Speaker Biographies

January 31, 2006

James D. Donnelly Jr. is the principal of James A. Green High School in Dolgeville, New York and the 2004 Met Life/National Association of Secondary School Principals National High School Principal of the Year. Mr. Donnelly began his career in education as a social studies teacher and has served in a number of leadership roles, including department chairperson, assistant principal, dean of students, and regional summer school principal. He was named the School Administrators Association for New York State 2002 Secondary Principal of the Year and was one of three national finalists in 2003 for the National High School Principal of the Year. In 2004, he represented the United States in the Fulbright Administrative Exchange Program to Brazil.

Frederick M. Hess is director of education policy studies at AEI and executive editor of Education Next. His books include Tough Love for Schools (AEI Press, 2006), With the Best of Intentions (Harvard Education Press, 2005), Urban School Reform (Harvard Education Press, 2005), Common Sense School Reform (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), and Spinning Wheels (Brookings, 1999). His work has appeared in scholarly and popular outlets, including Teachers College Record, Social Science Quarterly, American Politics Quarterly, Education Week, Phi Delta Kappan, and National Review. He serves as advisor to the Ash Institute at Harvard University and on various other boards. He formerly taught high school social studies and was a professor at the University of Virginia.

Jason Kamras teaches math at John Philip Sousa Middle School in Washington, D.C., and is the 2005 National Teacher of the Year. He was also the 2005 District of Columbia Public Schools Teacher of the Year and the 2003 Ward 7 Teacher of the Year. In 1999, Mr. Kamras co-founded the EXPOSE program, which he currently directs, to expand his students’ knowledge of the broader Washington, D.C. region. He is an advisory board member for the National Council on Teacher Quality and is a member of several professional associations. He is also an alumnus of Teach For America and Volunteers in Service to America.

Joe Williams, a New York City–based journalist, is a senior fellow with Education Sector. Previously, he wrote about education issues for the New York Daily News and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Mr. Williams has won numerous state, local, and national awards for reporting on Milwaukee's private school choice program in the 1990s and recently published the book Cheating Our Kids: How Politics and Greed Ruin Education (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).