Francie Alexander

Francie Alexander is the Senior Vice President of Scholastic Education and Chief Academic Officer of Scholastic Inc. She works across all of Scholastic’s divisions to advise on the creation of educational products and services in the areas of reading instruction, assessment, intervention, professional development and early childhood literacy. She also serves as spokesperson on educational best practices, and was recently interviewed on NBC’s The Today Show and CNN’s American Morning on how to prevent the “summer slide”. While at Scholastic she has authored books for children and writes an advice column for parents and book reviews for educators on Scholastic.com. Ms. Alexander serves on several boards and committees. She currently serves on the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress, widely known as “The Nation’s Report Card. She has also held key positions in state and federal education agencies, including Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education. Ms. Alexander's work is grounded in the classroom and she has taught students from kindergarten to college.

John W. Berry

John W. Berry is executive director of the Network of Illinois Learning Resources in Community Colleges. The 35-year-old consortium, based in Chicago, has 50 member institutions across Illinois and Missouri. Previously, Mr. Berry was director of advancement and research associate professor at the University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago (1990–96), and held faculty and management positions at Northern Illinois University, Elmira College, and Indiana University. A widely published author and frequent lecturer, his areas of research interest include digital libraries, intellectual property, distance learning, library building design, and fundraising for libraries.

Mr. Berry served as ALA's 118th president in 2001–02. He is president of the Freedom to Read Foundation Board of Trustees (the legal defense arm of the ALA) and past chair of ALA’s International Relations Committee. Mr. Berry earned his MLS (library and information science), MAT (social studies), and BA (political science) from Indiana University.

Ginnie Cooper

In July of 2006, Ginnie Cooper joined DC Public Library as Chief Librarian, overseeing a network of 27 libraries. Ms. Cooper has served as head if libraries in four states, most recently at the Brooklyn Public Library. A librarian since 1970, Ms. Cooper is a past president of the Public Library Association. Ms. Cooper was named 2001 Layperson of the Year by the Portland, Oregon, Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and is a recipient of the Charlie Robinson Award made by the Public Library Association to recognize a public library director who has been a risk-taker, an innovator and an agent for change. Ginnie has had the opportunity to work with gifted youth serving staff at several libraries. She believes that work with children is the most important work for public libraries.

Alan J. Friedman

Alan J. Friedman is director of the New York Hall of Science, New York City's public science-technology center. Since he arrived in 1984, the New York Hall of Science has become a leading science-technology center, with special recognition for its work in encouraging new technologies, in creating models for teacher training, and in evaluating the effectiveness of informal science learning. The hall is also known for its special commitment to the diverse population of New York.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science recognized Dr. Friedman with its Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology for 1996–97. Before coming to New York, Dr. Friedman worked at the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, Paris, and the Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Friedman received his PhD in physics from Florida State University and his BS in physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Doug Herbert

Doug Herbert is a Special Assistant on Teacher Quality and Arts Education in the Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement. From 1992 to May 2004, he was the Director of Arts Education at the National Endowment for the Arts. Under his leadership, the Endowment partnered with the U.S. Department of Education to support the development of national voluntary standards in arts education; to establish inclusion of the arts in The Nation’s Report Card; to evaluate the conditions of arts education nationwide using the Department of Education’s Fast Response Survey System; and to create the Arts Education Partnership. Mr. Herbert previously served as the program’s assistant director, coordinating efforts to develop an arts education research agenda and to recognize exemplary arts education programs. Mr. Herbert was also the national program director for Very Special Arts, an educational affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Deborah Jacobs

Deborah Jacobs began her career as a rural children’s librarian 29 years ago. Her other positions have included bookmobile services, general reference, head of branch libraries, as well as serving as an adjunct professor teaching public library advocacy at the graduate school. For the past 18 years she has been a library director, spending nine years as City Librarian for the Seattle Public Library. During her time in Seattle she has lead the system in building the highly awarded and regarded Central Library designed by Rem Koolhaas, as well as 27 new neighborhood libraries, in addition to passing a $196.4 million bond measure and raising $83 million in private funds. Ms. Jacobs is actively involved in her community and profession serving on boards including the Freedom to Read Foundation, the Seattle Downtown Association, and the Henry Art Gallery. She has received many awards during her career including Library Journal’s “Librarian of the Year” in 1994, Governing Magazine’s “Public Official of the Year” in 2001, one of Seattle Magazine’s 25 Most Influential People of 2004, and the Seattle Architectural Foundation’s “Shaping Community: the A. O. Bumgardner Award” 2005.

Julie I. Johnson

Julie I. Johnson is the first John Roe Chair of Museum Leadership at the Science Museum of Minnesota. She provides leadership and support in planning, programming, personnel development, and collaboration. She also serves as faculty for the Getty Leadership Institute’s Museum Leaders: The Next Generation, a program to develop the career potential of museum professionals.

Previously, Ms. Johnson was a program officer at the National Science Foundation, overseeing youth/community and family projects that support the public understanding of science and further science learning in informal settings. Concurrent with that assignment, Ms. Johnson was the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the New Jersey Academy for Aquatic Sciences, operators of the New Jersey State Aquarium, from its opening in 1992. She was project director and principal investigator for a number of grant-funded projects, of which PISEC Family Science Learning Study and Families Exploring Science Together were most notable.

Ioannis N. Miaoulis

Ioannis (Yannis) N. Miaoulis is President and Director of the Museum of Science, Boston, one of the world’s largest science centers. Originally from Greece, Dr. Miaoulis came to the museum after a distinguished association with Tufts University, where he was Dean of the School of Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering. An innovative educator with a passion for science and engineering, Miaoulis championed the introduction of engineering into the Massachusetts science and technology public school curriculum. In 2001 this made the Commonwealth the first to develop statewide curricular frameworks and assessments for K-12 engineering. Dr. Miaoulis spearheaded creation of the National Center for Technological Literacy® at the Museum in 2004 to integrate engineering as a new discipline in schools nationwide and to inspire the next generation of engineers and innovators. He earned his bachelor’s and doctorate degrees in mechanical engineering and his master’s degree in economics at Tufts University. He also received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Miaoulis has published more than 100 research papers and holds two patents. He is a member of the Boards of Trustees of WGBH, the public broadcasting station of Boston, and of Tufts University. He has also served on the Massachusetts Math and Science Advisory Board for several years.

Peggy O’Brien

As senior vice president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), Peggy O'Brien oversees the development and expansion of educational programming and services, including innovative children's programming and enhanced community partnerships.

Dr. O'Brien previously was executive director of Cable in the Classroom. Under her leadership, services grew to reach nearly 80 percent of U.S. students. From 1994 to 2000, Dr. O’Brien was vice president of education of CPB. She was the first director of Ready To Learn, a coalition of the U.S. Department of Education, public television stations and producers, teachers, parents, and national service organizations. Earlier, she was head of education at the Folger Shakespeare Library, where she founded and directed the Teaching Shakespeare Institute. She also taught in the District of Columbia public schools.

Dr. O'Brien earned her PhD at American University and has several honorary degrees. She is chair of the Board of Trustees of Trinity College in Washington, D.C.

Karen Pittman

Karen Pittman has made a career starting organizations and initiatives that promote youth development. She started her career at the Urban Institute and the Children’s Defense Fund. In 1990, she became a Vice President at the Academy for Educational Development where she founded and directed the Center for Youth Development and Policy Research. In the mid-1990s, Ms. Pittman accepted a position within the Clinton Administration as Director of the President’s Crime Prevention Council where she worked with 13 Cabinet secretaries to create a coordinated prevention agenda. She also worked with General Colin Powell as a chief architect of America’s Promise. As a member of the executive team at the International Youth Foundation, Ms. Pittman directed their international learning agenda and planted the seeds for what has become the Forum for Youth Investment, which she co-founded with Merita Irby in 1998. Karen is currently Executive Director of the Forum. She is the 2002 recipient of the National Commission for African American Education Augustus F. Hawkins Service Award and the 2003 American Youth Policy Forum Decade of Service Award for Sustained Visionary Leadership in Advancing Youth Policy.

Julie Spielberger

Julie Spielberger is a research fellow at Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago. She is principal investigator for several studies designed to promote the well-being of children and families in Palm Beach County, Florida. One is an eight-year longitudinal study of service use and its relationship to family functioning, child development, and school readiness. Another evaluates two initiatives to improve the quality of after-school and early childhood programs. Her recent work includes an evaluation of a school-based behavioral health initiative, research on children’s literacy development in after-school programs, and a national evaluation of the Public Libraries as Partners in Youth Development Initiative, an effort to strengthen youth leadership, services, and community partnerships in public libraries in low-income communities.

Dr. Spielberger received her PhD in child development from Loyola University-Chicago, and MST in early childhood education from the University of Chicago.

Sonnet Takahisa

Sonnet Takahisa is currently a Consultant for Arts and Cultural Partnerships at New Visions for Public Schools, involved in creating and supporting 75 new small public high schools. Takahisa brings over 25 years of experience in museums and schools; she has served on numerous review panels, boards, and as a consultant to museums, arts organizations, schools, and afterschool programs. She has worked as an educator at the Boston Children’s Museum, Seattle Art Museum, and Brooklyn Museum.

For ten years, she was the Founding Co-Director of The New York City Museum School, a 6th – 12th grade public school with 420 students from a range of academic and socio-economic backgrounds. Designed on the premise that museums represent an academic tradition of excellence, intellectual rigor and high standards, and that they provide a model of learning that is engaging and passionate, NYCMS takes advantage of the wealth of resources in their partner museums (Brooklyn Museum, Children's Museum of Manhattan, American Museum of Natural History, and South Street Seaport Museum) and cultural institutions throughout the city.

William J. Tally

Bill Tally is Senior Scientist at the Center for Children and Technology in New York, a division of the Education Development Center, Inc. For over 20 years he has studied and designed educational uses of digital media in schools, libraries, museums and other settings. His work is focused on realizing the conditions for more learner-centered, democratic schooling. Recent projects have centered on tracking learners’ problem-solving skills and knowledge in the areas of history and the humanities, in teacher education, and in the emerging domain of digital literacy. Tally holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of California at Santa Cruz, an M.A. in liberal studies from the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research (with an emphasis on American cultural history), and a Ph.D. in sociology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is a frequent speaker and writer on issues of media, children and learning. Among his publications is The New Media Literacy Handbook: An Educator's Guide to Bringing New Media into the Classroom (Anchor Books, 2000), written with Cornelia Brunner.

Julie A. Walker

Julie A. Walker is executive director of the American Association of School Librarians, a division of the American Library Association. For the past eight years, she has directed a number of programs, including the national implementation plan for Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning, the association’s guidelines for school library media programs. Ms. Walker has worked extensively in promoting information literacy—the ability to find and use information—as an essential skill for lifelong learning. She also serves on the board of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and on the advisory committee for the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries.

Previously, Ms. Walker was director of library and media services for the Round Rock, Texas, Independent School District. She is a past-chair of the Alliance for Curriculum Reform, a group of organizations committed to improving curriculum, instruction, and assessment in P–12 schools.

William E. (Bill) White

Bill White has been engaged in museum education for more than thirty-five years. Since 1998 he has been the executive producer and director of educational program development for Colonial Williamsburg’s K–12 Education Outreach Initiative. He leads the Colonial Williamsburg Teacher Institute, the Emmy-winning Electronic Field Trip series, and an extensive publishing initiative that provides lesson plans, primary sources, and activity kits for the classroom.

Dr. White wrote the Colonial Williamsburg Primary Sources CD-ROMs for grades 1–3 and grades 4–6 with Pearson Scott Foresman, which won awards from Media and Methods and Technology and Learning magazines. He also wrote Pearson Scott Foresman’s History-Social Science for California for grades K–5, and writes a monthly column linking history and current events for the Newsweek Education Program (www.NewsweekEducation.com). Dr. White received his PhD from the College of William and Mary and his BA in history from Christopher Newport University.

Dennie Palmer Wolf

Dennie Palmer Wolf has worked in the fields of literacy, arts and humanities education, and new approaches to assessment for more than twenty-five years. She has conducted research on the role of the arts in creating equitable opportunities and outcomes, especially for low-performing students; facilitated ground-breaking interactions between urban school districts and their communities; and developed protocols for assessing the quality of classroom teaching and learning. Dennie heads a team that examines excellence and equity issues related to opportunity to learn and outcomes for students in K-12 urban systems.

Prior to joining the Annenburg Institute, she taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and codirected the Harvard Institute for School Leadership. She has served three terms as a member of the National Assessment Governing Board. Dennie is the recipient of numerous awards and grants and has published extensively in the field of education. She received an Ed.D. and Ed.M. from Harvard University.

Nicole Yohalem

Nicole Yohalem is Program Director at the Forum for Youth Investment, where she leads the Forum's work on a range of issues including out-of-school time, youth engagement and high school reform. Prior to joining the Forum's staff, Ms. Yohalem served a youth development specialist at Michigan State University where she developed, implemented and evaluated community-based youth programs and provided training and technical assistance to programs statewide through the Cooperative Extension Service. From 1990 to 1995, She worked in the adolescent division of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation where directed the Foundation’s residential program for teens and developed training materials for youth programs. Over the past several years, Ms. Yohalem has also served as a consultant to the World Bank on education reform in the Latin American and Caribbean region. She received her Master of Education degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.