K-12 RESOURCES

 

Paula Allen-Meares Ph.D., Chancellor and John Corbally Presidential Professor

Office of the Chancellor (MC 102)

University of Illinois at Chicago
601 S. Morgan St., 2833 UH Chicago, IL 60607-7128
312.413.3350; pameares@uic.edu

Allen-Meares joined the University of Illinois at Chicago January 16, 2009. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies, the Royal Academy of Medicine, and is a trustee of the New York Academy of Medicine. Allen-Meares' research interests include the tasks and functions of social workers employed in educational settings; psychopathology in children, adolescents, and families; adolescent sexuality; premature parenthood; and various aspects of social work practice.

 

Claudia Angelelli Ph.D., Professor
Department of Spanish and Portugese
San Diego State University

5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-1234

619.594.1678; claudia.angelelli@sdsu.edu

Angelelli developed the first empirically driven language proficiency and interpreter readiness test. She serves on the Board of Directors of the American Translators Association and the American Translation Studies Association and as an advisor for the National Council of Interpreters in Healthcare and Hablamos Juntos.

 

Robert Balfanz, Research Scientist
Center for Social Organization of Schools

Johns Hopkins University 

2701 N. Charles Street Suite 300
Baltimore, MD 21218

410.516.4272; rbalfanz@csos.jhu.edu

Balfanz's translates research findings into effective reforms for high-poverty secondary schools. He has published widely on secondary school reform, high school dropouts, and instructional interventions in high-poverty schools. Recent work includes "Locating the Dropout Crisis," with co-author Nettie Legters, in which the number and location of high schools with high dropout rates are identified. In addition, Balfanz is co-director of the Talent Development High School with Career Academies, a comprehensive reform model for large high schools facing serious problems with student attendance, discipline, achievement scores, and dropout rates.

 

David Beaulieu, Director
Institute of American Indian Education
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

414.229.2587; beaulieu@uwm.edu

Beaulieu is an enrolled member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, White Earth Reservation, he is a nationally known expert in American Indian education policy.

 

Henry J. Becker, Professor Emeritus
Education Department
University of California, Irvine

2048 Berkeley Place
Irvine, CA 92697

949.824.5117; hjbecker@uci.edu

Becker is an expert on technological equity among children and the use of computers in the classroom.

 

Barnett Berry Ph.D., President and CEO
Center for Teaching Quality Inc.

500 Millstone Drive
Suite 102
Hillsborough, NC 27278

919.241.1575; bberry@teachingquality.org

Berry runs the research-based advocacy organization,which promotes closing the student achievement gap by closing the teacher quality gap. In 2003, he created the Teacher Leaders Network to elevate the voices of expert teachers in policy debates. A former high school teacher, Berry has worked as a social scientist at the RAND Corp., served as a senior executive with the South Carolina Department of Education, and run an education policy center as a University of South Carolina professor.

 

Rebecca Bigler, Director, Professor
University of Texas at Austin
Gender and Racial Attitudes Lab

1 University Station A8000
Austin , TX 78712-0187

512.471.9917; bigler@psy.utexas.edu

The Gender and Racial Atittudies Lab conducts research on children’s intergroup attitudes, including social stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Its areas of study include the consequences of gender and racial attitudes for children’s development, how children’s intergroup attitudes affect conceptions of the self, factors that contribute to the formation of intergroup attitudes (e.g., stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination), and mechanisms of gender and racial attitude change.

 

Sandra J. Bishop--Josef Ph.D., Assistant Director
Child Study Center
Yale Univeristy

310 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06511

203.432.9935; sandra.bishop@yale.edu

The center brings research-based knowledge of child development to the federal and state policy arenas in an effort to improve social policy affecting the lives of children and families in the United States.

 

Bruce Black M.D., Director

372 Washington Street
Wellesley, MA 02481

781.239.3550

Dr. Black's expertise is in psychopharmacology, mood and anxiety Disorders, and Attention Deficit Disorder. In the early 90's, Dr. Black did one of the first studies of Prozac for selective mutism, when he was a researcher at the National Institutes of Mental Health.

 

Warren Blumenfeld, Assistant Professor
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Iowa State University

N128 Lagomarcino
Ames, IA 50011-3191

515.294.5931; wblumen@iastate.edu

Blumenfeld works on reducing bullying in schools, particularly for gay and lesbian students. He is also a member of the advisory board for Iowa State's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Student Services. His book, "Butler Matters: Judith Butler's Impact on Feminist and Queer Studies," asserts that sexual identity and racial roles assigned by society are basic to an understanding of gender and race. Blumenfeld has published four other books, all dealing with gay, lesbian, homophobia, diversity and social justice issues. He is currently working on two other books, one on cyber-bullying and the second investigating religious oppression and Christian privilege in the United States.

 

Carol Boyd, Director
University of Michigan

Institute for Research on Women and Gender

204 S. State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

734.764.9537; caroboyd@umich.edu

Boyd's focus is in the study of women and substance abuse. She has several NIH-funded projects, all of which examine the relationship of gender to drug seeking and drug abuse prevention. She examined the circumstances under which women begin to use heroin and crack, but has expanded her focus to include cigarettes, alcohol and prescription drugs. Currently, Boyd is studying gender differences in prescription drug abuse among secondary and college students.

 

Jim Brazell, Consulting Analyst, Digital Media Co-Lab
IC2 Institute
University of Texas at Austin

9515 S. Saddle Trail
San Antonio, TX 78255

210.685.6536; jim@ventureramp.com

Jim Brazell is a consulting analyst with the Digital Media Co-Lab, IC2 Institute at the University of Texas at Austin. The IC2 (Innovation, Creativity and Capital) Institute is an international, transdisciplinary “Think and Do” tank; it is devoted to solving unstructured problems to accelerate wealth, job creation and shared prosperity at home and abroad. Recent IC2 projects include working to revitalize the entrepreneurial economy of Iraq and hosting Palestinian-Israeli negotiations to build new models of collaboration. Brazell’s work with the Digital Media Co-Lab focuses on emerging technologies and their relation to science, education, art and the workforce. Brazell is an advocate of TEAMS (Technology, Engineering, Art, Math and Science) as a solution to the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) workforce shortage problem in America. He also advocates the connection between games and nano science, bio science, information science, cognitive science and environmental science, to prepare the workforce of the future through network video game design, modeling and programming. In the past two years Brazell has been the principal author of two emerging technology reports, “Gaming, A Technology Forecast” and “4th Generation Computing, A Technology Forecast,” both available on the Web at system.tstc.edu/forecasting/reports. Brazell is also involved in several “serious game” initiatives, connecting video game technology to other fields of human endeavor. Brazell has a bachelor of science degree in sociology from Bradley University, Peoria, Ill., where he was the principal investigator of the Interlabs Research Institute, the Sociology of Cyberspace, and the Social Informatics Minor.

 

Claire D. Brindis Ph.D.,  Director
Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health
University of California - San Francisco

3333 California St., Box 0503
San Francisco, CA 94143

415.502.4086; brindis.claire@ucsf.edu

Brindis' research interests are in the area of developing and evaluating community-based services for children and youth. Her writings in the field of adolescent pregnancy prevention were extensively utilized in the planning and implementation of various state and federal initiatives. Brindis is also Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Adolescent Medicine at UCSF,  Director of the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, and Director of the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Research at the University of Californa, San Francisco.

 

Sandra L. Calvert, Director and Professor
Children's Digital Media Center/Department of Psychology
Georgetown University

309 White Gravenor Building
37th and O St. NW
Washington, DC 20057

202.687.7019; cdmc@georgetown.edu

The center is a five-university consortium of scholars, researchers, educators, policy-makers and industry professionals whose goal is to improve the digital media environment in which children live and learn. It is located at Georgetown University, the University of California, Riverside, the University of California at Los Angeles, Northwestern University and the University of Texas at Austin.

 

Randy Capps Ph.D., Senior Policy Analyst
Immigration Studies
Migration Policy Institute

1400 16th St. NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20036

202.266.1938; rcapps@migrationpolicy.org

Capps researches welfare and immigration policy. Formerly an analyst at the Urban Institute, his recent report, “The Health and Well-Being of Young Children of Immigrants,” centered on the 5.1 million children of immigrants under age 6 in the U.S. and their access to TANF, food stamps, center-based child care and schooling. Other areas of study include illegal immigration, the application and eligibility determination process for immigrants, and the role of immigrants in the No Child Left Behind Act.

 

David Card Ph.D., Professor of Economics
Department of Economics
University of California, Berkeley

549 Evans Hall #3880
Berkeley, CA 94720-3880

510.642.5222; card@econ.berkeley.edu

Cards' research focuses on economics, education and immigration, such as labor market competition between immigrants and natives and inequalities between the earnings of blacks and whites. Card has published widely on issues regarding welfare reform; the effects of Medicaid programs; pension and retirement; labor supply; school financing and the distribution of education resources; wage structure; unions and strikes; and unemployment. 

 

Kevin Carey, Policy Director
Education Sector

1201 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 850
Washington, DC 20036

202.552.2840; kcarey@educationsector.org

The independent education policy think tank focuses on developing solutions to pressing problems and to serving as an honest broker of evidence in key education debates. Its Education Sector Explainers series aims to simplify complicated issues such as No Child Left Behind and school accountability. And its Eduwonk.com blog, by co-director Andrew Rotherham, gives chatty leads on breaking news and behind-the-scenes machinations.

 

Jo Ann Carson, Head of School
Hyde Leadership Public Charter School
1800 Perry Street NE
Washington, DC 20018
202.529.4400
Carson was was named head of school of Hyde Leadership Public Charter School of Washington, D.C., in 2008. Before coming to Hyde-DC, she served as principal of Hamilton Middle School, an award-winning school recognized for outstanding achievements by the CEO of Baltimore City Schools, as well as the president of the Baltimore City Council.

 

Prudence L. Carter Ph.D., Associate Professor
School of Education
Stanford University

650.736.7532; plcarter@stanford.edu

Carter is an expert on cultural explanations for differences in social mobility among teens of varied racial and ethnic backgrounds. Her latest book, “Keepin’ It Real: School Success Beyond Black and White” (Oxford University Press, 2005), focuses on the intersections of race, ethnicity, class and gender, and their influences on culture and academic achievement among low-income African-American and Latino youths.

 

Kathy Christie, Chief of Staff
Information Management & ECS Clearinghouse
Education Commission of the States

700 Broadway, #1200
Denver, CO 80203

303.299.3613; kchristie@ecs.org

ECS keeps policymakers informed by gathering, analyzing and disseminating information about current and emerging issues, trends and innovations in state education policy. Christie serves as chief of staff for Knowledge Management & ECS Clearinghouse, where staff collect and analyze research, track state and district reforms and analyze the various reforms in the states.

 

Clemencia Cosentino de Cohen, Research Associate
Program for Education and Equity Research
The Urban Institute

2100 M Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20037

202.833.7200; ccosenti@ui.urban.org

De Cohen has extensively studied immigrant children and students and education. Her most recent study, “Revitalizing the Nation's Talent Pool in STEM,” examines underrepresented minority students completing bachelor's degrees and pursuing graduate studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

 

Philip A. Cowan, Professor Emeritus of Psychology 
Institute of Human Development
University of California, Berkeley

1109 Tolman
Berkeley, CA 94720

510.642.6439; pcowan@berkeley.edu

Cowan's research and clinical interests center on family systems and children's development. He studies how variations in children's cognitive, social and personality development and in their adaptation to school can be understood in the context of the family. With Carolyn Pape Cowan, he examined how five domains of family life combine to predict, and sometimes affect, the ability of young children to deal with the academic and social challenges of elementary and high school: (1) parents' experiences in their families of origin; (2) parents' and children's personality characteristics; (3) the parents' marital relationship quality; (4) the way in which parents and children interact; and (5) parents' outside the family-work lives and children's outside the family relationship.

 

Carolyn Pape Cowan, Adjunct Professor Emerita
Institute of Human Development
University of California, Berkeley

1109 Tolman
Berkeley, CA 94720

510.643.5608; ccowan@berkeley.edu

Cowan's work focuses on conducting studies and systematically evaluating interventions designed to better understand how parents’ and children’s well-being and distress can be understood and addressed in a family systems framework. Cowan is co-director of two ongoing intervention studies of families making major family transitions - the Becoming a Family Project, with couples making the transition to first-time parenthood, and the Schoolchildren and Their Families Project, with couples whose first child is making the transition to elementary school.

 

Tracee Eason, Administrative Coordinator
Education Writers Association

202.452.9830; teason@ewa.org

The professional organization of education reporters has more than 1,000 members nationally. Its resource center provides summaries and links on education topics from preschool to higher education.

 

Ronald Ferguson, Lecturer in Public Policy

Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy
Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government
Taubman-474
79 John F. Kennedy St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
617.495.1104; ronald_ferguson@harvard.edu
Ronald F. Ferguson, is an economist and senior research associate at Harvard's Weiner Center for Social Policy. Much of his research since the mid-1990s has focused on racial achievement gaps, and as appeared in many publications, books and scholarly journals. He also works with school districts on closing achievement gaps. He is the creator and director of the Tripod Project for School Improvement and is also the faculty chair and director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University. Ferguson earned an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from MIT, both in economics.

 

Richard Fry Ph.D., Senior Research Associate
Pew Hispanic Center

1615 L St. N.W., Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036
202.419.3600; rfry@pewhispanic.org
The center works to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population and to chronicle Latinos' growing impact on the entire nation. Fry researches education and employment trends among Hispanics. Previously, he was a senior economist at the Educational Testing Service (ETS), where he focused on trends in U.S. college enrollment. At the U.S. Department of Labor, his research focused on immigrants.

 

Bruce Fuller, Professor, Co-Director
Institute of Human Development
University of California Berkeley
3527 Tolman Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
510.642.9163; b_fuller@berkeley.edu
The Institute of Human Development studies the biological, psychological, social and cultural forces that shape human growth. Fuller's current research delves into how young children are socialized in diverse Mexican-American homes, and what neighborhood organizations effectively advance their development.

 

Frank Furstenberg Ph.D., Chair, Zellerbach Family Professor of Sociology
Network on Transitions to Adulthood
University of Pennsylvania
277 McNeil Building
Philadelphia, PA 19104
215.898.6718; fff@ssc.upenn.edu
The network examines the changing nature of early adulthood and the policies, programs and institutions that support young people as they move into adulthood. Funded by the MacArthur Foundation, the network documents cultural and social shifts and explores how families, government and social institutions shape the course of young adults’ development. Furstenberg's current research focuses on the family in the context of disadvantaged urban neighborhoods, adolescent sexual behavior, cross national research on children's well-being and urban education. His most recent book is "Managing to Make It: Urban Families in High-Risk Neighborhoods." His previous books and articles center on children, youth, families and the public.

 

Richard Gallagher, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry
NYU Child Study Center
215 Lexington Ave.
New York, NY 10016
212.263.6622; richard.gallagher@med.nyu.edu
Gallagher designs and evaluates parent education programs. Gallagher is the leader of the Special Interest Group in Child and School-Related Issues of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy. He also served as Co-Investigator on a treatment development grant from the National Institute of Mental Health for an organizational skills intervention for ADD/ADHD children and continues to investigate the neuropsychological profile of childhood ADHD.

 

Francesca Gany M.D., Founder and Director
Center for Immigrant Health/Division of Primary Care
New York University School of Medicine
550 First Ave., OBV, CD-402
New York, NY 10016
212.263.8783; fg12@nyu.edu
Dr. Gany has an extensive background in research, curriculum development, education, and program and policy development as it relates to immigrant health. She has served on a number of projects that have increased access to healthcare for New York’s large immigrant population. She teaches primary care, immigrant health, and health policy and medical economics.

 

Denise Gottfredson Ph.D., Professor
Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice
University of Maryland, College Park
2220D LeFrak Hall
College Park, MD 20742
301.405.4717; dgottfredson@crim.umd.edu
Gottfredson studies delinquency and delinquency prevention, particularly the effects of school environments on youth behavior. She directs evaluations of Baltimore City’s Drug Treatment Court and the Maryland After School Opportunity Grant Fund Program. She is co-principal investigator on an evaluation of the Strengthening Washington, D.C., Families Program and directs a grant to increase the use of research-based prevention practices in Maryland.

 

Madelyn Gould Ph.D., Professor in Clinical Public Health 

Epidemiology
Columbia University
1051 Riverside Dr, Room 245
New York, NY
212.543.5329; gouldm@psych.columbia.edu
Gould is also a research scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Gould has worked on projects that examine risk factors for teenage suicide, various aspects of cluster suicides, the impact of the media on suicide, the effect of suicide on fellow students, and the utility of telephone crisis services for teenagers. A study she worked on found that simply asking troubled students about any suicidal impulses appears to ease their distress and might make some of them less likely to try killing themselves.

 

Michael Griffith, Policy Analyst
Information Management & ECS Clearinghouse
Education Commission of the States
700 Broadway, #1200
Denver, CO 80203
303.299.3619; mgriffith@ecs.org
ECS keeps policymakers informed by gathering, analyzing and disseminating information about current and emerging issues, trends and innovations in state education policy. Griffith is a policy analyst specializing in school finance. He provides technical assistance to policymakers on several key finance issues, including: adequacy, financing at-risk student populations, equity, special education financing, state budget/tax issues and pay-for-performance.

 

James Guthrie, Professor Emeritus
Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations
Vanderbilt University
Peabody # 317
230 Appleton Place
Nashville, TN 37203-5721
615.322.7372; james.w.guthrie@vanderbilt.edu
Guthrie’s research concentrates on educational policy issues and resource allocation consequences. More specifically, he is concerned with school finance, both K-12 and higher education, legal issues of equity and adequacy, international education school finance systems, education reform strategies, educational accountability, political processes and education, and theories of education reform.

 

Kati Haycock, Director
Education Trust, Inc.
1250 H St. NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
202.293.1217, x311; khaycock@edtrust.org
The Education Trust works for the high academic achievement of all students at all levels, pre-kindergarten through college, and focuses on closing the achievement gaps that separate low-income students and students of color from other youth. Haycock and her colleagues are often invited by Congressional Committees to testify on educational improvement issues in both K-12 and higher education.

 

Cheri Hayes, President & CEO
The Finance Project
1401 New York Ave. NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20005
202.628.4200; chayes@financeproject.org
Hayes is executive director of The Finance Project. She has 20 years’ experience in public policy research on issues affecting the well-being of children and families. Earlier, Hayes served as executive director of the National Commission on Children, a bipartisan presidential/congressional commission charged with assessing the status of America’s children and families and presenting a national policy agenda for improving health, education, income security and social supports. Prior to that appointment, Hayes directed the National Academy of Science/National Research Council policy research program on children and families. She is the author or editor of numerous books and articles on public policies for children and families. At The Finance Project, she manages an array of policy research, development and technical assistance activities to improve financing for education, other children’s services and community building and development.

 

Thomas Hertz Ph.D., Economist
Economic Research Service

1800 M Street NW, Room N4081

Washington, DC 20036

202.694.5416; thertz@ers.usda.gov

Hertz has served as an economist in the Farm and Rural Household Well-Being branch of the Resource and Rural Economics Division since 2009. Prior to coming to ERS he taught at American University Hertz's areas of interests include poverty, minimum wage, race and gender-based wage differentials and wealth gaps, and the process of intergenerational transmission of economic status. His 2006 report, “Understanding Mobility in America,” studied inequalities in the economic mobility of black and white families. The report found that education, race, health and state of residence are four key channels by which economic status is transmitted from parent to child.

 

Frederick Hess, Director of Education Policy Studies
American Enterprise Institute
1150 Seventeenth St. NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.828.7178; Rhess@aei.org
AEI is a private, conservative-leaning nonprofit institution dedicated to research and education on issues of government, politics, economics and social welfare. Frederick Hess directs its education policy studies. The resident scholar specializes in issues such as No Child Left Behind, school choice, education politics and accountability.

 

Erin McNamara Horvat Ph.D., Associate Professor of Urban Education

College of Education
Temple University
215.204.6178; erin.mcnamara.horvat@temple.edu
Horvat's areas of interests include: sociology of education; access and equity; race, class and education; African American students; urban schools; and the achievement gap. She co-authored, "Beyond Acting White: Reframing the Debate on Black Student Achievement" (Rowman and Littlefield).

 

Sylvia Hurtado, Professor, Director
UCLA
Higher Education Research Institute
3005 Moore Hall
Box 951521
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521
310.825.1925; shurtado@gseis.ucla.edu
The Higher Education Research Institute serves as an interdisciplinary center for research, evaluation, information, policy studies and research training in postsecondary education. HERI's research program covers a variety of topics including the outcomes of postsecondary education, leadership development, faculty performance, federal and state policy, and educational equity. Hurtado has published numerous articles and books related to her primary interest in student educational outcomes, campus climates, college impact on student development, and diversity in higher education.

 

Brian Jacob, Walter H. Annenberg Professor 
Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
University of Michigan 
735 S. State St. #5318
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

734.615.6994; bajacob@umich.edu
Jacob's current research focuses on urban school reform with a particular emphasis on standards and accountability initiatives. He has examined the effect of school choice and high-stakes testing on student achievement, the incidence of teacher cheating within educational accountabiltiy systems, the relationship between school and juvenile delinquency, and the impact of public housing demolitions on educational opportunities for children. 

 

Richard Kahlenberg, Senior Fellow
Education
The Century Foundation
1333 H Street N.W., 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
202.745.5476; kahlenberg@tcf.org
Richard D. Kahlenberg is a Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation, where he writes about education, equal opportunity, and civil rights. Previously, Kahlenberg was a Fellow at the Center for National Policy, a visiting associate professor of constitutional law at George Washington University, and a legislative assistant to Senator Charles S. Robb (D-VA). He is the author of three books: "All Together Now: Creating Middle Class Schools through Public School Choice" (Brookings Institution Press, 2001). The book, labeled “a clarion call for the socioeconomic desegregation of U.S. public schools” by Harvard Educational Review, was said by the Washington Post to make “a substantial contribution to a national conversation” on education. The Remedy: Class, Race, and Affirmative Action (Basic Books, 1996). The book was named one of the best of the year by the Washington Post and William Julius Wilson’s review in the New York Times called it “by far the most comprehensive and thoughtful argument thus far for...affirmative action based on class.” Broken Contract: A Memoir of Harvard Law School (Hill & Wang/Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1992). The book, which details the way in which idealistic liberal law students are turned to corporate law, was called “a forceful cri de coeur” by the L.A. Times.

 

Susan Kellam, Senior communications adviser
Brookings Institution
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.797.6310; skellam@brookings.edu

Kellam promotes Brookings, a think tank supporting a wide scope of research. Its Center on Children and Families examines policies affecting the well-being of U.S. children and their parents, especially children in less advantaged families. Directed by Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill, it co-publishes the twice-yearly journal Future of Children.

 

Judith Kleinfeld, Professor of Psychology and Director
Boys' Project
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Fairbanks, AK 99712
907.474.5266; kleinfeldalaska@mac.com
 Kleinfeld directs the Boys’ Project, a network of researchers, policymakers, parents, teachers and others concerned with issues facing boys. She co-directs the Northern Studies Program, an interdisciplinary program studying regional problems and policy issues. Kleinfeld's research focuses on gender and education, and she has published widely in the field. Kleinfeld received her doctorate from Harvard University, where she specialized in the education of culturally diverse children.

 

Susan Kogut, Lecturer
Department of Kinesiology
University of Maryland
2356 Health & Human Performance Building
College Park, MD 20742
301.405.2511; skogut@umd.edu

Susan Kogut teaches health and physical education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Previously she taught physical education and health to children in kindergarten through 12th grade in Maryland public schools for 30 years. In 1985, the National Association for Sport and Physical Education named her teacher of the year. Kogut has created several educational tools designed to get parents more involved in their children’s physical education. Kogut received her bachelor’s degree in physical education and health from Towson State University in Maryland and her master’s degree in the same major from West Virginia University.

 

Nettie Legters, Co-Director, Associate Research Assistant
Johns Hopkins University
Talent Development High School with Career Academies (TDHS)
3003 N. Charles Street Suite 200
Baltimore, MD 21218
410.516.8874; nlegters@csos.jhu.edu
The Talent Development High School with Career Academies is a comprehensive reform model for large high schools facing serious problems with student attendance, discipline, achievement scores and dropout rates. Legter's co-wrote "Locating the Dropout Crisis," with Robert Balfanz, in which the number and location of high schools with high dropout rates are identified.

 

Amanda Lenhart, Senior Research Specialist
Pew Internet & American Life Project
Pew Research Center
1615 L St. NW
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036
202.419.4500; alenhart@pewinternet.org
Lenhart is the principal author of several studies, including “Teenage Life Online: The Rise of the Instant-Message Generation and the Internet’s Impact on Friendships and Family Relationships” and “The Ever-Shifting Internet Population: A New Look at Internet Access and the Digital Divide.” Lenhart is an expert in the field of youth and their Internet use, as well as on topics such as the digital divide, instant messaging and blogging. 

 

Henry Levin, Director, National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education
Economics, Education
Teachers College
Columbia University
Thompson Hall 230
New York, NY 10027
212.678.3857; hl361@columbia.edu
Levin is a William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and Education at Columbia University. Much of his research and writing has focused on the cost-effectiveness of educational approaches, school reform, and educational vouchers. Dr. Levin conceived and advanced Accelerated Schools, a reform program designed to accelerate the learning of disadvantaged youngsters in order to bring them into the educational mainstream by the end of elementary school.

 

M. Elena Lopez, Senior Consultant
Harvard Family Research Project
Harvard Graduate School of Education
3 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617.495.9108; elena_lopez@post.harvard.edu
M. Elena Lopez is a Senior Research Consultant at the Harvard Family Research Project. Her research interests focus on the relationships of families, schools and communities in children's education. She has also evaluated public and philanthropic initiatives to improve the well-being of children and families. As a co-founder of the Family Involvement Network of Educators, Elena seeks to improve the connections between research and practice and to advance educator preparation in family involvement in education. Her other professional experiences include lecturing at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, providing technical assistance on capacity building for family involvement, and serving on national advisory and governing boards. Publications include Paths to School Readiness, Early Childhood Reform in Seven Communities, and Family Centered Child Care. Elena received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Harvard University.

 

Jennifer Manlove Ph.D., Senior Research Associate and Director
DataBank, Fertility and Family Structure Content Area
Child Trends
4301 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Suite 100
Washington, DC 20006
202.362.5580; jmanlove@childtrends.org

Manlove has worked on research projects examining teenage sexuality, pregnancy and childbearing. Her current research assesses demographic trends in sexual activity, contraceptive use and childbearing among American teens and young adults. Dr. Manlove has also been involved in several projects that assess the potential effects of community context, including welfare policies, on teenage and nonmarital childbearing in the U.S. 

 

Mary Maushard; Communications Administrator

Center for Social Organization of Schools
3003 N. Charles St., Suite 200
Baltimore, MD 21218
410.516.8810; mmaushard@csos.jhu.edu
Maushard is the public relations officer at the Center for Social Organization of Schools, an educational research and development center at Johns Hopkins University. The Center maintains a staff of sociologists, psychologists, social psychologists and educators who conduct programmatic research to improve the education system.

 

Donald L. McCabe, Professor
Management and Global Business
Rutgers University
111 Washington St.
Newark, NJ 07102
973.353.1409; dmccabe@andromeda.rutgers.edu
Over the last 12 years, McCabe has done extensive research on various aspects of student cheating. He has surveyed over 25,000 students at more than 75 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. He has also conducted a nationwide survey of U.S. high school students. 

 

Jane McGrath M.D., State School Health Officer
Albuquerque Office of School Health
625 Silver Avenue SW, Suite 201
Albuquerque, NM 87102
505.841.5877; jane.mcgrath@state.nm.us
http://www.health.state.nm.us/

Jane McGrath, M.D., is a pediatrician with certification in adolescent medicine and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico. She is also the school health officer for the Albuquerque Office of School Health, where she is responsible for guiding the development of school health policy and overseeing a number of school health programs. She is a former member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on School Health and past president of the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care.

 

Sara McLanahan Ph.D., Director and Professor
Center for Research on Child Well-being (CRCW)
Princeton University
265 Wallace Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
609.258.5894; mclanaha@princeton.edu
CRCW researchers have studied the relationship between earnings, socioeconomic status and child health status, and the effects of child health on parents’ relationship status and ability to work. McLanahan is an expert on single parent families. Her research interests include family demography, poverty and inequality, and social policy.

 

Barbara Medina Ph.D., Director, English Language Acquisition Unit
ELAU
Colorado Department of Education
201 E. Colfax Ave Rm40
Denver, CO 80203
303.866.6758; medina_b@cde.state.co.us
Medina is the director of the Colorado Department of Education’s English Language Acquisition Unit. The ELAU aims to provide linguistic, social and academic support for all migrant, immigrant and refugee English language learners. It encompasses programs – such as the federal Title I and Title III, as well as state efforts – for nearly 100,000 pre-K-12 students in the state’s public schools.

 

Maria Robledo Montecel Ph.D., Executive Director
Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA)
5835 Callaghan Rd., Suite 350
San Antonio, TX 78228
210.444.1710; contact@idra.org

IDRA has conducted research in immigrant education, including a study on the impact of NAFTA, commissioned by the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Governor’s Office. Through its project, Creative Collaboratives: Empowering Immigrant Students and Families Through Education, IDRA coordinated two community collaboratives that addressed the educational needs of secondary-level recent immigrant students.

 

Pedro Noguera, Professor
Steinhardt School of Education
New York University
82 Washington Square East
New York, NY 10003

212.998.5787; pedro.noguera@nyu.edu
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. He has served as an advisor and engaged in collaborative research with several large urban school districts throughout the U.S. He has also done research on issues related to education and economic and social development in the Caribbean, Latin America and several other countries throughout the world.

 

Sam Odom, Director
Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
CB#8180
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-818
919.966.4250; slodom@unc.edu
FPG consists of more than 200 researchers, students and staff working on projects dealing with parent and family support; early care and education; child health and development; early identification and intervention; equity, access and inclusion; and early childhood policy. They publish “Snapshots,” which provides an overview of recently published research. FPG distributes a monthly e-newsletter that highlights their latest research and resources (http://www.fpg.unc.edu/news/enews.cfm).

 

Alba Ortiz, Professor
Dept. of Special Education
University of Texas at Austin
512.471.6244; alba.ortiz@mail.utexas.edu
Ortiz's research focuses on developing models for the effective education of minority and non-English speaking students (including special education); preventing academic under achievement of Hispanic students; and assessment of language proficiency of second language learners.

 

Greg Payne, Associate Dean and Professor
Dept. of Kinesiology
San Jose State University
San Jose, CA 95192
408.924.2904; vgpayne@casa.sjsu.edu
Payne is chair and professor of the Department of Kinesiology at San Jose State University in California. He is an expert in motor development and is a member of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction’s Task Force on Obesity, Type II Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease. He is an elected fellow of the Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education, and has published over 100 papers and four books. His awards include the Distinguished Service Award from the California Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports; the Southwest District AAHPERD (American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance) Scholar Award, and the AAHPERD Honor Award. He is the former president of the National Association for Sports and Physical Education and the California Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

 

Joanne Pfleiderer, Director of Communications

Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
PO Box 2393
600 Alexander Park
Princeton, NJ 08543
609.275.2372, jpfleiderer@mathematica-mpr.com
http://www.mathematica-mpr.com
Mathematica conducts public policy research and surveys on health care, education, welfare, employment, nutrition, child development, and other policy issues. The Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) is an affiliate research organization that designs and conducts studies focused on the U.S. health care system.

 

Scott Poland, Director
Psychological Services
Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District
713.460.7825; SCOTT.POLAND@cfisd.net
http://www.cfisd.net/dept2/psych/psych.html...
Poland is a former chair and current member of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) emergency team, and was president of NASP. He was a member of the U.S. Department of Education's assistance team that advised the superintendent of the Oklahoma City schools in the aftermath of the 1995 bombing of the Murrah building. He led the National Organization for Victim Assistance team that responded to the school shootings in West Paducah, Ken., and near Jonesboro, Ark., and provided onsite assistance to schools in Littleton, Colo., after the shooting at Columbine High School. He also led U.S. Department of Education violence response teams after school shootings in El Cajon and Santee, Calif. He has written numerous books, book chapters, and articles on school crisis intervention.

 

Arun Ramanathan, Executive Director
The Education Trust-West
155 Grand Ave., Suite 1025
Oakland, CA 94612
510.465.6444; aramanathan@edtrustwest.org
Ramanathan is the executive director of the Education Trust-West, the West Coast partner of the national policy and advocacy organization. Education Trust works for the high academic achievement of all students at all levels, with an emphasis on serving Latino, African American, Native American and low-income students.

 

Paul Reville, President
Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy
131 Mount Auburn St., First Floor
Cambridge, MA 02138
617.354.0002; preville@renniecenter.org
www.renniecenter.org

Reville heads the Rennie Center, an independent policy and research organization aiming to improve pre K-12 public education, especially in Massachusetts. In September 2007, he was named co-chair of the new National Center on Time & Learning, which promotes an extended school day and school year to ensure a rigorous, well-rounded education. Reville is chairman of the Massachusetts state board of education and also directs the Education Policy and Management Program. He lectures on educational policy and politics at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Earlier, Reville was was executive director of the Pew Forum on Standards-Based Reform, a Harvard-based, national education policy "think tank." Reville was the founding executive director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, which helped develop the Education Reform Act of 1993.

 

Arthur Reynolds Ph.D., Professor
Institute of Child Development
University of Minnesota
51 E. River Road
202 Child Development
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0345
612.625.4321, ajr@umn.edu
http://education.umn.edu/icd/faculty/Reynolds.html
Reynolds studies the effects of early childhood intervention on youngsters' development from school entry to early adulthood. He also investigates the family and school influences on children's educational success. Reynolds directs the Chicago Longitudinal Study, one of the largest and most extensive studies of the effects of early childhood intervention. Reynolds' project team also is documenting the determinants of child maltreatment, delinquency and crime, educational attainment and economic well-being.

 

Jenice R. Robinson, Communications Director
Center for Law and Social Policy
1015 15th St. NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20005
202.906.8000; communications@clasp.org
The national nonprofit conducts research and policy analysis to improve low-income people’s economic security, educational and workforce prospects. Specifically, it aims to: increase adults’ access to quality education, training and transitional jobs; create universal opportunities for early childhood education; improve access to supports such as child care, food stamps, Medicaid and cash assistance; help young people avoid risky behavior; and help more kids grow up with two involved parents.

 

Thomas Robinson M.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics and of Medicine
Stanford Prevention Research Center
Stanford University School of Medicine
1000 Welch Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304
650.723.5331; tom.robinson@stanford.edu

Dr. Robinson's research interests are child and adolescent obesity prevention and treatment, cardiovascular disease and cancer risk factor prevention, weight control, promotion of physical activity, nutrition, smoking prevention, effects of television viewing and video games on child health and behavior, health behavior change, school-based interventions and general pediatrics.

 

Isabel Sawhill,Vice President, Director

Economic Studies
The Brookings Institution's Center on Children and Families
1775 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20036
202.797.6093; communications@brookings.edu
Sawhill is vice president and director of the Economic Studies program at the Brookings Institution and a senior editor of The Future of Children. She co-directs the Welfare Reform and Beyond Initiative at Brookings and serves part-time as president of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy. Her research focuses on children, education, the federal budget, poverty and inequality, social welfare policy and teen pregnancy. 

 

Al Schieder, Food Service Director
Hayward (Calif.) Unified School District
2440 Amador St.
Hayward, CA 94544
510.723.3890

A native of Hungary, Schieder attended restaurant management school in Budapest, and learned hotel and restaurant administration in Heidelberg, Germany. He came to the United States in the 1970s and became a restaurant owner in California. Schieder now devotes his time to making healthy – and tasty – school lunches that include pizza and sushi. He has taken administrators, food directors and child nutritionists from 50 school districts around his kitchens to demonstrate his methods.

 

Charoll Shakeshaft, Adjunct Professor
Foundations, Leadership and Policy Studies
Hofstra University
260 Hagedorn Hall
Hempstead, NY 11549
516.463.5758; Charol.S.Shakeshaft@hofstra.edu
Shakeshaft, an authority on school sexual abuse, says that an estimated 15 percent of students will have been sexually abused by a school staff member by the time they finish high school. This can mean anything from kissing and fondling to oral sex and intercourse. She has done research on the subject for the U.S. Department of Education.

 

Elisa Shipon-Blum M.D., Director
Selective Mutism Anxiety Research and Treatment Center (Smart)
505 N. Old York Road
Jenkintown, PA 19046
215.887.5748; smartcenter@selectivemutism.org
Dr. Shipon-Blum is a clinical assistant professor of psychology & family medicine at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She also is a board certified family physician who specializes in Selective Mutism. Dr. Shipon-Blum has developed Social Communication Anxiety Treatment (SCAT) from her years studying & researching individuals with Selective Mutism.

 

Robert Shoop Ph.D., Professor of Educational Law
Kansas State University
Dept. of Educational Law
Manhattan, KS 66506
785.532.5533; rshoop@k-state.edu

Shoop's focus is cases involving sexual abuse between teachers and students. He is the author of "Sexual Exploitation in Schools: How to Spot It and Stop It" (Corwin Press, 2003). 

 

Robert Slavin Ph.D., Principal Research Scientist
Center for Social Organization of Schools
Johns Hopkins University
3003 North Charles St., Suite 200
Baltimore, MD 21218
410.616.2310; rslavin@csos.jhu.edu
Slavin researches the education of students at risk. He has authored or co-authored books, including Educational Psychology: Theory into Practice (Allyn & Bacon, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1994, 1997), School and Classroom Organization (Erlbaum, 1989), Effective Programs for Students at Risk (Allyn & Bacon, 1989), Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice (Allyn & Bacon, 1990, 1995), Preventing Early School Failure (Allyn & Bacon, 1994), Every Child, Every School: Success for All (Corwin, 1996), and Show Me the Evidence: Proven and Promising Programs for America’s Schools (Corwin, 1998). 

 

Jay Smink, Principal Investigator
National Dropout Prevention Center
Clemson University

209 Martin St.
Clemson, SC 29631
864.656.2599; sjay@clemson.edu
http://www.dropoutprevention.org/

Jay Smink has been the executive director of the National Dropout Prevention Center located at Clemson University since 1988. He is a professor of education and serves as the executive director of the National Dropout Prevention Network, an organization that serves as a clearinghouse for information on issues related to school improvement and dropout prevention and works to increase the graduation rate in America’s schools.

 

Susan Solomon Ph.D., Author

 47 Hardy Drive
Princeton, NJ 08540
609.937.6939; info@curatorialresources.com
http://www.recentamericanplaygrounds.com/

Solomon is an expert in public playgrounds. She is the author of "American Playgrounds: Revitalizing Community Space" (University Press of New England, 1995), which examines problems with contemporary playgrounds, suggests improvements and addresses undervalued public space. She also explores American attitudes on safety and how that impacts play and places for public assembly. Trained as an art historian with a concentration on 20th-century architecture, she heads her own research firm, Curatorial Resources and Research, in Princeton, N.J.

 

Samuel Stringfield, Professor
Departments of Teaching and Learning
University of Louisville
College of Education and Human Development
Louisville, KY 40292
502.852.0615; sam.stringfield@louisville.edu
http://www.louisville.edu/edu/elfh/faculty/stringf...
Stringfield has studied the ways in which poor children are already at a disadvantage educationally from lack of social and educational resources. He studies systemic educational reform and is a co-editor of the Journal of Education for Students Placed At Risk.

 

Andrew Sum, Director, Professor of Economics
Center for Labor Market Studies
Northeastern University
360 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
617.373.2242; a.sum@neu.edu
http://www.economics.neu.edu/people/sum/
Sum is an expert in employment trends among young people and has researched employment policymaking, planning and evaluation at the local, state and national level for nearly three decades. His recent reports include: “The Age Twist in Employment Rates in the U.S., 2000–2004: The Steep Tilt Against Young Workers in the Nation’s Labor Markets” (2005, with Ishwar Khatiwada and Sheila Palma); “The Paradox of Rising Teen Joblessness in An Expanding Labor Market: The Absence of Teen Employment Growth in the National Jobs Recovery of 2003–2004” (2005, with Ishwar Khatiwada, Joseph McLaughlin and Sheila Palma); and “The Literacy Proficiencies of the Nation’s Immigrant Population and their Labor Market and Social Consequences” (2004, with Irwin Kirsch and Kentaro Yamamoto).

 

John Thomasian, Center Director
The Center for Best Practices, National Governors Association
202.624.5300; webmaster@nga.org
www.nga.org
Basically a consulting firm for governors, the Washington-based center has five divisions: education, environment, health, homeland security and workforce programs. Its education division provides information on best practices in early childhood, elementary, secondary and postsecondary education. Its weekly electronic magazine, Front and Center, covers trends, policies and issues affecting states.

 

Michael Thompson, Psychologist
781.646.5230;  
http://www.michaelthompson-phd.com/...
Thompson is a psychologist specializing in children and families. He is the clinical consultant to The Belmont Hill School and has worked in more than two hundred fifty schools across the United States. He co-wrote, "Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys" (Ballantine Books, 1999).

 

Christopher Thurber Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist
Counseling
Phillips Exeter Academy
20 Main Street
Exeter, NH 03833
603.722.4311; chris@campspirit.com
http://campspirit.com/contactchris.html
Thurber conducts staff training and consultation with camps in the U.S. and Canada and is the co-author of the “Summer Camp Handbook,” a resource for new campers and families (Perspective Publishing, March 2000). 

 

Patrick Tolan Ph.D.
Director, Institute for Juvenile Research
Department of Psychiatry
University of Illinois at Chicago Medical School
CSB-840 S. Wood St., Room 345G
Chicago, IL 60612
312.413.1893; Tolan@uic.edu
http://www.psych.uic.edu/faculty/tolan.htm
Patrick Tolan, Ph.D., is director of the Institute for Juvenile Research and professor of psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Tolan’s major interests include the development of urban children and families from a developmental-ecological perspective; prediction and prevention of antisocial and violent behavior; family systems theory; and adolescence. He is a licensed clinical psychologist and a certified supervisor for family therapy training. Tolan holds positions on several national and international boards and committees, including the MacArthur Foundation’s Cook County Juvenile Court Clinical Evaluation Services Initiative; the Illinois Council for the Prevention of Violence; and the Center for the Study and Prevention of Youth Violence’s program on Blueprints for Violence Prevention/Reduction. He also works on community action initiatives such as the Attorney General’s Safe to Learn Initiative and the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention. He is author or co-author of more than 80 books, monographs, articles and technical reports. He is a fellow of three divisions of the American Psychological Association and of the International Society for Research on Aggression. He is a regular consultant to the National Institute of Mental Health, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the W.T. Grant Foundation, among others. He is the principal investigator on three federal grants and co-investigator on four others. Tolan earned a bachelor’s degree at Temple University, and a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Tennessee. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Chicago in clinical research on adolescence.

 

Roberto Trevino, Assistant Professor
Educational Administration
University of North Texas at Denton
P.O. Box 311337
Denton, TX 76203
940.565.2940; rtrevino@coefs.coe.unt.edu
http://web2.unt.edu/news/experts/expert.cfm?eid=352
Expertise: Parent involvement: Mexican-origin Immigrant Students. He does ongoing research with immigrant/migrant families and is author of "Against All Odds: Lesson from Parents of Migrant High Achievers," "Field of Hope: Educating Migrant Children for the Future." 

 

Kenneth S. Trump, President and CEO
National School Safety and Security Services
P.O. Box 110123
Cleveland, OH 44111
216.251.3067; kentrump@aol.com
http://www.schoolsecurity.org
National School Safety and Security Services is a consulting firm specializing in school security and school emergency / crisis preparedness training, school security assessments, and school safety consulting for K-12 schools and public safety providers. Trump focuses on K-12 school security and school emergency / crisis preparedness issues, school security assessments, and school safety consulting services. 

 

Hill Walker Ph.D., Co-director
Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior
University of Oregon
1265 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403
541.346.2583; hwalker@oregon.uoregon.edu
http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/%7Eivdb/index.html
Hill has a long-standing interest in behavioral assessment and in the development of effective intervention procedures for use in school settings with a range of behavior disorders. He has been engaged in applied research since 1966. His research interests include social skills assessment, curriculum development and intervention, longitudinal studies of aggression and antisocial behavior, and the development of early screening procedures for detecting students who are at-risk for social-behavioral adjustment problems and/or later school drop-out of school.

 

David Weinberger Ph.D., Research Fellow
The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
Harvard University
617.495.7547; self@evident.com
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/home/david_weinberger
Weinberger's career has included everything from teaching philosophy to freelance writing for Wired, Salon and USA Today. He studies the nature of social networks and is working on a book about how the digitization of information is changing the most basic ways that we organize and classify the things of our world.

 

Heather B. Weiss, Director
Harvard Family Research Project
Harvard University
Harvard Graduate School of Education, 3 Garden Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
617.495.9108; heather_weiss@harvard.edu
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/~hfrp/
Weiss is the founder of the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) and a senior research associate and lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. HFRP's mission is to help create more effective practices, interventions, and policies to support children's successful development from birth to adulthood. Weiss conducts, synthesizes, and disseminates research, and develops tools that encourage professional and organizational learning, support evaluation, continuous improvement and accountability, and that spark innovation. 

 

Ross Wiener, Policy Director
Education Trust
1250 H St. NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
202.293.1217, ext.297; rwiener@edtrust.org
http://www2.edtrust.org/EdTrust/About+the+Ed+Trust
Through advocacy, research and analysis, the Education Trust promotes academic achievement -- especially among minority and low-income students. Wiener directs the policy team, where he uses data, research and examples from the field to determine what can be done to close achievement gaps. His focuses include vocational and technical education, graduation rates, higher education, low-income students, minority students and teacher quality. Weiner also has experience in federal civil rights laws in schools, including cases involving desegregation, disability rights, harassment and services for limited-English proficient students.

 

Alice Williams, Communications and Policy Associate
Center for Teaching Quality
919.241.1575; awilliams@teachingquality.org
A research-based advocacy organization launched in 1999, the center focuses on the conditions of teaching, leadership and skill improvement opportunities for teachers and student achievement issues. Its Web site provides extensive reports and presentations on education reform. It publishes a free, electronic newsletter, Teaching Quality: Best Practices & Policies.

 

Min Zhou Ph.D., Professor
Departments of Sociology and Asian American Studies
UCLA
264 Haines Hall, Box 951551
Los Angeles, CA 90095
310.825.3532; mzhou@soc.ucla.edu
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/zhou/
Zhou’s main areas of research are international migration; ethnic and racial relations; education and the new second generation; immigrant youth; Asia and Asian Americans; and urban sociology. She is the author of “Chinatown: The Socioeconomic Potential of an Urban Enclave” (Temple, 1992); co-author of “Growing up American: How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United States” (Russell Sage Foundation, 1998); co-editor of “Contemporary Asian America: a Multidisciplinary Reader” (New York University Press, 2000); and co-editor of “Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity” (Routledge, 2004). She is writing a book entitled “Chinatown, Koreatown and Beyond: Social Capital Conducive to Education in Los Angeles’ Immigrant Communities.”

 

 

Nancy Adler, Director
National Association for Bilingual Education

202.898.1829; nancyvill@aol.com
http://www.nabe.org/
NABE represents both English language learners and bilingual education professionals. It has affiliates in 23 states, with a combined membership of more than 20,000 bilingual and English-as-a-second-language teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, university professions, researchers, advocates, policymakers and parents.

 

Jeanne Allen, President and Founder
Center for Education Reform (CER)
1001 Connecticut Ave NW
Suite 204
Washington, DC 20036
202.822.9000; cer@edreform.com
http://www.edreform.com/index.cfm?fuseAction
CER creates opportunities for and challenges obstacles to better education for America's communities. CER seeks to combine education policy with grassroots advocacy to work within the nation's communities to foster positive and bold education reforms. CER advocates reforms that produce high standards, accountability and freedom, such as strong charter school laws, school choice programs for children most in need, common sense teacher initiatives, and proven instructional programs.

 

Joan Almon, U.S. Coordinator
Alliance for Children
7303 Dartmouth Ave
College Park, MD 20740
301.699.9058; joan.almon@verizon.net
http://www.allianceforchildhood.net
This alliance of educators, psychologists and others, opposes the increasing emphasis on computers in early childhood and elementary education and advocates that children spend less time on computers.

 

Jacqueline Ancess, Associate Director
Columbia University
The National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching
Teachers College
411 Main Hall, TC Box 110
New York, NY 10027
212.678.3432; ja127@columbia.edu
http://www.tc.edu/ncrest/home.htm
NCREST supports school restructuring efforts by documenting successful initiatives, teacher learning, assessment, the documentation of successful school reform efforts in elementary and secondary schools, educational technology in schools, and the development of local, state, and national policies based on practice. NCREST is involved in a variety of projects including Professional Development Schools, teacher learning, assessment, the documentation of successful school reform efforts in elementary and secondary schools, educational technology in schools, and the development of local, state, and national policies based on practice.

 

Claire Barnett, Executive Director
Healthy Schools Network, Inc.
773 Madison Ave.
Albany, NY 12208
518.462.0632; healthyschools@aol.com
http://www.healthyschools.org/...

The network is a national organization that focuses on children's environmental health. It is dedicated to assuring that every child and school employee has an environmentally safe, healthy school.

 

Dolores Subia BigFoot Ph.D., Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, Native American Programs
Indian Country Child Trauma Center

405.271.8858; dee-bigfoot@ouhsc.edu
http://www.icctc.org/
The center develops trauma-related treatment protocols, outreach materials and service delivery guidelines specifically adapted and designed for Native American children and their families.

 

Robert Blomeyer Ph.D., Senior Program Associate
Education
Learning Point Associates
1120 East Diehl Road, Suite 200
Naperville, IL 60563
800.252.0283; Robert.Blomeyer@ncrel.org
http://www.learningpt.org/page.php?pageID
Learning Point Associates, a program of the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL), helps schools and districts plan, create and evaluate school programs. Blomeyer’s work focuses on the integration of technologies -– particularly the Internet -- with teaching and learning. He co-authored a project on the effects of K-12 online learning on student academic performance and the effects of technology use on reading performance in the middle grades. 

 

David Bloomfield, Associate Professor of Educational Administration and Policy
Brooklyn College
Educational Leadership Program
2900 Bedford Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11210
718.951.5608; davidb@brooklyn.cuny.edu
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/schooled/bloomfield
Bloomfield specializes in education law, school district management and technology, school reform, and legislative matters. He is the author of ground-breaking charter school, parent rights, and school governance legislation.

 

Daphne Borromeo, Media Specialist
Media Relations
National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
152 North Third Street, Suite 705
San Jose, CA 95112
408.271.2699, Ext. 153; dborromeo@highereducation.org
www.highereducation.org
The nonprofit, nonpartisan center promotes public policies that enhance opportunities for high-quality education and training beyond high school. Its quarterly newsletter, National CrossTalk, explores timely issues such as remediation and the distribution of student financial aid. The center is in San Jose, Calif.

 

Sandra Boyd,Vice President of Advocacy & Outreach
Achieve Inc.
202.419.1540; sboyd@achieve.org
www.achieve.org
Created by governors and business leaders in 1996, the Washington-based nonprofit aims to close educational achievement gaps and prepare all students for college and the workplace. Its American Diploma Project Network is a coalition of 30 states dedicated to aligning K-12 curriculum, standards, assessments and accountability policies. Profiles of these states are available online.

 

Jan Bray M.S., Executive Director
Education
Association for Career and Technical Education
1410 King St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
703.683.9315; jbray@acteonline.org
http://www.acteonline.org/

The association is composed of more than 28,000 career and technical educators, administrators, researchers, guidance counselors and others involved in planning and conducting career and technical education programs at the secondary, post-secondary and adult levels.

 

B.J. Bryant, Executive Director
Education
American Association for Employment in Education (AAEE)
3040 Riverside Drive, Suite 125
Columbus, OH 43221
614.485.1111; aaee@osu.edu
http://www.aaee.org/
AAEE disseminates information on the educational marketplace, promote ethical standards and practices in the employment process and provide opportunities for training, networking, and the exchange of information between educators. Bryant is an expert on the market for teachers, such as teacher shortages and supply and demand.

 

Charlene Burgeson, Executive Director
National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE)
1900 Association Drive
Reston, VA 20191
703.476.3410; cburgeson@aahperd.org
http://www.aahperd.org/naspe/template.cfm?template=main.html
Charlene R. Burgeson is executive director of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE), a nonprofit membership organization of over 18,000 professionals in physical activity and fitness. NASPE is dedicated to strengthening basic knowledge about sport and physical education among professionals and the general public and putting that knowledge into action in U.S. schools and communities. From 1997-2003, Burgeson worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta as a health scientist in the Division of Adolescent and School Health and a public health advisor in the Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity. In 2000 she co-authored a report from the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Education to the President of the United States titled “Promoting Better Health for Young People through Physical Activity and Sport.” She was also the lead author for the physical education chapter of the 2000 School Health Policies and Programs Survey published by CDC. In 2001, Burgeson was honored by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance with the Mabel Lee Award for achieving national recognition as a professional leader before reaching age 36. A former elementary physical education teacher in the Fairfax County, Va., public schools, she also coached local youth sports. Burgeson received her master’s degree in physical education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.

 

Eliza Byard Ph.D., Deputy Executive Director
Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
90 Broad Street, 2nd floor
New York, NY 10004
212.727.0135; ebyard@glsen.org
http://www.glsen.org
GLSEN is a national education organization dedicated to ending bias and harassment directed at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students in K-12 schools. GLSEN publishes an annual report: the National School Climate Survey, the only national survey to document the experiences of students who identify as LGBT in America's schools.

 

Patrick Callan, President
National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
152 North Third Street, Suite 705
San Jose, CA 95112
408.271.2699; callan@highereducation.org
http://www.highereducation.org
The National Center was established in 1998 to promote the creation of public policies that enhance all Americans’ opportunities to pursue and achieve a quality higher education. Callan previously was Executive Director of the California Higher Education Policy Center. He has written and spoken extensively on education and public policy.

 

Michael Carr, Associate Director of Public Affairs
National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
1904 Association Dr.
Reston, VA 20191
703.860.7260; carrm@principals.org
http://www.principals.org/s_nassp/sec.asp?CID=723&
NASSP is national voice for middle level and high school principals, assistant principals and aspiring school leaders-provides its members the professional resources to serve as visionary leaders. NASSP promotes the intellectual growth, academic achievement, character development, leadership development, and physical well-being of youth through its programs and student leadership services. NASSP sponsors the National Honor Society, the National Junior Honor Society, and the National Association of Student Councils.

 

Liz Carrick, Associate Vice President
Workplace Management:
Spencer Foundation
625 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1600
Chicago, IL 60611

312.274.6535; lcarrick@spencer.org
www.spencer.org
The Chicago-based nonprofit foundation investigates ways in which education, broadly conceived, can be improved around the world. It supports research as well as fellowship and training programs.

 

David Carrier; Outreach Director
Child Trends
4301 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 350
Washington, DC 20008
202.572.6138; dcarrier@childtrends.org
http://www.childtrends.org/
The nonprofit, nonpartisan research center studies children at every stage of development. It is a key source of information on a wide range of topics, including early childhood development, foster care and adoption, education, teen sex and pregnancy, and marriage and family. The Child Trends DataBank is a one-stop source for the latest national trends and research on more than 100 key indicators of child and youth well-being. Its recent reports include “Child Care Use by Low-Income Families: Variations Across States.” The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization provides research guidance to improve policies, programs and practices affecting children and their families. Its major research areas include: early childhood and youth development; child welfare; education; health; teen sex and pregnancy; fatherhood and parenting; and marriage and family. It studies children and youth at every stage of development and in every important subgroup (e.g., by race/ethnicity, family income, immigrant status). Its online DataBank provides the latest statistics on more than 100 indicators of well-being.

 

Richard Lee Colvin, Director
Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media
212.870.1072; colvin@tc.columbia.edu
http://hechinger.tc.columbia.edu/
Hechinger provides seminars and publications that better equip journalists to produce fair, accurate and insightful reporting on education. The center is part of Columbia University’s Teachers College.

 

Angela Covert, Education Consultant
Education
Center on Education Policy
1001 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 522
Washington, DC 202.822.806
202.822.8065; cep-dc@cep-dc.org
http://www.cep-dc.org
Covert serves on the board of directors at CEP, which is a national, independent advocate for public education and for more effective public schools. The Center seeks to define the role of public education and the need to improve the academic quality of public schools.

 

Kathy Cowan, Director of Marketing and Communications
National Association of School Psychologists
4340 East West Highway, Suite 402
Bethesda, MD 20814
301.657.0270, ext. 226; kcowan@naspweb.org
http://www.nasponline.org/index2.html
The National Association of School Psychologists represents and supports school psychology to enhance the mental health and educational competence of all children.

 

Lindsay Young Craig, Communications Director
Communications
Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
52 Vanderbilt Ave., 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10017
212.599.7000; communications@manhattan-institute.org
http://www.manhattan-institute.org

The New York-based think tank’s Center for Civic Innovation includes education reform in its areas of study. It lists two primary goals for public education: more school choice (including charter schools and school vouchers) and greater accountability.

 

Michael Dannenberg, Director
Education Policy Program
New America Foundation
1899 L Street NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036
202.986.2700; dannenberg@newamerica.net
http://www.newamerica.net/people/michael_dannenberg
Dannenberg founded the New America Foundation’s Education Policy Program, a nonpartisan think tank that investigates the efficiency of federal education funding, especially in regard to the student loan crunch. Dannenberg's focus is No Child Left Behind Act, the federal education budget, college admissions, financial aid and student loan policy.

 

Megan Dearing, Communications Associate
The College Board
212.713.8052; mdearing@collegeboard.org
The New York-based nonprofit membership association represents more than 5,200 schools, colleges, universities and other organizations. Founded in 1900, it now serves 7 million students and their parents, 23,000 high schools and 3,500 colleges through major programs and services in college admissions, guidance, assessment, financial aid, enrollment, and teaching and learning. Its best-known programs include the SAT and Advanced Placement.

 

Laura Derrick, President
Education
National Home Education Network
PMB 157
5114 Balcones Woods Dr. #307
Austin, TX 78759
512.345.4895; laderrick@sbcglobal.net
http://www.nhen.org/
NHEN encourages and facilitates the vital grassroots work of state and local homeschooling groups and individuals by providing information, fostering networking and promoting public relations on a national level.

 

Kevin Dwyer, Principal Research Scientist
Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice
National Association of School Psychologists
4340 East West Highway
#402
Bethesda, MD 20814
301.229.8251; kdwyer@naspweb.org
http://www.air.org/cecp/school_violence.htm

Dwyer is a leading national expert on children’s mental health. Dwyer was President of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), a professional organization representing more than 21,000 school psychologists. Dwyer acted as principal investigator for the federally funded school violence prevention project, which distributed in September 1998 Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools to the nation’s 115,000 schools." "Safeguarding Our Children: An Action Guide" is a follow-up document he co-authored last year with David Osher of AIR for the U. S. Departments of Education and Justice.

 

Chester Finn, President
Thomas B. Fordham Institute
1627 K St. NW
Ste. 600
Washington, DC 20006
202.223.5452; cefinnjr@aol.com
http://www.edexcellence.net/foundation/about/

Finn is a leading conservative voice in the ongoing debate over K-12 standards and accountability, and a close observer and critic of policy emanating from the White House, Capitol Hill and the U.S. Department of Education. His areas of interest include special education, core curriculum, charter schools and student assessment.

 

Karen Gallagher, Senior Associate
Arts Education Partnership
202.336.7028; kareng@ccsso.org
http://www.aep-arts.org/
The national coalition of more than 140 arts, education, business, philanthropic and government organizations promotes quality arts education in schools. AEP has a searchable database with information on states’ arts education policies. AEP was founded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Education, in cooperation with the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies and the Council of Chief State School Officers. It’s housed at the CCSSO’s offices in Washington, D.C.

 

Amy Garcia, Executive Director
National Association of School Nurses
8484 Georgia Avenue
Suite 420
Silver Spring, MD 20910
240.821.1130; nasn@nasn.org
http://www.nasn.org
The association works to improve the health and educational success of children by advocating for school health services by professional registered school nurses. Garcia can speak to school nurse shortages and other topics. 

 

Eugene Garcia, Chairman
National Task Force on Early Childhood Education for Hispanics
480.965.1315; vpgarcia@asu.edu
http://www.ecehispanic.org
Established at Arizona State University in 2004, the task force aims to improve Hispanic children’s educational readiness and close the achievement gap. Comprised of policymakers, business and community leaders, strategists, early childhood educators and researchers, the task force published a March 2007 report with statistics, major findings and policy recommendations. The site includes contacts and additional resources.

 

Stephanie Germeraad, Public Affairs Officer
Education Trust
202.293.1217, Ext. 354; sgermeraad@edtrust.org
www.edtrust.org

The national nonprofit works for the high academic achievement of all students, especially Latino, African American, Native American and low-income youths. From offices in Washington, D.C., and Oakland, Calif., it provides research, analysis, lobbying and technical assistance.

 

Mark Goodman, Executive Director
1815 N. Fort Myer Drive
Suite 900
Arlington, VA 22209
703.807.1904; director@splc.org
Student Press Law Center...
Student Press Law Center has been the nation's only legal assistance agency devoted exclusively to educating high school and college journalists about the rights and responsibilities embodied in the First Amendment and supporting the student news media in their struggle to cover important issues free from censorship.

 

Libby Gray, Director
Project Reality
1701 E. Lake Avenue
Suite# 371
Glenview, IL 60025
847.729.3298
www.projectreality.org...

Project Reality specializes in the development, teaching and evaluation of abstinence programs. Gray is regularly involved in media communications on the subject of abstinence.

 

James Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies
Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20001
202.789.5200; http://www.cato.org/people/harper.html...
Harper focuses on issues at the intersection of business, technology and public policy. His work focuses on the problems of adapting law and policy to the unique problems of the information age. He is editor of Privacilla.org, a Web-based think-tank devoted exclusively to privacy. He is a member of the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.

 

Charles Haynes, Director
Education
First Amendment Center
1101 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22209
703.528.0800; chaynes@freedomforum.org
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/biography.aspx...
The First Amendment Center works to preserve and protect First Amendment freedoms through information and education. The center serves as a forum for the study and exploration of free-expression issues, including freedom of speech, freedom of the press and of religion, and the rights to assemble and to petition the government. Haynes is best known for his work on religious liberty issues in schools and communities throughout the nation.

 

Thomas Holdsworth, Director of Communications
SkillsUSA
P.O. Box 3000
Leesburg, VA 20177-0300
703.737.0607; tholdsworth@skillsusa.org
http://www.skillsusa.org/index.shtml...

SkillsUSA is a national nonprofit organization serving teachers, high school and college students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations, including health occupations. The organization has 13,000 school chapters in 54 state and territorial associations.

 

Jerry Irvine, Communication Director
New America Foundation
1899 L Street NW, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20036
301.801.3356; irvine@newamerica.net
www.newamerica.net...
The think tank’s Education Policy Program focuses on modernizing systems of school finance, teaching and learning, and college financial aid. The foundation’s Federal Education Budget Project provides ongoing, in-depth study and analysis. Its Early Education Initiative urges reforms concentrated on pre-K through grade 3. Its HigherEdWatch.org blog highlights analysis, reporting and commentary.

 

Judith Jackson MSW, National Office Consultant
National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW)
2305 Martin Luther King Ave. S.E.
Washington, DC 20020
202.678.4570; nabsw.harambee@verizon.net
http://www.nabsw.org...
NABSW was founded to address the social welfare needs of black people across the country. Jackson focuses the organization’s efforts in four areas: family preservation/child Welfare, youth development, health and wellness and civil liberties. Jackson is also interested in issues regarding blacks and education, family and community.

 

Sheila Jamison, Public Affairs
College Board
212.713.8052; sjamison@collegeboard.org
www.collegeboard.org...
Founded in 1900, this nonprofit association represents more than 5,000 schools, colleges and universities. Each year, it serves 7 million students, 23,000 high schools and 3,500 colleges with services involving admissions, guidance, assessment, financial aid and teaching. Its site provides higher education studies, state summary reports for college-bound juniors and seniors and a new SAT guide. Its best-known products include the SAT, PSAT and Advanced Placement Program.

 

John Jennings, President and CEO
Education
Center on Education Policy (CEP)
1001 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 522
Washington, DC 20036
202.822.8065; cep-dc@cep-dc.org
http://www.cep-dc.org/...

Jennings founded the Center on Education Policy, a national independent advocate for public education and for more effective public schools. He previously served as subcommittee staff director and then as general counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Education and Labor.

 

Kevin Jennings, Executive Director
Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
90 Broad Street, 2nd floor
New York, NY 10004
212.727.0135; kjennings@glsen.org
http://www.glsen.org...
The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network wants to assure that everyone in the school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity/expression.

 

Dixie Jordan, Director
Families and Advocates Partnership for Education
PACER Center
210 E. Madison
Riverton, WY 82501
307.851.5097; djordan@pacer.org
http://www.fape.org/...
PACER provides information and training to support the education of children with disabilities and is supported by the U.S. Department of Education. Jordan is the parent of a son with mental health concerns and has worked for nearly 20 years to reform children's mental health systems. Jordan is the parent of a son with mental health concerns, and director of the national Families and Advocates Partnership for Education at the PACER (Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights) Center. Based in Minneapolis, PACER provides information and training to support the education of children with disabilities, and is supported by the U.S. Department of Education. Jordan, who is based in Wyoming, has worked for nearly 20 years to reform children’s mental health systems, and is an advocate for making families’ knowledge and strengths the foundation for effective mental health services for children.

 

David Kass, Executive Director
Fight Crime: Invest In Kids
1212 New York Avenue
Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
202.776.0027 ext. 119; dkass@fightcrime.org
www.fightcrime.org...
Kass coordinates strategic planning and oversees day-to-day operations at Fight Crime: Invest in Kids. Previously, he served as deputy assistant secretary for legislation at the U.S. Department of Housing. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is a national, bipartisan, nonprofit anti-crime organization of more than 3,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, other law enforcement leaders and violence survivors. The group informs the public and policymakers about relevant findings, and urges investment in programs proven effective by research. 

 

James Kemple, Director
K-12 Education Policy Area
MDRC
16 E. 34 St., 19th Floor
New York, NY 10016-4326
212.340.8676; james.kemple@mdrc.org
http://www.mdrc.org/index.html ...
Once focused on evaluations of state welfare-to-work programs, MDRC now studies public school reforms and programs to help low-income people succeed in college. Its five main policy areas are: promoting family well-being and child development, improving public education, promoting successful transitions to adulthood and supporting low-wage workers and communities. Also see: http://www.mdrc.org/publications/428/overview.html
and http://www.betterhighschools.org/docs/NHSC_EmergingEvidenceBrief_111606Final.pdf 

 

Irwin Kirsch, Senior Research Director
Educational Testing Service
Rosedale Road
Princeton, NJ 08541
609.734.1516; ikirsch@ets.org
http://www.ets.org...
Kirsch was the lead author of the study, “America’s Perfect Storm: Three Forces Changing Our Nation's Future,” which examined the challenges of inadequate literacy skills, a changing economy and a diverse population and workforce.

 

Jeffrey Kuhner, Communications Director
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
202.223.5452; jkuhner@edexcellence.net
http://www.edexcellence.net...
The nonprofit foundation, affiliated with the like-named institute, shares its belief that all children deserve a high-quality K-12 education at the school of their choice. The foundation supports research, publications and projects in education reform. It produces a weekly bulletin, The Education Gadfly.

 

William Lassiter, Manager
Center for the Prevention of School Violence
1801 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC 27699-1801
919.733.3388 Ext. 332; william.lassiter@ncmail.net
http://www.ncdjjdp.org/cpsv/...
The Center for the Prevention of School Violence serves as a resource center and think tank for efforts that promote safer schools and foster positive youth development. The Center's efforts in support of safer schools are directed at understanding the problems of school violence and developing solutions to them.

 

Allison Looney, Assistant Editor
700 Broadway
Suite 1200
Denver, CO 80203-3460
303.299.3600 main; alooney@ecs.org
www.ecs.org...

The Education Commission of the States is a nonpartisan, interstate compact that supports the exchange of information, ideas and experiences among state policymakers and education leaders. Its membership includes 49 states, the District of Columbia and three territories. Each is represented by seven commissioners, including the governor. ECS’s Web site provides national overviews – plus state-by-state breakouts – of education issues, policies and key players. The site serves as a gateway to other resources, providing links to nearly 50 other major agencies and organizations.

 

Peter Magnuson, Senior Director of Communications
Association for Career and Technical Education
703.683.3111, Ext. 341; pmagnuson@acteonline.org
www.acteonline.org...
ACTE is the largest national education association focused on career preparation for youth and adults. It’s based in Alexandria, Va.

 

James Martinez, Media Relations
National Parent Teacher Association
312.670.6782, Ext. 325; jmartinez@pta.org
www.pta.org...

The nation’s largest volunteer child advocacy association provides parents with resources on health, technology, safety and student achievement. Its site provides summaries of key education issues.

 

David Osher, Managing Research Scientist and Director
Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice
American Institutes for Research, Pelavin Research Center
1000 Thomas Jefferson St. N.W., Suite 400
Washington, DC 20007
202.944.5373; dosher@air.org
http://cecp.air.org/ or http://cecp.air.org/vc/top...
Osher focuses his work on knowledge use, violence prevention, schoolwide and community-wide interventions for youth with emotional and behavioral disorders and their families, and building meaningful collaborations at federal, state, and local levels. Osher is Principal Investigator of The Center for Effective Collaboration & Practice; The Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health; The National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Violence Prevention; The National Coordinator Training and Technical Assistance Center for the Safe and Drug Free Schools Program; The National Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center for the Education of Children and Youth Who Are Neglected, Delinquent, or At Risk; and of research that focuses on the impact of specific types on prevention and treatment interventions. Osher has authored, co-authored, or edited over 150 books, monographs, chapters, articles, and reports. He helped the U. S. Department of Education develop The National Agenda for Improving Results for Children and Youth with Serious Emotional Disturbance and is an expert on making collaboration work.

 

David Partenheimer, Office of Public Affairs
American Psychological Association (APA)
750 First St. N.E.
Washington, DC 20002
202.336.5700; dpartenheimer@apa.org
http://www.apa.org...

The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's media referral service will connect reporters to adolescent mental health experts throughout the country. It also created a brochure to alert young people to the "Warning Signs of Youth Violence." 

 

Mercedes Perez de Colon, Chief Programs Officer
AVANCE
118 N. Medina St.
San Antonio, TX 78207
210.270.4630, ext. 677; mcolon.nat@avance.org
http://avance.org...
The AVANCE Parent-Child Education Program focuses on parent education, early childhood development, brain development, literacy, and school readiness. The program serves predominantly poor Latino families in underserved communities. AVANCE reaches more than 20,000 individuals annually in centers and chapter sites throughout Texas and Los Angeles, California.

 

Erik Peterson, Media Contact
School Nutrition Association
700 South Washington St.
Suite 300
Alexandria, VA 22314
703.739.3900, Ext 124; epeterson@schoolnutrition.org

The association represents more than 55,000 members who provide in-school meals to students across the country. On a typical day during last school year, 28 million children participated in school lunch programs, and 8.7 million children participated in the school breakfast program.

 

Michael Petrilli,Vice President
National Programs and Policy
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation
1701 K St., N.W., Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20006
202.223.5452; mpetrilli@edexcellence.net
http://www.edexcellence.net/foundation/global/inde...
Petrilli is vice president for national programs and policy at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. The nonprofit foundation is affiliated with the institute of the same name and shares its belief that all children deserve a high-quality K-12 education at the school of their choice. The foundation supports research, publications and projects of national significance in education reform. Petrilli oversees research projects and publications, including The Education Gadfly. He also is a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, where he serves as an executive editor of its journal, Education Next. Petrilli is the co-author of “No Child Left Behind: A Primer,” a comprehensive overview of the law and its implementation. He comes to the foundation from the U.S. Department of Education, where he worked from 2001 to 2005, the last three years as associate assistant deputy secretary in the Office of Innovation and Improvement. Petrilli oversaw approximately two dozen discretionary grant programs supporting education reforms, including charter schools and alternate routes to certification. He also helped lead implementation of No Child Left Behind’s public school choice and supplemental services provisions.

 

Linda Puntney, Executive Director
Journalism Education Association
Kansas State University
103 Kedzie Hall
Manhattan, KS 66506-1505
785.532.7822; lindarp@ksu.edu
http://www.jea.org/index.html...
The Journalism Education Association is the only independent national scholastic journalism organization for teachers and advisers.

 

Suzanne Ripley,Vice President and Director
Academy for Educational Development
National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities (NICHCY)
P.O. Box 1492
Washington, DC 20013-1492
202.884.8200; sripley@aed.org
http://www.nichcy.org/...
NICHCY is an information clearinghouse that provides information, referrals and publications on disabilities and disability-related issues, particularly those involving youth. Ripley advises families and educators on how best to serve children with special needs. Her focuses include special education, the rights of disabled children and early intervention.

 

Roy Romer, Chairman and lead spokesman
Strong American Schools/ED in '08
1150 17th St. N.W., Suite 875
Washington, DC 20036
202.552.4560; info@EDin08.com
http://www.edin08.com...
Strong American Schools is a nonpartisan public awareness campaign that aims to make education a top priority in the 2008 presidential election. Before joining Strong American Schools and ED in 08, Romer spent 12 years as Governor of Colorado and six years as the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Romer chaired the Education Commission of the States in 1994 and 1995, and was the first chairman of the National Education Goals Panel. Romer also served as co-vice chairman of Achieve, an effort by the nation's governors and major corporate leaders to reform education by the use of standards and assessments. 

 

Marc Rotenberg, Executive Director
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
1718 Connecticut Ave. NW
Suite 200
Washington, DC 20009
202.483.1140, ext 106; rotenberg@epic.org
http://www.epic.org/...
PIC is a public interest research center in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values. Rotenberg teaches information privacy law at Georgetown University Law Center and has testified before Congress on many issues, including access to information, encryption policy, consumer protection, computer security, and communications privacy.

 

Lois Salisbury, Director
Children, Families and Communities
David and Lucile Packard Foundation
300 Second St., Suite 200
Los Altos, CA 94022
650.948.7658; cfc@packard.org
www.packfound.org...

The Los Altos, Calif.-based foundation’s Families and Communities Program supports quality early education for all children, especially those in California. It promotes two other goals: implementing after-school programs for all California students in elementary and middle schools and expanding health insurance access to all children.

 

Amy Saltzman, Communications Director
Appleseed
727 15th St., NW, 11th Floor
Washington, DC 20005
202.347.7960, asaltzman@appleseeds.net
http://www.appleseeds.net...
Appleseed works at the local level, establishing and networking independent public interest law centers that identify and address issues community-by-community. As a legal pro bono network, Appleseed centers focus on public education, health care, child welfare, justice and immigration. Appleseed released the report, “It Takes a Parent: Transforming Education in the Wake of the No Child Left Behind Act.”

 

Jabali Sawicki, Principal
Excellence Charter School of Bedford-Stuyvesant
600 Lafayette Ave., Third Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11216
347.582.6084; jsawicki@excellencecharter.org
http://www.excellencecharter.org/...

Jabali Sawicki is the principal at Excellence Charter School of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, N.Y. Before helping found Excellence Charter School, he taught science in Boston at Roxbury Preparatory Charter School, one of the state’s most successful urban charter schools. While there, Sawicki played a central role in developing the school’s academic program and culture, founded a competitive soccer program and created a support group for boys. He is a graduate of Oberlin College where he received a dual degree in biology and philosophy. Sawicki is also a Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Fellow and received his master’s degree in educational administration from the Teachers College, Columbia University.

 

Paul Schmitz, President and CEO
Public Allies
633 W. Wisconsin Ave., Suite 610
Milwaukee, WI 53203
414.273.0533, ext. 16; pauls@publicallies.org
http://www.publicallies.org/au_vision.html...
Public Allies operates a leadership development program in 13 communities across the country that prepares young adults from diverse and under-represented backgrounds for careers in nonprofit and community leadership. It co-founded and co-leads the Nonprofit Sector Workforce Coalition that works to strengthen talent pipelines into the nonprofit sector and diversify pipelines into nonprofit leadership.

 

Allison Seale, Communications Manager
Hamilton Fish Institute
12031 Hoffman Street N3
Studio City, CA 91604
818.505.1942; aliseal@aol.com
http://www.hamfish.org/...
The Institute is a national resource to test the effectiveness of school violence prevention methods and to develop more effective strategies. The institute can connect reporters with multidisciplinary researchers across the country who test violence prevention programs in urban, rural and suburban schools.

 

Rosa Smith Ph.D., Regional education director, Memphis
New Leaders for New Schools
3782 N. Jackson Ave.
Memphis, TN 38108
504.377.1000; rsmith@nlns.org
www.nlns.org...
Smith joined the national, New York-based New Leaders for New Schools in February 2007 as a a regional education director in Memphis; she also serves senior adviser to its New Orleans program. The nonprofit organization helps passionate and effective educators become successful principals in high-need communities. Earlier, Smith was president of the Schott Foundation for Public Education, which brings together leaders, experts and community members to develop and strengthen the movement for equity in public and early education. Befor that, she served as superintendent of Columbus (OH) Public Schools. She wrote “Saving Black Boys: Unimaginable outcomes for the most vulnerable students require imaginable leadership” for The School Administrator in January 2005.

 

J. Michael Smith, President and Co-Founder
Home School Legal Defense Association
P.O. Box 3000
Purcellville, VA 20134-9000
540.338.5600; info@hslda.org
http://www.hslda.org/...
Established to protect the right of parents to teach their children at home, HSLDA now represents over 80,000 member families. A lawyer, Smith became involved in defending homeschoolers after he and his wife Elizabeth decided to homeschool their children. They have four children, three of whom were homeschooled. The Web site has state contact information: http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/default.asp

 

Mary Stanik, Director of Communication
The Public Education Network

202.628.7460 (main); mstanik@publiceducation.org
www.publiceducation.org...
PEN is a national association of local education funds and individuals promoting public school reform in low-income communities nationwide. Its weekly, e-mailed NewsBlast summarizes related news stories.

 

Ronald Stephens, Executive Director
National School Safety Center
141 Duesenberg Drive, Suite 11
Westlake Village, CA 91362
805.373.9977; ronald.stephens@nssc1.org
http://www.nssc1.org/...
The NSSC advocates for school safety; trains educators and law enforcers in the areas of school crime prevention and safe school planning; provides on-site technical assistance to school districts and communities facing significant safe school crises; and assesses school site safety for individual schools or school districts interested in developing or analyzing their school safety plans.

 

Mary Ann Strombitski, Communications Director
Education Commission of the States
303.296.8332; nstrombitski@ecs.org
http://www.ecs.org...
Based in Denver, the nonpartisan, interstate compact helps states develop effective policy and practice. It represents state leaders – including governors, legislators and higher education officials—and it provides an index and numerous publications on educational issues, individual state data and e-newsletters. ECS offers a link to Education Week’s extensive daily news roundup. It serves as a gateway to other good resources, providing links to nearly 50 other major agencies and organizations, such as the Council of Chief State School Officers, the National Association of Elementary School Principals and the National PTA.

 

Paul Taylor, Acting Director
Pew Hispanic Center
1615 L St. NW
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036-5610
202.419.3600; info@pewhispanic.org
www.pewhispanic.org...
The nonpartisan research organization aims to improve understanding of the U.S. Hispanic population and to chronicle its growing impact on the nation. Researchers have expertise in demographics, immigration and more. Based in Washington, D.C., it’s supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts. 

 

Lloyd Thacker, Executive Director
The Education Conservancy
805 SW Broadway, Suite 1600
Portland, OR 97205
503.290.0083; lthacker@educationconservancy.org
http://www.educationconservancy.org...
Thacker is founder of the Education Conservancy, which helps students, colleges and high schools overcome commercial interference in college admissions. Its mission is to return control of college admissions to those who are directly involved in education: students, colleges, parents and high schools.

 

Paul Timm, Vice President
RETA Security
PO Box 1236
Lombard, IL 60148
630.932.9322; info@retasecurity.com
http://www.retasecurity.com/safe_school_elements.h...
RETA Security, Inc. is a security consulting and engineering firm that provides security solutions to government and commercial clients. RETA provides assessments and services that evaluate safe school programs.

 

Gerald Tirozzi, Executive Director
National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
1904 Association Drive
Reston, VA 20191
703.860.0200; tirozzig@principals.org
http://www.principals.org/s_nassp/sec.asp?CID=833&...
Gerald N. Tirozzi has spent over 40 years in the educational field. Other positions he has held include: assistant secretary of elementary and secondary education at the U.S. Department of Education, (under Secretary Richard W. Riley), Connecticut's Commissioner of Education, college president, superintendent, principal, guidance counselor and teacher. Tirozzi holds a doctorate in educational administration from Michigan State University.

 

Thomas Toch, Co-Founder and Co-Director
Education Sector
1201 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 850
Washington, DC 20036
202.552.2841; ttoch@educationsector.org
www.educationsector.org ...
Toch is co-founder and co-director of Education Sector, an independent education policy think tank. Prior to launching Education Sector in 2005, Toch spent three years as writer-in-residence at the National Center on Education and Economy and director of its policy forums program; three years as a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, and a decade as a writer at U.S. News and World Report. He taught education policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1999. As a member of the staff that launched Education Week in the early 1980s, Toch served variously as writer, commentary editor and co-managing editor. He has written two books on education policy and has contributed to The New York Times, The New Republic and other national newspapers and magazines. His focuses include testing, teacher quality, school choice and charter schools, education and the economy and education governance.

 

Carl Tubbesing, Deputy Director, D.C. headquarters
National Conference of State Legislatures
202.624.5400; carl.tubbesing@ncsl.org
www.ncsl.org...

The bipartisan organization serves legislators and staffs. Its experts – on subjects from child well-being and social services to family economic success to immigration – can identify trends, and its Web site suggests story ideas.

 

Marla Ucelli, Director of District Redesign
Annenberg Institute for Social Reform
Brown University
Box 1985
Providence, RI 02912
401.863.7990; AISR_Info@brown.edu
http://www.annenberginstitute.org...
The Annenberg Institute is an independent center at Brown University that promotes quality education for disadvantaged children and communities. Ucelli is director of District Redesign, and her focus is on the future of urban districts. She was associate director in the Equal Opportunity Division at the New York City-based Rockefeller Foundation, where she was responsible for the Foundation's efforts to improve the education and development of children going to school in poor urban communities in the U.S.

 

Julie Underwood, General Counsel
National School Boards Association
1680 Duke St.
Alexandria, VA 22314
703.838.6722; junderwood@nsba.org
http://www.nsba.org/...

 The National School Boards Association advocates for local school boards and for public schools on such subjects as the No Child Left Behind rules, and in opposing publicly funded vouchers for private schools. The Office of the General Counsel represents the interests of Federation Members and school boards in the courts and regulatory agencies. 

 

Reg Weaver, President
National Education Association
1201 16th St. N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
202.833.4000; spo@elist.nea.org
http://www.nea.org...
NEA is the nation's largest professional employee organization and is committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA's 2.7 million members work at every level of education, from pre-school to university graduate programs. Reg Weaver was elected president in 2002.

 

Donald Whitehead, Executive Director
National Coalition for the Homeless
1012 Fourteenth St., N.W., Suite 600
Washington, DC 20005
202.737.6444; nch@ari.net
http://www.nationalhomeless.org/...
The National Coalition for the Homeless, founded in 1984, is a national network of people who are currently experiencing or who have experienced homelessness, activists and advocates, community-based and faith-based service providers, and others committed to ending homelessness. The coalition can connect journalists with the names of over 150 regional, state and local advocates across the country.

 

Amy Wilkins, Vice President, Government Affairs & Communications
The Eduation Trust
1250 H Street, NW
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
202.293.1217; awilkins@edtrust.org
http://www.edtrust.org...
Amy Wilkins is vice president for government affairs and communications at The Education Trust, a nonprofit organization that promotes the high academic achievement of all students from pre-kindergarten through college. Wilkins oversees the Trust’s media, data, lobbying and coalition work. She has sharpened her advocacy skills over a series of jobs, most recently as executive director of the Trust for Early Education from 2001 to 2003. The nonprofit program advocates for high-quality, voluntary preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds. Wilkins had an earlier stint with The Education Trust, beginning in 1995. Before that, she spent seven years at the Children’s Defense Fund, where she coordinated a grass-roots campaign for the Child Care Development Block Grant legislation to establish federal funding. She also has served in media and policy roles at the Democratic National Committee and the White House Office of Media Affairs.

 

John I. Wilson, Executive Director
National Education Association

1201 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036-3290
202.822.7200, Media Calls; spo@elist.nea.org
http://nea.org/specialed.index.html...
The NEA is the nation's largest professional employee organization and is committed to advancing the cause of public education. The NEA's site offers resources, papers, facts and links to information regarding special education issues.

 

Marleen Wong, Director
School Crisis Intervention Unit, Terrorism and Disaster Branch
National Center for Child Traumatic Stress
310.235.2633, ext. 236; marleen.wong@lausd.net
http://www.nctsnet.org/nccts/nav.do?pid=ctr_terr_a...
NCTS has 54 sites across the country, and includes three categories: bicoastal coordinating center at UCLA and Duke Universities; intervention, development and evaluation centers (most of which are academic); and community centers. Wong serves as the director of crisis counseling and intervention for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Wong has served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Education, assisting many school districts with the development of mental health recovery programs following school shootings and terrorist attacks. E-mail: marleen.wong@lausd.net 

 

Rosemarie Young, President
National Association of Elementary School Principals
1615 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
ryoung1@jefferson.k12.ky.us
http://www.naesp.org...
Young is principal of Watson Lane Elementary in Louisville, Ky.

 

 

Rosalinda B. Barrera, Assistant Deputy Secretary
Office of English Language Acquisition
U.S. Department of Education
550 12th St., S.W.
Washington, DC 20024
202.401.4300; rosalinda.barrera@ed.gov
The office aims to ensure that children who are not English proficient, including immigrant children, attain English proficiency and meet the same state academic content and student academic achievement standards as all children are expected to meet.

 

James Butler, Program Contact
Race to the Top
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Rm. 3E108
Washington, DC 20202
202.205.3775; racetothetop@ed.gov
Race to the Top is an education reform and competitive grant program that rewards states for implementing policies that spur gains in student achievement.

 

Karen Cator, Director
Office of Educational Technology
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Ave.
FB6-7E222
Washington, DC 20202
202.401.1444; karen.cator@ed.gov
This office is responsible for coordinating programs and policies on virtual education and “e-learning,” the National Education Technology Plan, Technical Assistance Grants under Enhancing Education Through Technology, and the use of technology to further the mission of the Department of Education and the No Child Left Behind Act.

 

W. Alan Coulter Ph.D., Project Director

National Center for Special Education Accountability Monitoring
504.556.7559; acoulter@lsuhsc.edu
NCSEAM), also known as the National Monitoring Center, is federally funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) of the U.S. Department of Education to assist states, local agencies, and OSEP in the implementation of focused monitoring and evidenced-based decision-making about compliance with federal law so that improved results are achieved for children with disabilities and their families. NCSEAM is housed at the Human Development Center at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans.

 

Peter Cunningham, Assistant Secretary
Office of Communications and Outreach
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Ave. S.W., 5E115
Washington, DC 20202-8173
202.401.1576; press@ed.gov
Cunningham leads the Office of Communications and Outreach and is charged with broadcasting the president and secretary's education agenda, as well as supporting federal education policy development and promotion. OCO promotes the Department's effort to expand access to and improve the quality of the nation's education system.

 

Michael Dannenberg, Senior Policy Advisor and Counsel
Office of the Under Secretary
U.S. Department of Education
202.401.8187
Michael Dannenberg is the founding Director of New America's Education Policy Program and was a Schwartz Senior Fellow until early 2010, when he joined the Obama Administration's Department of Education. Dannenberg founded the New America Foundation’s Education Policy Program, a nonpartisan think tank that investigates the efficiency of federal education funding, especially in regard to the student loan crunch. Dannenberg's focus is No Child Left Behind Act, the federal education budget, college admissions, financial aid and student loan policy

 

Matthew Devine, Communications Director
Institute of Education Sciences
Department of Education
555 New Jersey Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20208
202.208.1228; mediarequests@ies.ed.gov
The Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 established within the U.S. Department of Education, the Institute of Education Sciences. The mission of IES is to provide rigorous evidence on which to ground education practice and policy. It encompasses four centers for research, evaluation, special education research and statistics. The National Center for Education Statistics collects and analyzes data. It oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the “nation’s report card.” NCES produces daily snapshots and annual reports on the condition of education, indicators of school crime and safety, and more.

 

Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Ave., SW

Washington, DC 20202
202.401.3000; arne.duncan@ed.gov
Arne Duncan was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Jan. 20, 2009. Prior to his appointment as secretary of education, Duncan served as the chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools, a position to which he was appointed by Mayor Richard M. Daley, from June 2001 through December 2008, becoming the longest-serving big-city education superintendent in the country.

 

Grace Zamora Durán Ph.D., Education Research Analyst
Office of Special Education Programs
U.S. Department of Education
330 C Street, SW
Mary Switzer Building, Room 4620
Washington, DC 20202
202.401.2997
Zamora Durán works on projects related to the disproportionate representation of urban and impoverished children in special education, culturally/linguistically diverse populations, English Language Learners, gender equity, assessment, and curriculum and instruction. Previously she was an assistant executive director at The Council for Exceptional Children and as a special education teacher.

 

 

 

William Modzeleski, Associate Deputy Under Secretary

Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools Education
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Ave., S.W.
Washington, DC 20202
202.260.1856; Bill.Modzeleski@ed.gov
Modzeleski is associate deputy undersecretary in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools (OSDFS). The office has responsibility in three main areas: School safety including alcohol, drug and violence prevention; school health, mental health and environmental health; and character, civic and correctional education programs. The office also has responsibility for initiatives dealing with mentoring, physical fitness and emergency preparedness. OSDFS serves as liaison to other agencies, including the Office of Homeland Security, on issues related to terrorism and response to disruptions in schools due to crisis. Modzeleski has been involved in juvenile justice and school safety issues for more than 25 years, serving at the county and federal levels. He has been involved in several major initiatives related to school safety and preparedness, including development and implementation of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative; collaboration with the U.S. Secret Service on the assessing threats of school shootings; and preparing schools to respond to crisis and emergencies.

 

Anne Ricciuti, Deputy Director for Science
Institute of Education Sciences
U.S. Department of Education
555 New Jersey Avenue, N.W.
Suite 600
Washington, DC 20208
202.219.2247; anne.ricciuti@ed.gov
Ricciuti is deputy director for science at the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education. She is a developmental psychologist who spent 11 years working in the Education and Family Services area of Abt Associates Inc., where she had a senior role in evaluating federal programs. She worked on national evaluations of the Comprehensive Child Development Program, Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 

 

Gardenia Wright, Social Worker

Special Education
Richmond County Board of Education
3114 Lake Forest Dr., Building 309
Augusta, GA 30909
706.731.8787; AlstonAmie@knology.net

Gardenia C. Wright, MSW, is a school social worker in Richmond County, Ga. She works with special needs students, serving as a link between the home, school and community to insure these students receive the maximum services and benefits from their educational experience. Wright received her bachelor's degree in social work from Columbia College in Columbia, S.C., and her master's degree in social work from the University of Georgia. She has been a social worker for 22 years, working in medical, mental health and other community settings. Wright has spoken at numerous conferences on issues related to children and families. She has held several offices in professional social work organizations, and was 2000-2001 president of the School Social Workers Association of Georgia.