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 Director of Early College Initiatives at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation where he is responsible for managing the development of 14 Early College High Schools. Prior to joining the Foundation, Frelow was Associate Director in the Working Communities division of the Rockefeller Foundation where he was in charge of the continuing development and implementation of the Foundation’s school reform program.

Steven M. Gluckstern is a recently retired executive, entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist, and educator. In 1998, Gluckstern co-founded 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 as Chairman of Scudder Mutual Funds, head of Group Investments, head of Reinsurance and as a member of its Group Executive Board. 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.

Linda Darling-Hammond, EdD., 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. 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.

N. Gerry House has been President and CEO of the Institute for Student Achievement since April 2000. Prior to joining ISA, she spent 15 years as a superintendent for schools in Memphis, TN, and Chapel Hill, NC. House also has served as a teacher, junior and senior high school guidance counselor, principal and assistant superintendent.

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.

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 Ms. 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 on-site day care center. When, in 1988, they turned the management of the company over to their sons, Mr. and Ms. 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.

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.

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 co-director 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 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 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."

Pedro Noguera, Ph.D., is a professor in the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University and the Director of the Center for Research on Urban Schools and Globalization. An urban sociologist, Noguera’s scholarship and research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions in the urban environment.

Michael O'Keefe has been the president of Minneapolis College of Art and Design since mid-2002. MCAD is one of the nation's highly regarded private art and design colleges, offering fifteen undergraduate majors including the fine arts, design, illustration, animation, and multi-media; post-baccalaureate study; and the Masters of Fine Arts. The college currently enrolls 670 students.

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, Los Angeles, CA, and was president and Chief Executive Officer for 17 years. Prior to assuming his position with the Trust, 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.