Sir Ken Robinson is an internationally recognized leader in the development of education, creativity and innovation. The #1 speaker in TED Talks history, his talks have been viewed online over 80 million times and seen by an estimated 400 million people in 160 countries. Fast Company calls him “one of the world’s elite thinkers on creativity and innovation”. He advises governments, corporations, education systems, and some of the world's leading cultural organizations. For twelve years, he was professor of arts education at the University of Warwick in the UK and is now professor emeritus. He has received honorary degrees from universities in the US and the UK and honored with the Athena Award of the Rhode Island School of Design; the Peabody Medal for contributions to the arts and culture in the United States; the LEGO Prize for international achievement in education; the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Royal Society of Arts and the Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award. A New York Times bestselling author, his books, including Out of Our Minds: The Power of Being Creative, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything and You, Your Child and School, have been translated into twenty four languages and have sold over a million copies worldwide. In 2003, he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts.

Jennifer Eberhardt is a social psychologist at Stanford University and a leading authority on unconscious bias. Through interdisciplinary collaborations and a wide array of research methods—from laboratory studies to novel field experiments—Eberhardt has revealed the startling, and often dispiriting, extent to which racial imagery and judgments suffuse our culture and society, and in particular shape actions and outcomes within our criminal justice system, schools, and workplaces. In the education sector, for example, Eberhardt points to the negative impact that bias, and the shear threat of bias, can have on teaching and learning—and what we can do about it. Amid unprecedented inequality and growing polarization, she enlists science in the fight for equal justice.

Eberhardt received a Ph.D. from Harvard University and, in 1995, joined the faculty at Yale University in the Departments of Psychology and African & African American Studies. She joined the Stanford faculty in 1998, and is currently a Professor of Psychology, the Morris M. Doyle Centennial Professor of Public Policy, and a Faculty Director of Stanford SPARQ, a university initiative to use social psychological research to address pressing social problems. In 2014, Eberhardt was named a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellow and one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers. In 2016, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the National Academy of Sciences. Eberhardt is the author of Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We, See, Think, Do (published by Viking in 2019).

Ted Dintersmith is on a mission to give our kids a real chance to thrive in the innovation era. He organized and produced Most Likely to Succeed, an acclaimed documentary that premiered at Sundance and has been screened by thousands of communities around the globe. His top-selling book What School Could Be shares inspiring examples of learning at its best, based on his travels to all fifty states in a single school year. Earlier, he and education thought-leader Tony Wagner wrote Most Likely to Succeed: Preparing Our Kids for the Innovation Era. In 2018, Ted received the prestigious NEA “Friend of Education” Award. Ted, a Partner Emeritus with Charles River Ventures, was ranked by Business 2.0 as the top-performing venture capitalist in the U.S. for the years 1995-1999. In 2012, President Obama appointed Ted to represent the U.S. at the United Nations General Assembly. Ted earned a PhD in Engineering from Stanford University and his undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary, receiving High Honors in Physics and English. You can follow Ted on Twitter @dintersmith.

Zakiya Smith Ellis currently serves as New Jersey’s Secretary of Higher Education, where she is responsible for the policy development and coordination of higher education activities for the state. Smith Ellis previously led work at Lumina Foundation, the nation’s largest foundation focused solely on higher education, to advance federal policy to increase attainment and to develop new postsecondary finance models, focusing on issues of affordability. Dr. Ellis holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and secondary education from Vanderbilt University, a master’s degree in education policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and holds a doctorate in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania.

Pedro A. Rivera was appointed as the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education by Governor Tom Wolf and confirmed unanimously by the state Senate in 2015. Rivera brings extensive experience in public education to his leadership roles. Prior to his appointment to Governor Wolf’s Cabinet, he served as superintendent of the School District of Lancaster. Additionally, he was a classroom teacher, assistant principal, principal, and executive director for the School District of Philadelphia, as well as a staff member with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. In September 2014, he was honored by the White House as a Champion of Change for his efforts to transform urban education with his holistic approach to student success – one of ten recipients nationwide to receive the prestigious honor. Currently, Rivera also serves as the President of the Board of Directors for the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).

Margaret Spellings serves as President and CEO of Texas 2036, bringing with her knowledge and experience developed over an exceptional career in public service at both the state and national level. Most recently, Spellings served as the president of the 17-institution University of North Carolina System, leading the state’s public university into a new period of performance, affordability, and growth with a focus on improving economic mobility, ensuring accountability, and advancing the public good. Prior to that, Spellings served as president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas, where she oversaw programs on economic opportunity, education reform, global health, and special initiatives on women’s leadership and military service. From 2005 to 2009, Spellings served as U.S. Secretary of Education, leading the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, a bipartisan initiative to provide greater accountability for the education of 50 million U.S. public school students. As secretary, she also launched the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, a plan to address challenges of access, affordability, quality, and accountability in our nation’s colleges and universities. Prior to serving as Secretary, Spellings served as White House domestic policy advisor from 2001 to 2005, overseeing the administration’s agenda on education, transportation, health, justice, housing, and labor. Spellings experience also includes serving as senior advisor to then-Governor George W. Bush of Texas, president and CEO of Margaret Spellings and Company, a Washington, DC, consulting firm that provided strategic guidance on a variety of domestic policy matters, and as a president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, advocating for more effective education and workforce training. Spellings was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but spent much of her childhood in Houston. She is a graduate of the University of Houston, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. She also received an honorary doctorate and Distinguished Alumni Award from the university in 2006. Spellings has two adult daughters and resides in Dallas.