Speaker Biographies
November 14, 2005

Eric Adler is cofounder and managing director of the SEED Foundation, which developed and operates the SEED School of Washington, D.C., the nation’s only public, urban, college prep boarding school. The School is now in its eighth year, and every graduate has gone on to college. SEED is now developing additional schools in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere. Before starting SEED with cofounder Raj Vinnakota, Mr. Adler taught high school physics for eight years, was a management consultant, and ran an investment advisory firm. Along with Mr. Vinnakota, Mr. Adler has received Manhattan Institute’s Outstanding Social Entrepreneurship Award, Oprah’s Use Your Life Award, Washingtonian magazine’s Washingtonian of the Year, Fast Company’s Social Capitalist Award, and Harvard’s Innovations in American Government Award.

Larry Berger is CEO and cofounder of Wireless Generation and has led the invention of the patent-pending mCLASS® software system for early reading and math assessment. mCLASS software streamlines the assessment process and increases the value of data by delivering it immediately to teachers and administrators. Before launching Wireless Generation, he was president of InterDimensions, a Web solutions company. He also served as educational technology specialist at The Children's Aid Society. Mr. Berger developed, with Wireless Generation cofounder Greg Gunn, The Hole in The Web, an online extension of Paul Newman's “Hole In The Wall Gang” Camp for seriously ill children. As a White House Fellow, Mr. Berger worked on Educational Technology at NASA. He is author of Up Your Score: The Underground Guide To The SAT and coauthor of I Will Sing Life.

John E. Chubb is founding partner, executive vice president, and chief education officer of Edison Schools. He is also a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution and a member of the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. Since 1984, he has been a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he has authored numerous studies. His books include Within Our Reach: How America Can Educate Every Child; Bridging the Achievement Gap with Tom Loveless; and A Lesson in School Reform from Great Britain and Politics, Markets, and America's Schools, both coauthored with Terry Moe. He has taught at Stanford University, Princeton University, and Johns Hopkins University and served as a consultant for the White House, many state governments, school systems, and nonprofit organizations. 

Jeffrey Cohen is president of Catapult Learning, formerly Sylvan Education Solutions, the nation’s leading provider of instructional and support services to schools. Before joining Catapult Learning, he was senior vice president for business unit management at Prometric, Inc., the world’s leading provider of computer-based assessment and examination services. In July 1997, he established the Sylvan Learning Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting best practices in K-12 and higher education, and served as the Foundation’s executive director. Mr. Cohen previously served as a political appointee in President Bill Clinton’s administration. He began his government service as chief of staff in the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Department of Labor. Later he served as an attorney in the Office of the Counsel to the President.

Larry Cuban is professor emeritus of education at Stanford University. A former urban high school teacher, administrator, and superintendent, Mr. Cuban spent twenty-five years in public schools before becoming a professor and researcher at Stanford. His most recent books are The Blackboard and the Bottom Line: Why Schools Can't Be Businesses and Why Is It So Hard To Get Good Schools?.

April Gresham Maranto is a researcher, mother, and volunteer. She coedited School Choice in the Real World: Lessons from Arizona Charter Schools, with her husband Robert Maranto, and her work has appeared in journals including Phi Delta Kappan, Family Law Quarterly, the Journal of Applied Psychology, Social Behavior and Psychology, and the Journal of Traumatic Stress Studies. She has previously taught at Lafayette College, Furman University, and the University of Minnesota.

Barnett Helzberg, Jr. is former chairman of the board at Helzberg Diamonds, a family-owned business started in 1915. From 1962-1995, Mr. Helzberg grew the company into the third largest jewelry retailer, before selling it to Warren Buffett’s corporation, Berkshire Hathaway. He is author of What I Learned Before I Sold To Warren Buffett and founder of the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program. In 2000, Mr. Helzberg cofounded University Academy, a charter school for youths in urban Kansas City. The school is sponsored by the University of Missouri and educates 300 6^th-12^th graders. As adjunct professor at Rockhurst University, he teaches retailing, achieving management excellence, and entrepreneurship. He has also received the Master Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the Entrepreneur of the Year Institute.

Frederick M. Hess is director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and executive editor of Education Next. His books include Common Sense School Reform; Revolution at the Margins; Spinning Wheels; Leaving No Child Behind?; Urban School Reform: Lessons from San Diego; and most recently, With the Best of Intentions: How Philanthropy is Reshaping K-12 Education. Mr. Hess serves as advisor to the Ash Institute at Harvard University and on various boards, including the Broad Prize in Urban Education and the National Center for Educational Accountability. His articles have appeared in Social Science Quarterly, American Politics Quarterly, Educational Leadership, Journal of Teacher Education, Teachers College Record, Phi Delta Kappan, Education Week, and American School Board Journal. He formerly taught high school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

As chancellor of New York City Schools, Joel I. Klein oversees more than 1,350 schools, 1.1 million students, and 140,000 employees. Before being appointed in 2002 to the first chancellorship of the newly reorganized Department of Education, Mr. Klein was chairman and CEO of Bertelsmann, Inc. and chief U.S. liaison officer to Bertelsmann AG. He has served as assistant attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division and deputy counsel to President Bill Clinton. Mr. Klein began his career as a law clerk, later working at a public interest law firm, and as a partner at Rogovin, Stern & Huge. He has served as visiting professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and has published several articles in scholarly and popular journals.

Henry “Hank” M. Levin is the William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University and the David Jacks Professor of Education and Economics, emeritus, at Stanford University. He is also the director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education. From 1986-2000, Mr. Levin served as director of the Accelerated Schools Project, a national school reform initiative for accelerating the education of at-risk youth. He specializes in the economics of education and human resources and has published twenty books and nearly 300 articles on these subjects. His most recent books are Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: Methods and Cases, Privatizing Education, and Readings in the Economics of Higher Education.

Robert Maranto teaches political science and public administration at Villanova University, and he previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania, James Madison University, and Southern Mississippi University. Mr. Maranto has done extensive research on political appointees in government, civil service reform, and school reform, producing more than forty scholarly publications. His op-eds have appeared in the Washington Post, Washington Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, and Hartford Courant. Mr. Maranto and his wife, April Gresham Maranto, coedited School Choice in the Real World: Lessons from Arizona Charter Schools. He also wrote Beyond a Government of Strangers and coedited two forthcoming books, Charter Schools and Educational Reform and The Second Term of George W. Bush: Prospects and Perils. 

Patrick McGuinn is assistant professor of political science at Drew University. He was previously a visiting assistant professor at Colby College, a postdoctoral fellow at the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions at Brown University, and a predoctoral fellow at the Miller Center for Public Affairs, University of Virginia. His work on education policy has been published in Publius: The Journal of Federalism, The Public Interest, Teachers College Record, and Educational Policy, and his book Educating Politics: No Child Left Behind and the Transformation of Federal School Policy, 1965-2005, will be published by the University Press of Kansas in spring 2006. Mr. McGuinn is a former high school teacher.

Alex Molnar is professor of education policy and director of the Education Policy Studies Laboratory at Arizona State University. From 1971 to 2001, he taught at the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He previously served as chief of staff for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's Urban Initiative, a project that resulted in the creation of the state’s Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) program. Mr. Molnar’s work has appeared in newspapers like The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Education Week, in addition to scholarly journals like Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Phi Delta Kappan, and Educational Leadership. His most recent books are School Commercialism: From Democratic Ideal to Market Commodity; Giving Kids the Business: The Commercialization of America's Schools; and Vouchers, Class Size Reduction, and Student Achievement.

Adam Newman is vice president for research and client services at Eduventures, an organization he joined in 1999. There, he oversees the direction and operations of the company's research and advisory practices. He has worked on a wide range of research projects and growth-oriented advisory engagements for K-12, postsecondary, and corporate clients. His published research includes Closing the Equity Gap: Addressing NCLB Compliance with Access Infrastructure Software, What Can Virtual Learning Do For Your School?, Tuition Assistance Plan Benchmark: Managing TAP as a Strategic Asset, and Charting the Course: Postsecondary E-Learning Providers Respond to New Market Conditions. Before joining Eduventures, he was senior manager at the Corporate Executive Board, a membership-based research organization delivering best practices analysis to Global 2000 companies. He has also taught and coached in middle and secondary schools.

Rod Paige is a national policy fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a senior advisor for Westmark Systems, which specializes in high quality education programs for teachers and administrators. Appointed secretary of education by President George W. Bush, he was a driving force behind the enactment and implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act. Mr. Paige began his career as a teacher and coach, then dean of the College of Education at Texas Southern University. There he established the university’s Center for Excellence in Urban Education. Elected to the board of education of the Houston Independent School District in 1989, he was a trustee and an officer until 1994, when he became superintendent. In 2001, he was named National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators.

Julie Petersen is communications and special projects manager at NewSchools Venture Fund, where she oversees publications strategy and writes and edits newsletters, research papers, and articles in support of the fund’s network and intellectual capital development. Before joining NewSchools, Ms. Petersen spent three years as a writer at Red Herring Magazine, a business and technology magazine, where she covered venture capital as well as a range of other beats, including education, entrepreneurs, and startups. In 2001, she was named one of the “30 Under 30” business journalists in the country by TJFR for her online and print writing at Red Herring.

Michelle Rhee is CEO and president of The New Teacher Project. Her commitment to excellence in education began in 1992, when she joined Teach For America. Her teaching career started at Harlem Park Community School in Baltimore, Maryland, where her success in the classroom earned acclaim on Good Morning America and The Home Show, as well as in the Wall Street Journal and the Hartford Courant. Upon completing her service with Teach For America, she entered Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and began to build The New Teacher Project. Under her leadership, TNTP has grown into a national organization of 90 full-time staff members and has recruited over 13,000 new teachers for hard-to-staff public schools across the country.

William V. Roberti, managing director with Alvarez & Marsal, LLC (A&M) and co-head of the firm’s Public Sector group, specializes in working with under-performing or troubled organizations. He currently is working to restructure the New Orleans public schools and has previously served as the interim superintendent of schools of the St. Louis Public School District. Before joining A&M, he served as chairman and CEO of Duck Head Apparel Company, CEO of Brooks Brothers, and president and CEO of the Plaid Clothing Group. Mr. Roberti also has had a career in government service, including an appointment by President George H.W. Bush to the U.S. Military Clothing and Textile Board in 1990. He is a retired colonel from the U.S. Army Reserve, where he served in several senior staff positions in the Pentagon.

Larry Rosenstock is principal and CEO of High Tech High, a charter school management organization in San Diego. He previously taught carpentry for eleven years in urban high schools before serving as staff attorney at the Harvard Center for Law and Education. There, he collaborated on the authorization the 1990 Perkins Vocational Education and Applied Technology Act. He was, for six years, executive director of the Rindge School for Technical Arts in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then principal of the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. Mr. Rosenstock was a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for five years and later directed the New Urban High School Project of the U.S. Department of Education.

In 2000, Jon Schnur cofounded New Leaders for New Schools, a national non-profit organization with the mission of recruiting, training, and supporting the next generation of leaders in urban public schools. He currently serves as CEO. Before cofounding New Leaders, Mr. Schnur was special assistant to U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley, White House associate director for educational policy under President Bill Clinton, and senior advisor on education to Vice President Al Gore.

Kim Smith is cofounder and executive chairman of NewSchools Venture Fund, which she established in 1998 to transform public education by supporting education entrepreneurs. She began her career as a business-education consultant, later becoming a founding team member of Teach For America, and founding director of BAYAC AmeriCorps, a consortium of nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area. She also held marketing positions with Silicon Graphics’ Education Industry Group, where she focused on online learning. In 2001, Ms. Smith was featured in Newsweek’s report on the “Women of the 21st Century” as “the kind of woman who will shape America’s new century.” She is a member of the 2002 Class of Henry Crown Fellows of the Aspen Institute and serves on numerous advisory boards.

Nina Shokraii Rees is deputy undersecretary for innovation and improvement at the U.S. Department of Education, leading the Office of Innovation and Improvement. Working with the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Ms. Rees coordinates the implementation of the public school choice and supplemental services provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. In addition, she oversees the implementation of the D.C. School Choice Incentive Act, the passage of which she led. Before joining the Department of Education, she was deputy assistant for domestic policy in the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. She previously served as an education adviser to the Bush-Cheney campaign and helped draft the No Child Left Behind education blueprint for its transition team. From 1997 to 2001, she served as chief education analyst for the Heritage Foundation.

James H. Shelton, III is program director of the Education Division at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, managing the foundation’s new school creation, school improvement, and College Access programs. He previously was a partner and the east coast lead for the NewSchools Venture Fund, where he worked closely with the chancellor of New York City Public Schools to craft Children First, a comprehensive reform strategy. Before joining NewSchools, Mr. Shelton cofounded LearnNow, a school management company that later merged with Edison Schools. He also spent four years as a senior management consultant with McKinsey & Company, where he played a leadership role in creating McKinsey’s nonprofit practice and served as a pro bono consultant to myriad organizations. Upon leaving McKinsey, he joined Knowledge Universe, Inc., where he developed and acquired several education-related businesses.

Paul Teske is professor of public affairs and director of the Center for Education Policy Analysis at the University of Colorado's Graduate School of Public Affairs. He previously was a professor of political science at SUNY Stony Brook. Mr. Teske won the 2005 NASPAA/ASPA Distinguished Research Award and the 2005 University of Colorado at Denver top researcher award. He is coauthor of Choosing Schools: Consumer Choice and the Quality of American Schools and has written numerous articles on aspects of education policy including school choice, charter schools, parent decision-making and involvement, school leadership, and teacher training. He has also coauthored a book on entrepreneurs in local government, Public Entrepreneurs: Agents for Change in American Government. His research has been widely-discussed in the media, including The New York Times, New York Post, Denver Post, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Education Week, and WBEZ (NPR) Chicago.

Nancy Van Meter is deputy director at the American Federation of Teachers, serving as director of the Center on Accountability and Privatization, which provides research and technical assistance to AFT affiliates. She has spoken and written extensively on these topics, including coauthoring several reports on student achievement in Edison and Mosaica schools, as well as “What Does Private Management Offer Public Education” in the Stanford Law and Policy Review. She also coauthored Charter School Achievement on the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress. Before joining AFT’s national staff in 1994, Ms. Van Meter served as legislative director of the AFT Wisconsin health care affiliate, director of the Pennsylvania Women’s Agenda, and executive director of the Wisconsin Council of Senior Citizens.

Joe Williams covers the New York City school system for the New York Daily News. From 1994 to 2000 he covered the Milwaukee Public Schools and that city’s voucher program. Mr. Williams has won numerous national and local awards for education reporting and has recently authored a book on education politics, Cheating Our Kids: How Politics and Greed Ruin Education.

Aimee Williamson is a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado. Her dissertation examines difference in human resource management policies in private, charter, and traditional public schools. She is coauthor of “Public Opinion about School Choice” in the 2005 Encyclopedia of Polling in America. Ms. Williamson has taught at the University of Colorado, Red Rocks Community College, and other institutions.

Steven F. Wilson is the Michael R. Sandler Senior Fellow at the Center for Business and Government of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and a consultant to Edison Schools. His book, Learning on the Job: When Business Takes on Public Schools, examines the first decade of private management of public schools. Mr. Wilson founded and served as CEO of Advantage Schools, a charter school management company. Before founding Advantage, he was special assistant for Massachusetts Governor William Weld during the passage and implementation of the state’s 1993 comprehensive education reform act. Mr. Wilson is the former executive director of the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research. His book, Reinventing the Schools: A Radical Plan for Boston, led to the establishment of pilot schools in Boston and the state’s charter school law, which he drafted.

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