Jon Baron
Executive Director of the Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, Bethesda, Maryland
Jon Baron founded the nonprofit, nonpartisan Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy in fall 2001, and currently serves as its Executive Director. The Coalition is sponsored by the Council for Excellence in Government. Since its founding, the Coalition has built a strong track record of success in working with top Executive Branch and Congressional policymakers to advance evidence-based reforms in major U.S. social programs. The Coalition's work has resulted in important, concrete reforms—including key advances in Congressional support for rigorous research and evidence-based programs in education, crime prevention, and other areas, and new guidance from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to the federal agencies on what constitutes strong evidence of program effectiveness. A recent independent evaluation of the Coalition's work, conducted for the William T. Grant Foundation, found that the Coalition has been "instrumental in transforming a theoretical advocacy of evidence-based policy among certain agencies [Departments of Education and Justice, and OMB] into an operational reality."
Prior to establishing the Coalition, Mr. Baron served as the Executive Director of the Presidential Commission on Offsets in International Trade (2000-2001); Program Manager for the Defense Department's Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program (1995-2000); and Counsel to the House of Representatives Committee on Small Business (1989-1994).
Mr. Baron holds a law degree from Yale Law School, a master's degree in public affairs from Princeton University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rice University.
Beth Ann Bryan
Senior Education Advisor to the law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Beth Ann Bryan is a nationally known and respected member of the education community. As senior education advisor to the firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, LLP, she assists various entities, in the private and public sector with implementation of the new national education reforms. She also counsels clients on other education policy issues.
Prior to joining Akin Gump, Ms. Bryan served as a senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. She was involved with several key initiatives, including the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, reading, teacher quality and preparation, and early childhood. She served as a member of the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education and also worked closely with Laura Bush's office on all of Mrs. Bush's education initiatives. Prior to joining the U.S. Department of Education, Ms. Bryan served as an education advisor to Governor George W. Bush and to the Texas Governor's Business Council. From 1981-1995, she was a Psychological Associate in a private practice and, before that, a public school teacher.
Ms. Bryan received her BA from Houston Baptist University in 1969 and her MEd from the University of Houston in 1978.
Carol D'Amico, EdD
President & CEO of Conexus Indiana, Indianapolis, Indiana
Dr. Carol D'Amico is a nationally recognized expert on education and workforce development issues, co-author of Workforce 2020, and frequent lecturer and key note speaker with extensive experience in advising corporate and government leaders on strategies to strengthen America's economy through a qualified educated workforce.
Appointed by President Bush in 2001, Dr. D'Amico served as the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Vocational and Adult Education until 2003. She was the principal spokesperson and leading advisor to the President and Secretary of Education on all matters related to high school reform, community/technical colleges and adult literacy.
Most recently, Dr. D'Amico served as the Executive Vice President of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana, the state's second largest college, and was responsible for the operations of the College with over 100,000 students and 7,000 employees. She worked closely with all 14 Ivy Tech Community College regions in strategic planning, program development, marketing, external relations, technology planning, and reporting College performance.
Dr. D'Amico also spent 10 years at Hudson Institute, an internationally acclaimed public policy organization where she was both a Senior Fellow in Education and Co-Director of the Center for Workforce Development from 1990 to 1999. Dr. D'Amico co-authored Workforce 2020, which describes the challenges and opportunities for American corporations and workers in the early twenty-first century. Prior to joining Hudson Institute, D'Amico was a policy and planning specialist for the Indiana Department of Education, focusing on strategies to improve public education. She also served as the senior program analyst for the Indiana General Assembly. D'Amico holds an Ed.D. in higher education leadership and policy studies and a Masters degree in adult education and organizational development from Indiana University.
D'Amico serves as Chair of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education, a member of the Board of Directors of the National Board for Education Sciences appointed by President Bush in 2004 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and a member of the American Council on Education Commission on Lifelong Learning. D'Amico is a member of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee, Indianapolis Private Industry Council, Sagamore Institute for Policy Research, Clarian North Health Board of Managers, and Crossroads of America Council/Boy Scouts of America.
David C. Geary , PhD
Curators' Professor at the University of Missouri
David C. Geary received his Ph.D. in developmental psychology in 1986 from the University of California at Riverside and from there held faculty positions at the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Missouri, first at the Rolla campus and then in Columbia. Dr. Geary served as chair of the Department of Psychological Sciences from 2002 to 2005, as the University of Missouri's Middlebush Professor of Psychological Sciences from 2000 to 2003, and is now a Curators' Professor. He has published more than 160 articles, commentaries, and chapters across a wide range of topics, including cognitive and developmental psychology, education, evolutionary biology, and medicine. He has written three sole-authored books—Children's mathematical development (1994), Male, female: The evolution of human sex differences (1998), and The origin of mind: Evolution of brain, cognition, and general intelligence (2005)—and one co-authored book, Sex differences: Summarizing more than a century of scientific research (in press). He has given invited addresses in a variety of departments (anthropology, biology, behavior genetics, computer science, education, government, mathematics, neuroscience, physics, and psychology) and Universities throughout the United States, as well as in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, and Italy. He is currently a member of the President's National Mathematics Panel and is a recipient of a MERIT award from the National Institutes of Health.
Robert C. Granger, EdD
President of the New York City-based William T. Grant Foundation
Bob Granger is President of the William T. Grant Foundation. The Foundation supports original research, policy analyses, and evaluations that advance theory and practice on the conditions that foster the development of young people ages 8-25. Its current focus is on how social settings such as schools, community organizations, and neighborhoods influence young people, how to improve these settings, and how research influences policy and practice.
Since joining the Foundation in 2000 as Senior Vice President for Programs, Dr. Granger has led the creation of its Funding Guidelines; the focusing of its grantmaking; the development of an evaluation system applied to Foundation activities; an emphasis on supporting and improving the impact of current grants; and the use of a communication strategy targeting networks of key scholars, policymakers, and practitioners. The Foundation currently devotes all of its communication funding and approximately 15 percent of its support for research to improve the quality of after-school programs. Approximately one-third of the Foundation's current grants are focused on educational achievement and attainment.
Dr. Granger's previous positions include Senior Vice President of the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, Executive Vice President at Bank Street College of Education, and Executive Director of the Child Development Associate National Credentialing Program. He received his EdD in early childhood education in 1973 from the University of Massachusetts, and is an expert on the content and evaluation of programs and policies for low-income children and youth.
Frank Philip Handy
CEO of Strategic Industries, LLC, Winter Park, Florida
Mr. Frank Philip Handy, who has owned and operated many businesses and has over the years served on many corporate boards, is presently CEO of Strategic Industries LLC, Winter Park, Florida, a worldwide diversified service and manufacturing company. In January 2007, he completed a six-year term as Chairman of the Florida Board of Education. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and an advisor to the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He was appointed by President George W. Bush to the National Board of Education Sciences (NBES) in 2004 and served as its vice president until 2007. Mr. Handy was reappointed to the NBES in 2008.
He is a graduate of Princeton University and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Eric A. Hanushek, PhD
Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University
Eric A. Hanushek is the Paul and Jean Hanna Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. He is also chairman of the Executive Committee for the Texas Schools Project at the University of Texas at Dallas; a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research; and a member of the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. He is a member of the Governor's Advisory Committee on Education Excellence in California.
Dr. Hanushek is a leading expert on educational policy, specializing in the economics and finance of schools. His numerous books include Courting Failure, Handbook on the Economics of Education, The Economics of Schooling and School Quality, Improving America's Schools, Making Schools Work, Educational Performance of the Poor, Education and Race, Assessing Policies for Retirement Income, Modern Political Economy, Improving Information for Social Policy Decisions, and Statistical Methods for Social Scientists, along with over 200 publications in professional journals.
Dr. Hanushek previously held academic appointments at the University of Rochester, Yale University, and the U.S. Air Force Academy. Government service includes Deputy Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Senior Staff Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers, and Senior Economist at the Cost of Living Council. He is a member of the National Academy of Education and an elected fellow of the International Academy of Education and of the Society of Labor Economists. He was awarded the Fordham Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in 2004.
Dr. Hanushek is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, and completed his PhD in economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He served in the U.S. Air Force from 1965-1974.
Caroline M. Hoxby, PhD
Economics Professor and Researcher at Harvard University
Caroline Hoxby is the Scott and Donya Bommer Professor of Economics at Stanford University, a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution, and the Director of the Economics of Education Program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She is a Public Economist and a Labor Economist, and she specializes in the Economics of Education. She works on all aspects of education including both college and K-12 education. Her research includes studies of college choice, the effects of financial aid, the outcomes of graduates from different colleges, college tuition policy, public school finance, school choice, the effect of education on economic growth and income inequality, teacher pay and teacher quality, peer effects, and class size. She also works on topics that fit under the headings of public finance (property taxes, government finance), labor economics (earnings, returns to skills), and quantitative methods. Prior to Stanford, Caroline Hoxby was the Allie S. Freed Professor of Economics and a Harvard College Professor at Harvard University. She has a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT, studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and a baccalaureate degree from Harvard University. She has received numerous major grants and awards including ones from the National Science Foundation, Institute for Education Sciences, National Institute for Child Health and Development, the Carnegie Corporation, the Sloan Foundation, the Olin Foundation, the World Economic Forum, the Mellon Foundation, the National Tax Association, and the Fordham Foundation Prize for distinguished scholarship in education. She often serves the federal and state governments in an advisory capacity. Caroline Hoxby is currently completing books or studies on how education (especially science and engineering education) affects economic growth; globalization in higher education; peer effects in education; and the effect of charter schools (a form of school choice) on student achievement.
Jerry Lee
President of WBEB 101-FM in Philadelphia and founder of the Jerry Lee Center for Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania
Jerry Lee is, president of WBEB 101 FM - Philadelphia and founder of the Jerry Lee Center for Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the board of the National Association of Broadcasters and a member of the board of the International Campbell Collaboration on Systematic Reviews. In 2004, Mr. Lee was also inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and named to the Board of the American Research Foundation. In 2003, he was named to the Board of Advisors of the Coalition for Evidence-Based Education Policy, the Board of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and became an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology.
Mr. Lee, who has had a lifelong interest in the problem of crime, established the Jerry Lee Center for Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2001, with a $5 million gift from the Lee Foundation to "produce major discoveries about the causes and prevention of crime, showing how to make a safer and more democratic world."
Mr. Lee has been the recipient of many humanitarian awards, such as the "Great Friends to Kids" Philanthropy Award from the Please Touch Museum of Philadelphia, the "Person of the Year" by the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia, the Broadcast Foundation's American Broadcast Pioneer Award, the "Broadcaster of the Year" by Radio Ink magazine, and the President's Private Sector Initiative Award.
Mr. Lee holds a BA in economics from Youngstown University in Ohio.
Sally E. Shaywitz, MD
Professor of Pediatrics and Researcher at the Yale University School of Medicine
Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D., the Audrey G. Ratner Professor of Learning Development at the Yale University School of Medicine, is currently with Dr. Bennett A. Shaywitz, Co-Director of the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity and the Yale Center for the Study of Learning, Reading, and Attention. Dr. Shaywitz' research provides the basic framework: Conceptual Model, Epidemiology and Neurobiology for the scientific study of learning disabilities, particularly dyslexia, in children. She is the author of over 200 scientific articles, chapters and books, including Overcoming Dyslexia, which received the Margo Marek Book Award and the NAMI Book Award.
Dr. Shaywitz, an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree by Williams College, the Townsend Harris Medal of the City College of New York and the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Among other awards, she was selected, along with Bennett Shaywitz, as recipient of the Annie Glenn Award for Leadership of the Ohio State University, the Lawrence G. Crowley Distinguished Lectureship at Stanford University, the Leonard Apt Lectureship of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Sidney Berman Award of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Dr. Shaywitz, chosen as one of the "Best Doctors in America" serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the March of Dimes, the National Advisory Board of the National Center for Learning Disabilities and co-chairs the National Research Council Committee of Gender Differences in Careers in Math, Science and Engineering. She recently served on the Advisory Council of the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS) and the National Research Council Committee on Women in Science and Engineering. She also served on the National Reading Panel and on the Committee to Prevent Reading Difficulties in Young Children of the National Research Council.
Joseph K. Torgesen, PhD
Director of the Florida Center for Reading Research and Professor of psychology and education at Florida State University in Tallahassee
Joseph K. Torgesen is the Robert M. Gagne Professor of Psychology and Education at Florida State University and the Director of the Florida Center for Reading Research. He also is currently serving as the Director of the Eastern Regional Reading First Technical Assistance Center. He has been conducting research with children who have learning problems for over 25 years, and is the author of over 170 articles, book chapters, books, and tests related to reading and learning disabilities.
Throughout his career, Dr. Torgesen's work has been continuously supported by research grants from private foundations, the State of Florida, the U.S. Department of Education, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). For the last 15 years, he has been part of the effort supported by the NICHD to learn more about the nature of reading difficulties and ways to prevent and remediate reading problems in children.
Dr. Torgesen's current professional service includes membership on the editorial boards of six research journals as well as membership on the professional advisory board for the National Center for Learning Disabilities and the Scientific Advisory Board of the Haan Foundation for Children. He has also recently served on the Learning Disabilities Planning Group of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education.
