Speaker biographies

Lynne V. Cheney is a senior fellow at AEI, where she focuses on education policy and standards, giving particular attention to the need of America’s students for a quality education in American history. Before joining AEI, Mrs. Cheney was chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 1986 to 1993. She was a member of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the Constitution and, more recently, served on Texas Governor George W. Bush’s education team. A novelist and widely published author, Mrs. Cheney has written on education and culture for the New York Times, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. She is the author of Telling the Truth (Touchstone, 1995), and coauthor with her husband of Kings of the Hill (Touchstone, 1996).  Mrs. Cheney has recently written four books for children and their families: America: A Patriotic Primer (Simon and Schuster, 2002), an alphabet book that celebrates the ideas and ideals that are the foundations of America; A is for Abigail: An Almanac of Amazing American Women (Simon and Schuster, 2003), a second alphabet book that honors the accomplishments of American women; When Washington Crossed the Delaware: A Wintertime Story for Young Patriots (Simon and Schuster, 2004), a straightforward yet elegant retelling of the dramatic military campaign that began on Christmas night, 1776; and A Time for Freedom: What Happened When in America (Simon and Schuster, 2005), a timeline of American history. Her fifth book for children and families, Our 50 States: An Amazing Adventure Across America, will be published in late October 2006.

Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at AEI, and executive editor of Education Next. His most recent books include Educational Entrepreneurship (Harvard Education Press, 2006), Tough Love for Schools (AEI Press, 2006), With the Best of Intentions (Harvard Education Press, 2005), and Common Sense School Reform (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). His work has also appeared in numerous academic and popular publications. Mr. Hess currently 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 of education and government at the University of Virginia.

E. D. Hirsch is the founder and chairman of the nonprofit Core Knowledge Foundation and professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia. He is the author of several acclaimed books on education issues, including the bestseller Cultural Literacy (Houghton Mifflin, 1987) and The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them (Doubleday, 1996), which was recognized by the New York Times as one of its “Notable Books of 1996.” He also contributed the chapter “Research-Based Education Policy” to What’s Gone Wrong in America’s Classrooms by Hoover Institution research fellow and Koret Task Force member Williamson Evers. Mr. Hirsch’s articles have appeared in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, among other publications. He also wrote the bestselling Core Knowledge series, which begins with What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know and concludes with What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know. Mr. Hirsch founded the Core Knowledge Foundation in 1986 to promote excellence and fairness in early education. The foundation conducts research on curricula, develops books and other materials for parents and teachers, offers workshops for teachers, and serves as the hub of a growing network of Core Knowledge schools. Mr. Hirsch is an elected member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the International Academy of Education. He has served on the Research Advisory Board of the U.S. Department of Education and, in 1997, received the Biennial Quest Award for Outstanding Contribution to Education from the American Federation of Teachers.

Abigail Thernstrom is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute in New York, a member of the Massachusetts state Board of Education, and the vice-chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She also serves on the board of advisors of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. Ms. Thernstrom and her husband, Harvard historian Stephan Thernstrom, are the co-authors of No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning (Simon & Schuster, October 2003), which was named by both the Los Angeles Times and the American School Board Journal as one of the best books of 2003.
They also collaborated on America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible (Simon & Schuster), which the New York Times Book Review, in its annual end-of-the-year issue, named as one of the notable books of 1997. They are the editors of a Beyond the Color Line: New Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity. Ms. Thernstrom's 1987 work, Whose Votes Count? Affirmative Action and Minority Voting Rights (Harvard University Press) won four awards, including the American Bar Association's Certificate of Merit, and the Anisfield-Wolf prize for the best book on race and ethnicity. It was named the best policy studies book of that year by the Policy Studies Organization (an affiliate of the American Political Science Association), and won the Benchmark Book Award from the Center for Judicial Studies. Along with her husband, she also won the 2004 Peter Shaw Memorial Award given by National Association of Scholars. Her frequent media appearances include Fox News Sunday, Good Morning America, and This Week with George Stephanopoulos. She writes for a variety of journals and newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and the Times Literary Supplement (London). She serves on several boards, including the Center for Equal Opportunity and the Institute for Justice. From 1992 to 1997 was a member of the Aspen Institute's Domestic Strategy Group.

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