Speaker biographies

Arthur C. Brooks is a visiting scholar and will become president of AEI in 2009. He researches and writes about the connections between culture, politics, and economic life in America. Mr. Brooks is also the Louis A. Bantle professor of business and government policy at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. He is the author of several books, including Social Entrepreneurship: A Modern Approach to Social Value Creation (Prentice Hall, 2008), Gross National Happiness (Basic Books, 2008), and Who Really Cares (Basic Books, 2006).

Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at AEI and executive editor of Education Next. His many books include The Future of Educational Entrepreneurship (Harvard Education Press, 2008), No Remedy Left Behind (AEI Press, 2007), Educational Entrepreneurship (Harvard Education Press, 2006), Tough Love for Schools (AEI Press, 2006), and Common Sense School Reform (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). His work has appeared in both popular and scholarly outlets including American Politics Quarterly, Education Week, Phi Delta Kappan, the Washington Post, and National Review. Mr. Hess serves on the review board for the Broad Prize in Urban Education and as a research associate with the Harvard University Program on Education Policy and Governance. He is a former high school social studies teacher and professor at the University of Virginia.

Michael Johnston is an education adviser to Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and to state and federal political campaigns across the country. He is the cofounder and principal of the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts in Denver, a public high school funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Mr. Johnston cofounded New Leaders for New Schools, a national organization that recruits and prepares nontraditional candidates to become school principals.

Lisa Graham Keegan is an education adviser to Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign and a principal partner at the Keegan Company, where she writes and speaks on critical issues in American education. In the 1990s, Ms. Keegan served for two terms in Arizona’s House of Representatives and spent a decade as a state education official. As Arizona superintendent of public instruction, Ms. Keegan advanced teacher-driven academic standards and fought successfully for the state’s landmark charter school and tuition tax credit laws. Her work has appeared or been cited in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, and Education Week, among others.

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