Speaker and Author Biographies
Steven J. Adamowski has been superintendent of the Hartford (Connecticut) Public Schools since November 2006. He was previously a senior fellow and managing director at the American Institutes for Research, where he focused on assisting school districts in improving their effectiveness. Previously, Mr. Adamowski served as superintendent and CEO of the Cincinnati Public Schools, where he led a massive restructuring and decentralization that produced dramatic gains in student outcomes, and as associate secretary of education in Delaware. He gained a national perspective on school improvement as a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute where he led the implementation of the Modern Red Schoolhouse, a path-breaking initiative of the New American Schools Development Corporation.
Michele Cahill is vice president for national program coordination and director of urban education at the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Directly prior to rejoining Carnegie Corporation, Ms. Cahill was senior counselor to the chancellor for education policy in the Michael Bloomberg mayoral administration, as well as a senior executive at the Division of Youth Development and a senior leader of Children First, the full-scale reorganization of the New York City public schools. Ms. Cahill previously spent three years with the Carnegie Corporation as a senior education program officer, where she developed the Task Force on Urban District Reform. In the past, she has served as vice president and director of school and community services at the Academy for Educational Development, as a consultant on urban poverty at the Ford Foundation, as director of the Communities Project at the Women’s Education Institute, and as director of the Urban Studies Program and an assistant professor at Saint Peter’s College in Jersey City.
Andrew Calkins is the senior vice president of the Mass Insight Education & Research Institute, an independent, Boston-based nonprofit focused on using higher standards reform to improve student achievement. Mr. Calkins coauthored The Turnaround Challenge: Why America’s Best Opportunity to Dramatically Improve Student Achievement Lies in Our Worst-Performing Schools (Mass Insight, 2007), part of a larger initiative by Mass Insight to help states, districts, partner organizations, and foundations redesign school intervention strategies in chronically underperforming schools and use those strategies as models for broader urban school reform. Mr. Calkins served for six years as an elected member of the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School Committee. In the past, he was editor of Electronic Learning magazine at Scholastic and executive director of the nonprofit group Recruiting New Teachers.
Anthony Cavanna is a school reform scientist at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). He was previously superintendent of schools in Fort Lee, N.J.; Plainview–Old Bethpage, N.Y.; and Rahway, N.J. In the past, he was a math and science teacher, an assistant principal, a principal, and a deputy superintendent in the New York City public schools. His most recent projects at AIR include instructional reform efforts in the troubled New Jersey “Abbott School” districts and work on school reform efforts, school funding evaluations, and state assessment and reporting, among other initiatives with state departments of education in Ohio, Wisconsin, New Mexico, and New Jersey. In addition, Mr. Cavanna is one of the researchers and authors of the Fordham and Broad Foundations’ report The Autonomy Gap: Barriers to Effective School Leadership.
William Guenther is president and founder of the Mass Insight Education & Research Institute, which currently focuses on two major programs: the Massachusetts Math and Science Initiative (MMSI) and School Turnaround. MMSI improves college readiness across the commonwealth by increasing the quality of and access to advanced placement courses in math, science, and English. The school turnaround initiative works to transform chronically underperforming schools by creating a new framework to address the many needs in these schools while pushing public policy to embrace turnaround as an opportunity to improve the educational system. Mr. Guenther is also president of Mass Insight Corporation, a public policy research and business consulting firm he founded in 1989 to focus on Massachusetts economic competitiveness issues.
Garth Harries has been chief executive for portfolio development for the New York City Department of Education (DOE) since June 2007. In this position, he oversees the creation and implementation of new opportunities and choices for students and families, directly managing new school creation, charter school oversight and authorization, small-learning-community creation, career and technical education, and coordinating cross-DOE policy formation and resource allocation to instructional programs. Formerly, Mr. Harries was CEO and COO of the Office of New Schools (ONS), which created 227 small secondary schools and thirty-eight charter schools between 2003 and 2007. The New York City Autonomy Zone, piloted in ONS, later became the management structure for all 1,400 schools in the DOE system. Prior to joining the DOE, Mr. Harries was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company, specializing in financial industries and nonprofit management.
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 When Research Matters (Harvard Education Press, 2008), No Remedy Left Behind (AEI Press, 2007), Tough Love for Schools (AEI Press, 2006), Common Sense School Reform (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), and Spinning Wheels (Brookings Institution Press, 1999). His work has appeared in both popular and scholarly outlets, including Social Science Quarterly, American Politics Quarterly, Education Week, Phi Delta Kappan, the Washington Post, and National Review. Mr. Hess is on the review board for the Broad Prize in Urban Education, is a research associate with the Harvard University Program on Education Policy and Governance, and is on the research advisory board for the National Center for Educational Accountability. He is a former high school social studies teacher and professor at the University of Virginia.
Lindsay Hunsicker is the senior education policy adviser to Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Her portfolio includes early childhood and K-12 education and child care. In the 110th Congress, she has focused on the reauthorization of the Head Start Act and the No Child Left Behind Act. Prior to joining the committee staff, Ms. Hunsicker was a senior legislative assistant in the office of Senator John Ensign (R-Nev.) for six years. In that position, her portfolio included education, labor, human services, and pension issues. Ms. Hunsicker began her work on Capitol Hill with Senator Gordon Smith (R-Ore.).
Kevin Johnson retired from the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 2000 after twelve seasons with the Phoenix Suns. He returned to his hometown of Sacramento, California, to serve as the CEO of St. HOPE, a nonprofit community development corporation he founded in 1989 to revitalize inner-city communities through public education, economic development, civic leadership and arts enrichment. St. HOPE currently operates St. HOPE Public Schools, a system serving more than 1,500 students in grades pre-K through 12, which has been recognized for its successful turnaround of the failing comprehensive Sacramento High School. Mr. Johnson is on the boards of LISC National; the California Charter School Association; the University of California, Berkeley Foundation; the Institute of Governmental Studies National Advisory Council; and the Harvard Divinity School SLI Advisory Board. His many awards include the NBA’s Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award, the Good Morning America Award from Sports Illustrated, the Most Caring American award from the Caring Institute, and induction into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame.
Kirk Kramer joined Bridgespan in 2005 as a partner in the Boston office. His work in the nonprofit sector includes strategy and business planning for K-12 educational nonprofits, including, recently, the Academy for Urban School Leadership, the Boston Teacher Residency, and the Urban Assembly. Additionally, he has considerable experience in youth development working with organizations such as Boys Town. Mr. Kramer’s other clients have included major global foundations and aging and health care organizations. He leads Bridgespan’s initiative to strengthen the firm’s overall organization consulting capabilities. Prior to joining Bridgespan, Mr. Kramer was a managing director of Oliver Wyman, where he led the firm’s operations practice unit. He also ran the firm’s Asian operations from Hong Kong and built the firm’s organization strategy practice in Europe while based in London. While living internationally, Mr. Kramer worked with organizations promoting small business formation and local economic development.
Carmel Martin is general counsel and chief education advisor to Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), chairman of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. Prior to joining Senator Kennedy’s HELP Committee staff, she worked as the associate director for domestic policy at the Center for American Progress. Previously, she worked in the Senate as chief counsel and senior policy advisor to Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and special counsel to Senator Tom Daschle (D-S.D.). Prior to her congressional service, Ms. Martin was a trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division, Educational Opportunities Section at the Department of Justice; a member of the education practice of Hogan & Hartson, where she counseled and represented school districts and institutions of higher education; and as a law clerk to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Thomas Reavley.
Doug Mesecar rejoined the U.S. Department of Education in 2007 as the principal deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development. In February 2008, he was appointed assistant deputy secretary for the Office of Innovation and Improvement. From 2005 to 2007, Mr. Mesecar worked for Edison Schools, prior to which he worked for the Department of Education in various capacities in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of the Secretary. In 2001, Mesecar joined the professional staff of the House Committee on Education and Labor, where he worked extensively on the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002. Mr. Mesecar previously taught fifth grade at Witt Elementary School in the Jefferson County, Colorado school district.
Ronald A. Peiffer is the deputy state superintendent in the Office of Academic Policy at the Maryland State Department of Education. He has provided leadership for policy development and communications for the State Department of Education over the past decade, during which Maryland developed and implemented one of the strongest, longest-running school reform programs in the nation. An educator for more than thirty years, Mr. Peiffer has worked as a teacher and a local school system administrator in Maryland with experience in developing local curriculum and assessment policies. Since he joined to the Maryland State Department of Education in 1987, he has held a variety of leadership roles. Mr. Peiffer has provided leadership and helped develop policy for various aspects of the state’s school accountability system. He also oversees strategic planning, policy development, and communication efforts that reach educators, parents, the business community, and the public.
James Peyser is a partner at NewSchools Venture Fund, where he combines a strong hybrid background in education policy, charter school development, and business management to lead NewSchools’s East Coast initiatives. From 1999 to 2006, Mr. Peyser was chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Prior to joining NewSchools, he was an education adviser to two governors of Massachusetts, in which capacity he helped shape outcome-focused policy at the state level on standards, charter schools, and school accountability. In the past, Mr. Peyser was executive director of Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research for seven years, where he supported public education innovations, including early charter schools. Prior to joining the Pioneer Institute, he held various positions at Teradyne, an electronic test equipment manufacturer. Mr. Peyser is on the boards of the Tufts University Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, Achievement First, Lighthouse Academies, Noble Network of Charter Schools, Perspectives Charter Schools, and Uncommon Schools.
Michelle Pierre-Farid is principal of Washington, D.C.’s Southeast Elementary Academy, which is managed by the Friendship Public Charter School system. She was previously principal of Tyler Elementary School in Washington, one of the lowest-performing schools in the city. In three years as principal, she oversaw significant increases in reading and math achievement. Mrs. Pierre-Farid was a member of the inaugural New Leaders for New Schools cohort in 2003–2004. Prior to her school leadership, she taught fifth grade in New York City and in Maryland. Mrs. Pierre-Farid’s achievements have been highlighted in the Baltimore Sun, the Washington Post, the Hill Rag, and on the Education Channel.
Seth Reynolds is a senior principal of the Parthenon Group and a leader at the Education Center of Excellence. He recently led the firm’s engagement with the Austin (Texas) Independent School District. In addition to his work with K-12 districts, Mr. Reynolds has worked extensively with clients in the education and information publishing industries, focusing on corporate strategy, new business evaluation, profit improvement, sales force optimization, and organizational design. He has also consulted nonprofit foundations in the education and environmental sectors. Prior to joining Parthenon, Mr. Reynolds taught through Teach For America and worked at SchoolNet, a data-warehousing service provider to the K-12 school market.
Andrew Rotherham is cofounder and codirector of Education Sector, a national education policy think tank. He also writes the award-winning blog Eduwonk.com and serves on the Virginia Board of Education. Previously, he served as special assistant to the president for domestic policy during the Clinton administration. Mr. Rotherham is the author of more than one hundred articles, book chapters, papers, and op-eds about education policy and the coeditor of several books, including, most recently, Collective Bargaining in Education: Negotiating Change in Today’s Schools (with Jane Hannaway; Harvard Education Press, 2006). He is on advisory boards and committees for a variety of organizations including the Broad Foundation, Harvard University, the National Governors Association, and the National Charter School Research Project. Mr. Rotherham is also a trustee of Washington’s César Chávez Public Charter High School for Public Policy and a board member of the Indianapolis Mind Trust, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and the National Council on Teacher Quality.
Douglas Sears, an associate provost and assistant to the president for outreach and special initiatives at Boston University, oversees the coordination of the university’s involvement in K-12 education. Previously, Mr. Sears served for five years as dean of the Boston University School of Education and spent five years as superintendent of the Chelsea (Massachusetts) Public Schools. During his tenure as superintendent, the Chelsea school district made substantial improvements in academic achievement and student attendance and also reestablished art and music programs. Mr. Sears currently oversees the Boston University/Chelsea Partnership. Before coming to Boston University, Mr. Sears was a diplomat in the U.S. embassies in Switzerland and the Philippines, earning the Department of State’s Meritorious Honor Award. He is a board member of the American-Swiss Foundation and the Hanson Initiative for Language and Literacy.
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