Speaker biographies
Mark Bauerlein is a professor of English at Emory University and has recently served as director of research at the National Endowment for the Arts. Bauerlein focuses on improving the intellectual and political climates of liberal education, and has written articles for the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Yale Review, The Weekly Standard, and Chronicle of Higher Education. He is also the author of Literary Criticism: An Autopsy (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997) and Negrophobia: A Race Riot in Atlanta, 1906 (Encounter Books, 2002).
Sandy Baum is a professor of economics at Skidmore College and a senior policy analyst for the College Board, a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. She is the author of the College Board’s Trends in Student Aid and Trends in College Pricing annual reports. Baum is co-chair of the College Board’s Rethinking Student Aid project, which has gathered leading policy, student aid, and higher education experts to evaluate the federal financial aid system and make recommendations for reform that will help reduce financial barriers to college. Baum’s current projects include a revised version of her Primer on Economics for Financial Aid Professionals and a new publication for the College Board on higher education benefits and how they are distributed.
Edward Cox is a partner in the Manhattan law firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb, and Tyler, and a member of the board of trustees for the State University of New York. He is a founding director and former chairman of the Student/Sponsor Partnership, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide underprivileged inner-city high school students with a quality education through financial support and one-on-one guidance from a four-year sponsor. Cox also serves as chairman of the State Council of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, and is a member of the State Commission on Judicial Nomination for candidates for the New York Court of Appeals.
Judith Eaton is president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. She previously served as chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, in which capacity she was responsible for thirty-two institutions and over 160,000 students. She previously served as president of the Council for Aid to Education, the Community College of Philadelphia, and the Community College of Southern Nevada. Eaton currently serves on eleven different boards, and is the author of numerous books and articles on a range of higher education and accreditation issues.
Ron Ehrenberg is the Irving M. Ives Professor of Industrial and Labor Relations and Economics at Cornell University and a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellow. He is director of the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute and an elected member of the Cornell board of trustees. A noted labor economist and coauthor of the leading textbook Modern Labor Economics: Theory and Public Policy (Addison Wesley, 2005, 9th ed.), Ehrenberg’s recent research has focused on higher education issues. He is the author of American University: National Treasure or Endangered Species (Cornell University Press, 1997), and Tuition Rising: Why College Costs So Much (Harvard University Press, 2000), and is the coeditor of the forthcoming Science and the University (University of Wisconsin Press).
Harry Lewis is the Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University. A member of the Harvard faculty since 1974, Lewis served as dean of Harvard College from 1995–2003. He has been a member of the undergraduate admissions and scholarship committee for over thirty years, and was honored with the title of Harvard College Professor for excellence in teaching in 2003. Lewis is the author of five books and numerous articles on various aspects of computer science. He recently published a book on higher education entitled Excellence Without a Soul: How a Great University Forgot Education (PublicAffairs, 2006).
Eugene Hickok is senior policy director at Dutko Worldwide, an organization that builds partnerships between government and private industries. During the George W. Bush administration, Hickok served as under secretary of education from 2001 to 2003 and deputy secretary of education in 2003. He was a key architect of the No Child Left Behind Act and was responsible for its implementation. Hickok has also served as Pennsylvania’s secretary of education under Governor Tom Ridge. As a professor of political science and law, Hickok held positions at Dickinson College, Mississippi State University, and Hampden-Sydney College prior to his government service.
Charles Murray is a W. H. Brady Scholar at AEI. Charles Murray first came to national attention in 1984 with the publication of Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950–1980. This was followed in 1988 by In Pursuit: Of Happiness and Good Government, in 1994 by The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (with Richard J. Herrnstein), in 1997 by What It Means to be a Libertarian: A Personal Interpretation, and in 2003 by Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950. His latest book is In Our Hands: A Plan to Replace the Welfare State (2006).
Anne D. Neal is the president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a national education nonprofit dedicated to academic freedom, academic excellence, and accountability. From 1980-1982, Neal was a First Amendment lawyer at the New York law firm of Rogers & Wells. Subsequently, she served as communications associate at Wiley & Rein, and then as deputy general counsel and senior vice president of the Recording Industry Association of America where she was responsible for First Amendment defense. From 1990-1992, she served as general counsel and a senior policy advisor for the National Endowment for the Humanities. She also served as general counsel of the Office of Administration, Executive Office of the President, from 1982- 1984.
Margaret Spellings is the U.S secretary of education. In this capacity she has partnered with states to implement and enforce the No Child Left Behind Act, which commits schools to bringing all students up to grade level or better in reading and math by 2014. In 2005, Secretary Spellings formed the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, which was charged with developing a comprehensive national strategy for postsecondary education to meet the needs of America’s diverse population and also address the economic and workforce needs of the country’s future. In 2006, based on the recommendations in the final report of the commission, Secretary Spellings announced her plans to improve the accessibility, affordability, and accountability of the U.S. higher education system. Prior to her appointment as secretary of education, she served as assistant to the president for domestic policy, helping craft President George W. Bush’s domestic policy agenda. Secretary Spellings previously worked as senior advisor to George W. Bush when he was governor of Texas, with the responsibility to develop and implement the governor’s education reforms and policies. She was also associate executive director of the Texas Association of School Boards.
Richard Vedder is a visiting scholar at AEI, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, and a distinguished professor of economics at Ohio University. Vedder is the author of eight books and monographs and over 200 scholarly papers on a variety of topics in economic history, labor economics, and budget policy. His books include Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America with Lowell Gallaway (New York University Press, 1997) and Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much, published by the AEI Press in 2004. His newest book, coauthored with Wendell Cox, is The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big-Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy, was published in 2006 by the AEI Press.
Robert Zemsky is the chair of the Learning Alliance for Higher Education, a national network of leading organizations and experts that provides strategic expertise to college and university leaders. Zemsky was the founding director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Research and Higher Education, where his research focused on how colleges and universities can stay both mission-centered and market-smart in a world increasingly dominated by market forces. Zemsky has regularly appeared in Policy Perspectives, an electronic publication of the Learning Alliance for Higher Education, and in Change magazine. He is currently a trustee of Franklin and Marshall College and a member of the National Advisory Board for the National Survey of Student Engagement.
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