Gregg Betheil is the senior executive for career and technical education (CTE) for the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE). Since January 2008, he has been leading efforts to foster innovation in New York City’s portfolio of CTE options. Mr. Betheil’s responsibilities include management of the Mayor’s Task Force on Career and Technical Education Innovation, and oversight and support of the CTE portfolio, which includes twenty-six CTE high schools serving over thirty thousand students, and 284 CTE programs across city schools, serving over 110,000 students.

Betsy Brand is director of the American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF). AYPF is a nonpartisan professional development organization providing learning opportunities for national, state, and local policymakers working on education and youth issues. AYPF provides information on best and innovative practices and policies that help youth succeed in education, college, and careers. Ms. Brand began working at AYPF in 1998 as co-director.

Janet Bray serves as the executive director of the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE), a not-for-profit association representing over 30,000 professionals across the U.S. As executive director, Ms. Bray manages the association’s staff and program services. She is actively involved in its strategic public policy efforts and works on legislative and public awareness issues for the profession. Ms. Bray also provides leadership and guidance to the ACTE Board of Directors, committees, and related associations.

Willard Daggett is president of the International Center for Leadership in Education. He is recognized worldwide for his proven ability to move education systems towards more rigorous and relevant skills and knowledge for all students. He has assisted a number of states and hundreds of school districts with their school improvement initiatives, many in response to No Child Left Behind and its demanding adequate yearly progress (AYP) provisions. Dr. Daggett has also collaborated with education ministries in several countries and with the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Governors Association, and many other national organizations.

Libia Gil joined the American Institutes for Research to continue the work she began as the chief academic officer of New American Schools. As senior fellow, Dr. Gil provides counsel on leadership development initiatives and assists states and districts in developing strategies for improving student achievement by bridging evidence from both research and practice.

Over the past seventeen years, Kimberly Green has worked extensively on federal policy impacting career technical education (CTE). Working closely with Congress, the administration, and a broad range of stakeholders, she represents the interests of and seeks support for CTE. In addition to this policy work, Ms. Green has helped establish and implement the States’ Career Clusters Initiative, which is designed to ensure that career technical education meets the needs of the nation, the economy, employers, and students.

Norton Grubb is a professor and the David Gardner chair in higher education at the School of Education, the University of California, Berkeley, where he is also the faculty coordinator for the Principal Leadership Institute—a program preparing leaders for urban schools. His interests include higher education, especially community colleges; the effects of resources in schools; the occupational roles of education; secondary schools and their reforms; and equity issues.

Samuel Halperin is founder and senior fellow of the American Youth Policy Forum. He has held leadership positions in academia, the federal government, foundations, and nonprofit organizations for over forty years. Dr. Halperin was president of the Institute for Educational Leadership; deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW); director of the U.S. Office of Education’s Office of Congressional Relations and assistant U.S. commissioner of education for legislation; a congressional fellow of the American Political Science Association; and study director of youth and America’s future at the William T. Grant Foundations’ National Commission on Work, Family, and Citizenship.

Gary Hoachlander is president of ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career. Recently established by the James Irvine Foundation, ConnectEd is dedicated to advancing practice, policy, and research designed to help young people prepare for college and career—both goals and not one or the other. ConnectEd has as its primary mission supporting the development of multiple pathways by which young people can complete high school, enroll in postsecondary education, attain a formal credential, and embark on lasting success in work, community, and civic affairs.

Susan Katzman is president of the board of directors at the National Career Academy Coalition. She recently retired as divisional director for career and technical education with the St. Louis Public School District (SLPS). During her thirty-six years with SLPS, she was involved in many endeavors including curriculum development, preschool-grade twelve-career education, summer school, community education, and high school teaching.

Richard Kazis is senior vice president of Jobs for the Future (JFF), a Boston-based organization committed to improving the educational and economic opportunities available to low-income youth and adults. Mr. Kazis guides JFF’s policy initiatives.

Patricia McNeil is an education researcher and consultant in Seattle, Washington, whose focus is on ways to improve the high school experience for young people. In addition to her consulting work, Ms. McNeil served as executive director of the Denver Commission on Secondary School Reform in 2004–05. As an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education during the Clinton administration, she created the New American High School initiative and led the department’s efforts on high school improvement and small learning communities.

Hans Meeder is president of the Meeder Consulting Group, LLC, a firm offering analysis of education and workforce policy, strategic visioning and implementation planning, and research on promising and proven practices. Mr. Meeder has an extensive and varied career in education and workforce policy and government leadership, with an emphasis on high school redesign, career and technical education, and workforce quality.

Jeannie Oakes is director of education and scholarship at the Ford Foundation. Until Fall 2008, she was presidential professor in educational equity at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. At UCLA, Dr. Oakes directed the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access and the University of California’s All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity.

Kathy Oliver is the assistant state superintendent for Career Technology and Adult Learning at the Maryland State Department of Education. She leads a division dedicated to excellence and innovation in adult and career technology education programs. The division’s products and services help school systems, community colleges, and community-based organizations prepare students of all ages for success in careers and lifelong learning.

David Stern is emeritus professor of education at the University of California, Berkeley, where he joined the faculty in 1976. His research has focused on the relationship between education and work, and on resource allocation in schools. His current interests include improving access to higher education and engaging high schools in social enterprises for learning.

James Stone is a native of Washington, DC. A former retail manager who left that career to teach secondary marketing education, Dr. Stone has maintained an active program of research over the past twenty years. He has raised more than $25 million in external grants focusing primarily on the role of schools in linking youth and adults to the workplace. Dr. Stone directed or codirected eight studies at the National Center for Research in Vocational Education at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the lead researcher on the Math in CTE study regarding the contextualization of math in occupational curricula.