Linda Darling-Hammond, is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University, where she has launched the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute and the School Redesign Network. Dr. Darling-Hammond was the founding executive director of the National Commission for Teaching and America's Future, the blue-ribbon panel whose 1996 report What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future catalyzed major policy changes across the United States to improve the quality of teacher education and teaching. Her research, teaching, and policy work focus on issues of teaching quality, school reform, and educational equity.

Maria Echaveste is the founder of the Nueva Vista Group, a consulting firm that works with nonprofit organizations, associations, and corporations on a wide range of policy issues. Currently, she is also a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley’s Boalt Law School, teaching immigration law and policy, and a senior fellow of the law school’s Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity.

Fred Frelow is the education and scholarship program officer for the Ford Foundation’s Knowledge, Creativity and Freedom program and Education, Sexuality and Religion unit. Previously he served as the director of Early College Initiatives at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation where he was responsible for managing the development of fourteen early college high schools.

Steven Gluckstern is a recently retired executive, entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist, and educator. In 1998, Mr. Gluckstern cofounded Capital Z Partners, an alternative asset management firm that currently manages over $4 billion in two global funds. From 1988 to 1998, he worked for Zurich Financial Services in a range of positions including chairman of Scudder Mutual Funds, head of Group Investments, head of Reinsurance and as a member of Zurich's Group Executive Board. Mr. Gluckstern had previously served as general manager of reinsurance operations of the Warren Buffett-controlled Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Group and as an investment banker at Lehman Brothers.

Gerry House has been president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Student Achievement (ISA) since April 2000. Prior to joining ISA, she spent fifteen years as a superintendent for schools in Memphis, Tennessee and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Dr. House has also served as a teacher, junior and senior high school guidance counselor, principal, and assistant superintendent.

Joan Huffer is the director of the federal budget initiative at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a project that provides information and technical assistance about federal budget, tax, and low-income policies to state nonprofit organizations. Previously, Ms. Huffer worked in the U.S. Senate for twenty-seven years in various capacities. She served two stints on the Senate Budget Committee, most recently as a senior analyst for education and appropriations issues.

Greg Jobin-Leeds, co-founder and chair of the board of the award-winning Schott Foundation for Public Education, has made a career out of launching and nurturing successful, high-impact public policy organizations. His talent for recruiting effective leaders and guiding their efforts to break new ground has led to milestone victories for the nation’s historically underserved children and most under-represented families.

Dan Leeds is the president of Fulcrum Investments LLC, a private investment office.

Until 1999, Dan was President of International Publishing and a member of the Office of the President at CMP Media, Inc, a leading media company, publishing titles such as InformationWeek, Computer Reseller News and Electronic Engineering Times. The company was cited as "One of the Best Companies to Work For " by Fortune Magazine and Working Women Magazine.

Gerard and Lilo Leeds founded the Alliance for Excellent Education in December 1999, and served as the first chair and vice-chair, respectively, of its board of directors.

In 1971, Mr. and Mrs. Leeds launched CMP Media, Inc., which became a leader in providing information and internet services for high-tech industries. The company was well known for its socially responsible policies, especially for its pioneering onsite day care center. When, in 1988, they turned the management of the company over to their sons, Mr. and Mrs. Leeds turned their attention to giving back to a society that had been very good to them, principally by working to improve the education of children at risk of failure.

Goodwin Liu is a law professor at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, specializing in constitutional law, education policy, civil rights, and the Supreme Court. He is also codirector of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity, a multidisciplinary research center at UC Berkeley devoted to civil rights issues in California and the nation.

Clarence G. Newsome is the former president of Shaw University in North Carolina. He is a native of the eastern North Carolina town of Ahoskie and the son of a school principal. Dr. Newsome received his bachelor's degree from Duke University. While at Duke, he lettered in football and was twice named to the Atlantic Coast Conference All-Academic Team. Dr. Newsome was Duke's first black student commencement speaker, delivering an address called "An African Concept of Time and a Theme of Liberation in the World Community."

Michael O'Keefe served as president of Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) from 2002 to June 2009. MCAD is one of the nation’s highly regarded private art and design colleges, offering fifteen undergraduate majors including fine arts, design, illustration, animation, and multi-media; post-baccalaureate study; and a fine arts master’s degree program.

Harold Williams is counsel to the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. He is also president emeritus of the J. Paul Getty Trust in Los Angeles, CA, and was president and chief executive officer for seventeen years. Prior to assuming his position with the Trust, Mr. Williams was the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and has served as dean and professor of management of the Graduate School of Management, UCLA, and chairman of the board of Norton Simon, Inc.

For the past twenty-five years, Esther Wojcicki has been teaching journalism and English at Palo Alto High School in California where she has been the driving force behind the development of its award-winning journalism program. With four hundred students enrolled, Palo Alto High School’s journalism program is now the largest in the United States.