Programs, which serve inner-city high school and college students in Southern California and also is the founder of the Nissan-HBCU Summer Institute, which serves the professoriate of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities of the U.S. During his tenure as Vice Dean for Executive Education, the Anderson School created the Asian-Pacific Leadership Program, the African-American Leadership Institute, the Latino Leadership Institute, the Women’s Leadership Institute, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual Leadership Institute, the Strategic Leadership Institute, and the Mergers and Acquisitions Program, all of which continue today.

William Paden
William Paden, Co-founder of The Village Nation, has been an educator and coach in the Los Angeles Unified School District for twenty-four years. He received his B.A. in Sociology from the University of California, at San Diego and a teaching credential in Social Studies from San Diego State University. Paden began his career at Holmes Middle and Lawrence Middle Schools. During his tenure at those schools, he created the Academic Olympics and helped develop the Academic Decathlon, as well as various sports programs. In 1987, Paden began coaching high school football and track, leading to numerous League, Conference and City Championships. As a part of the nationally recognized Cleveland Humanities Magnet School (a California Distinguished School), William has been a part of several presentations and seminars. These include Black Male: Representations of Masculinity at the Armand Hammer Museum, and several for the Humanities Summer Academy. His accomplishments are numerous and varied, including NAACP Teacher of the Year (1987), Los Angeles’ Most Inspirational Teacher (2004 and 2006), and multiple award winner of Who’s Who Among American Teachers years (1996-2007). His commitment and dedication to youth and education has also led to him being featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show (May 2007) along with being a Presenter at the Essence Festival in New Orleans (July 2007).

Rachel Quenemoen
Rachel Quenemoen is the technical assistance team leader for the National Center on Educational Outcomes. Ms. Quenemoen has worked for 25 years as an educational sociologist focused on "research to practice" efforts. She has been a multi-district cooperative administrator in both general and special education, and for the last 10 years has worked at the state and national levels on educational change processes and reform efforts related to standards-based reform and students with disabilities, building consensus and capacity among practitioners and policymakers. Her current research and technical assistance priorities include alternate assessment of students with significant disabilities, and research focused on the causes of and solutions for “gap” issues.

Eric Scroggins
Eric Scroggins is the Executive Director of Teach For America and is responsible for the overall performance, operations, and effectiveness of the organization in the Bay Area. Prior to this, Eric was the Executive Director at Teach For America in St. Louis where he doubled the corps size, led a 17% increase in the number of corps members reaching Teach For America’s highest bar of efficacy, and grew funding by 518%. He has also served as the Program Director at Teach For America – New York. Eric graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University in St. Louis. As a Teach For America corps member teaching eighth-grade science in South Bronx, New York, he implemented a rigorous high-school curriculum for his students, who outperformed high-school students in the same district on the state regents exam.

Charity Fleming Smith
Dr. Charity Fleming Smith is the Assistant Commissioner for the Arkansas Department of Education for the Division of Public School Academic Accountability. In this capacity, she helps to ensure that all schools and districts are held accountable for improving student achievement. With her collaborative leadership and others educators around the state, Arkansas has received national attention for rigorous curriculum standards, accountability standard setting, outstanding Advanced Placement performance and participation, and for improvement on state and national assessments. Dr Smith is a Rockefeller Distinguished Lecturer, Executive Director of the Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus Think Tank, Founder of the Accelerated Academic Achievement Academy, and a nationally requested educational consultant and presenter. She also co-hosted the national historical event that placed statues of the “Little Rock Nine” on the grounds of the Arkansas State Capitol. Her recent work includes the Setting of Standards for the Arkansas Accountability Rating System (2007). She is also a contributing author in the book, Current Developments in K-12 Education: Near and Longer Term Trends (2007). Charity continues to champion academic achievement, accountability, assessment, school leadership, and equity issues.

Marguerite Ann Snow
Marguerite Ann Snow (Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics, UCLA, 1985) is Professor in the Charter College of Education at California State University, Los Angeles where she teaches in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) M.A. program. She is co-author of Content-based Second Language Instruction, and co-editor of The Multicultural Classroom: Readings for Content-Area Teachers, and The Content-Based Classroom: Perspectives on Integrating Language and Content. She is also editor of Implementing the ESL Standards for Pre-12-Students in Teacher Education, and co-editor of Academic Success: Strategies for K-12 Mainstream Teachers and Developing a New Course for Adult Learners. She has published in TESOL Quarterly, Applied Linguistics, and The Modern Language Journal. She had a Fulbright fellowship in Hong Kong and received, along with her co-authors, the Pimsleur Award from the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages association for the best research study in foreign language education. In 2006, she received the President’s Distinguished Professor award at Cal State LA. In addition to working closely with ESL and mainstream public school teachers in the U.S., she has trained English as a Foreign Language teachers world-wide.

Christopher Steinhauser
Christopher J. Steinhauser, Superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District, is a long-time Long Beach resident and 26-year veteran educator in local schools. He has earned a well-deserved national reputation for improving student achievement here in America’s Best Urban Schools. Steinhauser began his career as an outstanding teacher at Roosevelt Elementary, an inner-city school in Long Beach. He then worked as Program Facilitator at Grant and Muir elementary schools and as Vice Principal at Burnett Elementary School. He was then promoted to Principal at Signal Hill Elementary School, where student achievement rose dramatically. He became Deputy Superintendent in 1999 before his unanimous appointment as Superintendent in 2002. During his tenure, students in all major racial and ethnic groups throughout the district have made unprecedented gains on rigorous state tests. Steinhauser is a product of the Long Beach Unified School District, where he attended from kindergarten until his graduation from Wilson High School. He attended Long Beach City College and California State University Long Beach, earning a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies and a master’s degree in educational administration. He earned multiple-subject and administrative services credentials at the university.