Doreen Gehry Nelson is Professor Emerita of California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, School of Education and Integrative Studies; Adjunct Professor at the Cal Poly College of Environmental Design; former Professor at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California (2002-2019). In 2019, she was named Founding Director of Design-Based Learning by the UCLA School of Education & Information Studies–Center X for the UCLA Design-Based Learning Project.
An award-winning, 50-year veteran educator and published author in the field of education, Nelson taught all grades in public schools for 15 years. She began developing her Design-Based Learning methodology (formerly called City Building Education) in the late 1960s to ignite creativity, promote high-level transfer of learning, and foster cross-curricular critical thinking skills among K–12 students using the spatial domain.
She was named one of 30 top American innovators in education by the New York Times in 1991 and is the recipient of both the American Institute of Architecture’s prestigious Lifetime Honorary Membership (the highest honor for a non-architect) and the California State University’s statewide, 2006 Wang Award for Excellence in Education.

Raised in Toronto, Canada, Frank Gehry moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1947. Mr. Gehry received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Southern California in 1954, and he studied City Planning at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. In subsequent years, Mr. Gehry has built an architectural career that has spanned over six decades and produced public and private buildings in America, Europe and Asia. His work has earned Mr. Gehry several of the most significant awards in the architectural field, including the Pritzker Prize.
Notable projects include Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain; the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California; Eight Spruce Street Residential Tower in New York City; Opus Residential Tower in Hong Kong; Foundation Louis Vuitton Museum in Paris, France; the Dr. Chau Chak Wing Building for the University of Technology in Sydney; Australia; the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington D.C; the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the LUMA / Parc des Ateliers in Arles, France; Children’s Institute Inc. in Watts, California, a new center for the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) in Inglewood, California, and the Grand Avenue Project in Los Angeles, California. Projects under construction include Facebook Campuses in Menlo Park, California and Redmond, Washington; the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and a new headquarters for Warner Brothers in Burbank, California.

Liz Willen, a longtime education journalist and sought-after moderator, has led the award-winning Hechinger Report staff as editor in chief since 2011. The nonprofit news outlet covers inequality and innovation from early childhood to college and careers, with stories appearing in dozens of partner news outlets including the Washington Post, NPR and the Associated Press. Willen has received numerous awards for writing, reporting and leadership.

Ruth J. Simmons serves as a President’s Distinguished Fellow at Rice University. She was President at Prairie View A&M University from 2017- 2023 and President of Brown University from 2001-2012. Under her leadership, Brown made significant strides in improving its standing as one of the world’s finest research universities. A French professor before entering university administration, President Simmons held an appointment as a Professor of Comparative Literature and Africana Studies at Brown. After completing her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard, she served in various faculty and administrative roles at the University of Southern California, Princeton University, and Spelman College before becoming president of Smith College, the largest women’s college in the United States. At Smith, she launched a number of important academic initiatives, including an engineering program, the first at an American women’s college. Simmons is the recipient of many honors, including a Fulbright Fellowship to France, the 2001 President’s Award from the United Negro College Fund, the 2002 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, the 2004 Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal, the Foreign Policy Association Medal, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and the Centennial Medal from Harvard University. Simmons is a member of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the boards of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Holdsworth Center. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Square. Awarded numerous honorary degrees, she received the Brown Faculty’s highest honor: the Susan Colver Rosenberger Medal in 2011. In 2012, she was named a ‘chevalier’ of the French Legion of Honor.

Adam Harris is a staff writer at the Atlantic and the author of The State Must Provide: Why America's Colleges Have Always Been Unequal—and How to Set Them Right. Before joining the Atlantic in 2018, Adam was a reporter for the Chronicle of Higher Education covering federal higher-education policy and HBCUs. He was a 2021 National Fellow at New America and was named to that year’s Forbes "30 Under 30" list. At the Atlantic, he writes about politics and education.

Sewell Chan joined The Texas Tribune as editor in chief in October 2021. Previously he was a deputy managing editor and then the editorial page editor at the Los Angeles Times, where he oversaw coverage that was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 2021. Chan worked at the New York Times from 2004 to 2018, as a metro reporter, Washington correspondent, deputy Op-Ed editor and international news editor. He began his career as a local reporter at the Washington Post in 2000. A child of immigrants, Chan was the first in his family to graduate from college. He has a degree in social studies from Harvard and a master's in political science from Oxford, where he studied on a British Marshall scholarship. He serves on the boards of Columbia Journalism Review, Freedom House, Harvard Magazine and News Leaders Association. He is a member of PEN America, the Council on Foreign Relations and numerous journalism organizations. He was elected to the board of the Pulitzer Prizes in 2022.

Luma Mufleh is the inspirational coach of a soccer team called the Fugees—short for refugees. The players on this team come from 28 war-torn countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Congo, Somalia, and Sudan. Most of them have endured unimaginable hardship; one young boy was forced by soldiers to shoot his own best friend, another watched his father shot to death, and all have been robbed of their childhood.

An immigrant from Jordan, Mufleh moved to Atlanta a year and a half after graduating from Smith College. While driving through the town of Clarkston, Georgia, she noticed a group of boys playing soccer in the street. They played without some of the most basic equipment—but they played for the sheer enjoyment of the game—something that reminded her of home. In the summer of 2004, she made fliers announcing tryouts for a soccer team. The flyers were in Arabic, English, French, and Vietnamese and were distributed around apartment complexes where many refugees lived.

Mufleh is a social entrepreneur who has created several businesses to gainfully employ refugees and immigrants in her community. In 2004, she created Fresh Start, a cleaning service that pays refugee and immigrant parents a living wage to clean residential and commercial properties. In 2010, she began Queen Food Company, a food truck business employing parents and graduates which focuses on authentic, ethnic street food.

Mufleh’s latest endeavor is building The Fugees Academy, the very first school for refugee boys and girls in the U.S. The Fugees Academy is an unparalleled opportunity to serve boys and girls in grades six through twelve with an intensive college-prep high school curriculum that meets their unique needs as bright and talented young people who came to the U.S. with little English or formal schooling, but the hope of a better life. In this supportive but challenging environment, the Academy brings together diverse cultures and customs while working to prepare students to build the better life they have only dreamed of.

The story of The Fugees and their coach embodies many of the ideals that are thought of as “American:” giving opportunity for self-fulfillment, using one’s own ideas and talents to help the common goal and remembering that “we don’t win or lose alone—it’s always the team score in the end.”

At just 20 years old, Kristi Yamaguchi became the first Asian American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating when she finished first in women's singles at the 1992 Winter Games (Albertville, Canada) and also won two World Figure Skating Championships (1991, 1992). Since then, Kristi has journeyed through her roles as a wife, mother, author, philanthropist and founder of Always Dream, dedicated to closing the achievement gap by providing access to high-quality books in the home environment and extensive family engagement support to underserved children.

A collegiate athlete in both football and basketball at the University of Oregon, Arik Armstead is a starter defensive end for the San Francisco 49ers (drafted in 2015). Aside from team recognition for his positive impact in the community, Arik has also won the NFLPA Community MVP two consecutive years (2020, 2021), two nominations for the NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year awards (2020, 2021), and the nomination for the NFLPA Alan Page award (2022). Arik advocates for educational equity for all students, no matter their socioeconomic status.

A lawyer by schooling and nonprofit executive by trade, Aila Malik has been a change-agent in her community and the nonprofit sector, at large, for over two decades. In 2015, Aila founded a unique management-consulting firm, Venture Leadership Consulting, partnering with not-for-profit organizations to drive performance and scale solutions that close systemic gaps of inequity and served as former interim Executive Director for both Always Dream and Armstead Academic Program. She has received recognition for her leadership, activism, and tireless service.

Mia Pritts is the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Wonderschool, where her role centers on building and nurturing local, statewide, and national partnerships with organizations and agencies supporting child care providers. She also leads the Wonderschool ECE Advisory Board, the Strategic Partners Community of Practice, and is the in-house expert on quality early learning experiences for children, families, and early educators.

Beatrice Thomas, director of Authentic Arts & Media, is a national multi-disciplinary artist, cultural strategist, and creative producer. Whether through creative production, consulting or equity, diversity, and inclusion workshops, Mx. Thomas' focus is on uplifting and centering queer, transgender, and POC voices, with special attention to creating queer-inclusive family programming. They are a pillar of Drag Story Hour, serving as director of the SF Bay Area chapter, on the Leadership Team for the national organization, and as a featured drag queen. Beatrice’s work has illuminated the audiences of the deYoung Museum, SF PRIDE Mainstage, CounterPulse, SomArts Cultural Center and KALW Radio, and has shown in galleries across the United States.

Hadiya Masieh has worked extensively within the field of Counter Terrorism, Counter Extremism, international conflict resolution, peace building and interfaith. Her area of expertise lie in BAME community relations, women engagement projects and extremism within religious factions. She is part of the UK Government’s “National Muslim Women’s Advisory Group” advising UK Prime Ministers and Cabinet Ministers. She has advised governments including four U.K. Prime Minsters, been invited to speak at international conferences, was once a television presenter and has held high profile events promoting community engagement/ empowerment. Her work has featured in the Guardian, New Statesman, BBC News, ITV, Radio 4, CNN, BBC World, BBC Asian Radio, Times of India, Times of Israel and others. She is the co-author of the report 'Radicalisation and violent extremism - focus on women : how women become radicalised, and how to empower them to prevent radicalisation' and a UN women report 'Gendered Pathways to Radicalization and Desistance from Violent Extremism'. Hadiya was UK Ambassador for Women Without Borders promoting counter extremism narratives and a board member of the internationally renowned and award winning peacekeeping organisation The Bereaved Families Forum based in Palestine and Israel.

Meadhbh (Maeve) Park has been working in the area of Countering Violent Extremism and misogynist extremism for over two years, specializing in new forms of extremism that are emerging in the online space which specifically attract young men. She wrote a paper on the allure of the Proud Boys which was published in the book 'Male Supremacist in the United States, From Patriarchal Traditionalism to Misogynist Incels and the Alt Right' released by Routledge and the Institute for Research on Male Supremacism. She has also written about incels for GNET and her work has led her to research other related forms of extremism such as school shooter culture, extremist nihilism and post ideological violence. She has previously done work for Life After Hate, an American organisation helping people to exit the violent far-right and she now works for Groundswell Project UK where she delivers workshops on extremism to parents, teachers, law enforcement and students. She takes an empathetic and nuanced view on extremism as it relates to young people and focuses on creating more understanding and awareness of these issues and how they relate to society at large.

Danielle Bainbridge is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Northwestern University, where she also holds courtesy appointments in Performance Studies and African American Studies. Her ongoing book project Refinements of Cruelty: Enslavement, Enfreakment, and the Performance Archive examines the lives of African American sideshow and freak show performers who were also enslaved. From 2017-2020 she was the researcher, writer, and host of the PBS Digital Studios web series "The Origin of Everything.” Her first play "Curio" premiered at the University of Pennsylvania in April 2018 and appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2018. In 2020 she served as a host and recurring talent on two 2021 Daytime Emmy Nominated web series: PBS Self-Evident and YouTube Originals “Booktube.” Her essay “The Future Perfect, Autopsy, and Enfreakment on the 19th Century Stage” published in TDR, received an Honorable Mention for the 2021 Gerald Kahan Scholar’s Prize from the American Society for Theatre Research. From 2021-2022 she served as a host and consulting producer on PBS’ “Historian’s Take.” Starting in 2022, she is a host and consultant on "Study Hall US History to 1865" a collaboration with Arizona State University, Complexly, and YouTube. In the 2022-2023 academic year she will be a faculty fellow at Northwestern’s Kaplan Institute for the Humanities. In 2023 she will complete her first short documentary based on her 2018 piece “Curio” with $50,000 in grant support from Northwestern’s Provost Office.

Joy Harjo, the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States, is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Mvskoke Nation. Harjo is the author of nine books of poetry, several plays, children's books, and two memoirs; she has also produced seven award-winning music albums and edited several anthologies. Her many honors include the Ruth Lily Prize from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, two NEA fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Tulsa Artist Fellowship. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and chair of the Board of Directors of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she is the first artist-in-residence for the Bob Dylan Center. Find her on Twitter at @JoyHarjo and on Instagram at joyharjoforreal.

Michaela Goade is a Caldecott Medalist and a #1 New York Times bestselling artist. She is the illustrator of a number of award-winning and bestselling books, including We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom and I Sang You Down from the Stars by Tasha Spillett-Sumner. Her latest title, Berry Song is her first book as an author/illustrator. She is a member of the Tlingit Nation and grew up in her ancestral homelands along the southeast coast of Alaska, where she lives today on an island at the edge of a wide, wild sea. Find her on Twitter at @MichaelaGoade and on Instagram at @michaelagoade.

Mandy is motivated in her work to seek greater justice, equity, inclusivity, and cultural responsiveness in schools and classrooms. She is passionate about furthering educational self-determination, effective Tribal consultation, incorporating accurate and authentic content about American Indians and Alaska Natives in curriculum, building systems that support the whole child and their families, and language revitalization efforts. Over her 20 years in education, Mandy has served in the K–12, Tribal college, and state education department levels. Mandy was the director of Indian education for the state of Montana for 10 years. She currently serves on the National Advisory Council on Indian Education.

Phillip Boutté Jr the Co-Founder of 9B Collective, the first Black-Owned Concept Art Studio made up primarily of BIPOC artists. He has been working as a costume concept artist/ production designer for film, music video and television for the past 14 years. Within the last few years, he has illustrated for a multitude of blockbuster hits including Marvel’s Black Panther, Maleficent 2: Mistress of Evil, Captain Marvel, Avengers Infinity War, Thor, Man of Steel, Inception, Star Trek 2 and 3, The Justice League, Marvel’s Agents of Shield, The Greatest Showman, and most recently, the upcoming Jungle Cruise starring Dwayne Johnson, Godzilla Vs. Kong and the highly anticipated live action reboot, He-man: Masters of the Universe. He has also production designed several music videos for artist such as Ariana Grande, The Black Keys, Panic at the Disco, Tiesto feat. Busta Rhymes, Travie McCoy, Fefe Dobson, Hot Chelle Rae, Saint Motel and the UK band The Blackout.

As a Fellow with the Walton Family Foundation, Joanna Cannon works with the K-12 education team supporting strategy, learning, and grant-making on new initiatives. Before joining the foundation, Joanna was the chief operating officer for PENCIL, an education non-profit. Prior to that opportunity, she was the chief strategic officer for the Division of Talent, Labor and Innovation at the NYC Department of Education, the largest school system in the nation. Joanna holds a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Columbia University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Adrienne Battle is Director of Metro Nashville Public Schools. She has spent almost her entire career at MNPS, previously serving as a math, reading and language arts teacher; an assistant principal, academic principal and executive principal; a turnaround coach for principals of the district’s priority schools; and as a community superintendent overseeing all schools in the Southeast quadrant of the city as well as high schools across the district. A Nashville native, Dr. Battle is a graduate of the district’s John Overton High School, Missouri State University and Tennessee State University, where she earned her master’s, education specialist and doctorate degrees in Educational Administration and Supervision. She was named the Professional Educators of Tennessee’s 2022 Superintendent of the Year, and in 2021 she was named the Tennessee Principals Association’s Supervisor of the Year and received the Nashville NAACP’s Legacy Award. In 2015 she received the William J. and Lucille H. Field Award in Support of Excellence in Tennessee Secondary Leadership from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville as a result of leading Antioch High School to become the first zoned high school ever to be named a Tennessee Reward School, the top distinction a school can earn in Tennessee.

Miguel A. Cardona is the 12th U.S. Secretary of Education. Secretary Cardona has dedicated his career to serving students, educators, and families as an elementary school teacher, school principal, district administrator, and, most recently, as commissioner of education for the state of Connecticut. Secretary Cardona’s focus on equity and excellence for all learners has driven his work at all levels of the education sector. Secretary Cardona has led the federal government’s effort to support states in reopening America’s public schools for in-person learning amid the recovery from the pandemic, moving from only 46 percent of schools open when President Biden took office to nearly 100 percent of schools open today. Under Secretary Cardona’s leadership, the U.S. Department of Education also has distributed historic funding through the American Rescue Plan to support K-12 schools and colleges and has granted more than $15 billion in student loan forgiveness. Secretary Cardona earned a bachelor’s degree at Central Connecticut State University as well as a master’s degree and doctorate degree from the University of Connecticut. Secretary Cardona and his wife Marissa are the proud parents of two children who attend public school.

Dr. Javaid Siddiqi is the President and CEO of The Hunt Institute. During his tenure The Institute has expanded its scope of work beyond K-12 policy to include the entire education continuum from early childhood to postsecondary and the workforce. He works with senior-level elected officials across the political aisle to help design strategy, shape policy, and drive educational improvements on the national and state levels. Prior to serving as President & CEO, Javaid served as the Director of the Hunt-Kean Leadership Fellows, which partners with senior-level political leaders who have the knowledge, skill, and will to be effective, reform-minded education policymakers at the state level. Javaid’s career spans more than 20 years in education and education reform and policy. He began his professional career as a high school teacher, assistant principal, and as a principal in Chesterfield, Virginia, before serving as deputy secretary of Education and then secretary of Education in Governor Bob McDonnell’s Cabinet. Javaid is a graduate of Richard Bland College, Virginia State University, and Virginia Commonwealth University where he received both his undergraduate degree and doctorate in educational leadership.

Dr. Michael J. Sorrell is the longest-serving President in the 151-year history of Paul Quinn College. During his 16 years of leadership, Paul Quinn has become nationally celebrated for its ability to reimagine higher education to better serve the needs of today’s students and their communities. Included among Paul Quinn’s numerous accomplishments during President Sorrell’s tenure are the following: improving graduation rates by more than 30%; reducing the average student loan debt by $30,0000; building the first new buildings on campus in 50 years; creating the Urban Work College Model; winning the HBCU of the Year, HBCU Student Government Association of the Year, and HBCU Business Program of the Year awards; demolishing 16 campus buildings; partnering with PepsiCo to transform the football field into the WE over Me Farm; achieving full-accreditation from the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS); creating the College’s first faculty-led study abroad program; and rewriting all institutional fundraising records. Michael received his J.D. and M.A. in Public Policy from Duke University and his Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in Government. President Sorrell serves as the chair of the Board of Governors for the Dallas Foundation and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees for the Hockaday School. He is a trustee for the American Council of Education, College Track, Duke University’s School of Law, and the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. Michael is also a member of the advisory boards of Advancing Black Pathways (JPMC), Handshake, GSV, Guild, and Amegy Bank. He is a corporate director for Mainstay. President Sorrell is married to the former Natalie Jenkins. Natalie is an alumna of Spelman College and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. They have two children, Michael Augustus and Sage Louise-Sinclair.

Dr. Angel Jones is an educator, activist, and critical race scholar who uses creative methods such as hip-hop and poetry to center the voices and experiences of the Black community. Her research explores the impact of racism on mental health with a focus on microaggressions and Racial Battle Fatigue. Dr. Jones is also a public scholar who uses social media as an educational tool to increase access to academic scholarship. She is the author of Street Scholar: Using Public Scholarship to Educate, Advocate, and Liberate which is an unapologetic call-to-action that challenges academia to thoughtfully and intentionally engage in public scholarship. Dr. Jones has been interviewed by multiple media outlets including Forbes, USA Today, and Insider for her expertise on racism in the United States. Dr. Jones is also a proud first-generation college student who received a Ph.D. in Education from George Washington University with a focus on inequality in Higher Education. She also has an M.Ed. and Ed.S. in School Counseling from Georgia State University, as well as a B.A. in Political Science from Syracuse University. She is also a Brooklyn native and proud Afro Latina.

A 25-year veteran of the classroom, Kurt Russell was first inspired to become a teacher in middle school, when he encountered his first Black male teacher. Now as 2022 National Teacher of the Year, he plans to advocate for classrooms to better reflect the students within them — from a curriculum that reflects their backgrounds and identities to a more diverse teaching profession.  Kurt teaches history at Oberlin High School in Oberlin, Ohio, where he was born and raised; his classes include African American history, which he has taught since the late 1990s, and Race, Gender and Oppression, a class he developed. He also serves as faculty advisor for the student-led Black Student Union, whose work has led to positive impacts for students across racial groups. In addition to his classroom and extracurricular duties, Kurt is the head coach for the school’s varsity basketball team. He sees basketball as an extension of the classroom, and a place where young people can learn about working together and how to handle both adversity and success.   Kurt holds a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in history and a minor in Black studies from the College of Wooster and a Master of Education in curriculum and instruction from Ashland University. He continues to take courses in child development at Oakland City University.  He was previously recognized as teacher of the year by the Oberlin Heritage Center and the Oberlin chapter of the NAACP, and as Lorain County Basketball Association Coach of the Year and the Northeast Ohio Coach of the Year.   Kurt lives with his wife, Donna, in Oberlin. They are the parents of two adult sons, Kurt Junior (KJ) and Korey. Kurt enjoys reading non-fiction and traveling.

Rodney Robinson is a 19-year teaching veteran. He became a teacher to honor his mother, who struggled to receive an education after being denied an education as a child due to segregation and poverty in rural Virginia. In 2015, Robinson started teaching at Virgie Binford Education Center, a school inside the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center, in an effort to better understand the school-to-prison pipeline. Robinson uses the whole child approach to education to help the students who are most vulnerable. His classroom is a collaborative partnership between himself and his students and is anchored in him providing a civic centered education that promotes social-emotional growth. Robinson uses the knowledge he has gained from his students to develop alternative programs to prevent students from entering the school-to-prison pipeline. Robinson has been published three times by Yale University and has received numerous awards for his accomplishments in and out of the classroom, most notably the R.E.B. Award for Teaching Excellence. He is a member of Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney’s Education Compact Team, which includes politicians, educators, business leaders, and community leaders, and is working with city leaders and local colleges to recruit underrepresented male teachers into the field of education. He has also worked with Pulitzer Award winning author James Foreman on developing curriculum units on race, class, and punishment as a part of the Yale Teacher’s Institute. Robinson earned a Bachelor of arts in history from Virginia State University and a master’s in educational administration and supervision from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Sarah Brown Wessling is a 21-year veteran of the high school English classroom. While a member of the faculty at Johnston High School in Johnston, Iowa she has taught courses ranging from at-risk to Advanced Placement and has served the department and district in a variety of leadership roles. Sarah is a National Board Certified Teacher since 2005 and in 2010 was selected as the National Teacher of the Year. In that capacity she worked as an ambassador for education, giving over 250 talks and workshops in 39 different states as well as internationally. Currently she maintains a hybrid teaching position which keeps her in the classroom and allows her to write, speak and work on teacher leadership initiatives around the country. Sarah is Laureate Emeritus for the non-profit Teaching Channel. She is an author of Supporting Students in a Time of Core Standards and maintains a blog with the column “Ask Sarah” at sarahbrownwessling.com.

As Executive Director of Student Freedom Initiative (SFI), Mark is accountable to the Board of Directors for leadership, guidance and direction, business development, and strategic communications for SFI. He previously served as the Chief Operating Officer for Federal Student Aid (FSA) at the Department of Education. In this role, Brown had statutory authority for all the nation’s Title IV (Pell Grants, Work-study, Student Loans) funding for 600,000 students and a total lending portfolio of $1.7 trillion, and 6,000 partner institutions around the country. During his time at FSA, Brown oversaw the total digitization of financial services for students, parents, and borrowers. In addition, faced with a pandemic, Brown oversaw the transformation of over 25 million borrowers from active to forbearance status which temporarily eliminated payments for most students, parents, and borrowers across the country. Brown received his education from the National Defense University (Master of National Security Strategy), Air Command & Staff College (Master of Strategic Studies), Troy State University (Master of Public Administration), and Tuskegee University (Accounting).

Mambu Sherman is the founding Executive Director of Southern Communities Initiative. Mambu has spent his career building and scaling impact-driven initiatives that promote economic justice and equity, forging innovative cross-sector partnerships and implementing complex systems-change projects at both the national and local community level. Prior to joining the Initiative, Mambu served as Vice President, Global Philanthropy at JPMorgan Chase, where he led the firm’s philanthropic strategy across Chicago, Indiana and Wisconsin markets with the goal to drive inclusive growth and greater economic opportunity in cities. His work has included supporting small business ecosystems for women and BIPOC entrepreneurs; investing in the development of innovative products, fintech tools and programs that help people achieve financial stability; advancing holistic, locally driven solutions that help neighborhoods thrive; and supporting efforts that enhance career pathways and economic mobility. From 2017 to 2020, Mambu was Senior Innovation Manager at Chicago Beyond, a philanthropic venture fund and impact investor. Mambu led the design, build out and management of the company’s investment strategy and innovation initiatives. Mambu also served as the Atlanta Director for Boy With a Ball, a multinational community development organization, where he led the organization’s expansion into Atlanta. Mambu, who was born in Monrovia, Liberia and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, is a proud HBCU alum, receiving his undergraduate degree from Savannah State University and his MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.

Suzanne Elise Walsh became the nineteenth president of Bennett College on August 1, 2019. She was most recently deputy director of postsecondary success for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leading and developing a team and a portfolio of over $70 million in postsecondary investments in institutional transformation in the United States. She previously served in leadership roles with the Lumina Foundation for Education and The Heinz Endowments. Ms. Walsh has received national recognition for her portfolio of work with organizations at the intersection of innovation, technology and learning. Education leaders with whom she has consulted praise her ability to create and work with cross-functional teams as a key driver in affecting flexible, personalized and affordable approaches to higher education, and other leaders have expressed their appreciation for her work on several viability and sustainability initiatives at HBCUs, analyzing complex situations, developing innovative action plans to address challenges and motivating teams. Ms. Walsh has been a frequent speaker and workshop leader at conferences such as the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, and the Global Learning Council, of which she is an active member. She has published or edited several books and journal articles on the topic of educational transformation, and is the recipient of numerous awards, honors and fellowships. Ms. Walsh earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from Cornell University, as well as a master’s degree in social work and a law degree from Case Western Reserve University. She is a member of the Ohio Bar.

John’s experience spans government, philanthropy, and venture capital working on a range of issues including innovation policy, immigration, the future of work, and education. He currently serves as a fellow at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, a visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and an advisor to several philanthropies and venture investors. As a domestic policy advisor in the White House, John coordinated the Bush Administration's efforts during the credit crisis to stabilize $200 billion in student loans and served as a negotiator during the Trade Adjustment Assistance reauthorization. He also served as the Deputy Policy Director to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, contributing to the first National Pandemic Strategy and developing the President’s package of high-skilled immigration reforms. John was appointed as the nation’s second Director of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education and co-chaired the interagency Advanced Education Technology Initiative which focused on the R&D of advanced technologies in education and training. During his tenure in Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge’s administration, John designed and launched technology modernization initiatives including a statewide broadband mapping project. John co-founded the strategic advisory firm Whiteboard Advisors, was a senior program officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and served as VP of Policy for Governor Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education. John is a fellow and moderator in the Aspen Global Leadership Network and an alumnus of the American Council on Germany Young Leaders Program. In 2022, the Washingtonian named him as one of Washington's Most Influential People in policy. He currently serves on the board of directors for Zearn Math and advisory boards for Pope Francis’ Scholas Initiative, the Tech Talent Project, the Covid Collaborative, and the Bush Institute. He has also served an advisor to four presidential campaigns.

Terah is an Executive in Residence at Zetta, working to identify and support early-stage founders building AI technology companies in critical new domains. Terah has focused her career on building capacity across sectors for more effective AI development and governance. Previously, she was Founding Executive Director of the Partnership on AI, a multi-stakeholder non-profit initiative focused on advancing the benefits and addressing the challenges of artificial intelligence. In the Obama Administration, she served as Policy Advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she co-directed the White House’s Future of Artificial Intelligence Initiative, which facilitated stakeholders in the public and private domains to frame the first domestic policy strategy on machine intelligence. Terah sits on the Steering Committee of Stanford's AI Index project, and previously served on the Study Panel for Stanford's One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100). She is an Advisor to the Administrative Conference of the United States on the use of artificial intelligence in Federal agencies, and has been an Executive Fellow with the Tech Talent Project, a Mozilla Foundation Technology Policy Fellow, and a Fellow with the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. She is a graduate of Harvard University.

Cameron Wilson is President of Code.org, overseeing all of Code.org’s teams to help guide the organization's efforts to expand access to K-12 computer science education. Before becoming President, Cameron served as the Chief Operating Officer and President of Code.org Advocacy Coalition. He helped create Computer Science Education Week, and has been deeply involved on education issues within the computing community having served on the AP Computer Science Principles Advisory Commission, coauthored a major study on K-12 computer science education – Running on Empty: The Failure to Teach K-12 Computer Science in the Digital Age and helped direct the University Of Chicago’s study Building an Operating System For Computer Science Education. He joined Code.org in June of 2013. Before Code.org he was Director of the Office of Public Policy for the Association for Computing Machinery, which is the largest professional society for computing. He joined ACM after spending 10 years on Capitol Hill. During his congressional career he served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Representative Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) and on Representative Nick Smith’s (R-MI) staff. He also served as professional staff on the House Science Committee, where he oversaw technology, standards and environmental issues.