Yvette Jackson, EdD, is internationally recognized for her work in assessing and capitalizing on the learning potential of disenfranchised students. As a student of the renowned cognitive psychologist Reuven Feuerstein, she studies cognitive development and the impact of neurobiology, culture, and mediation on intellectual development, learning, and achievement. Her research is reflected in her books Pedagogy of Confidence, Inspiring High Intellectual Performance in Urban Schools, and Aim High, Achieve More: How to Transform Urban Schools through Fearless Leadership, coauthored by Veronica McDermott. Formerly the director of gifted programs and executive director for instruction and curriculum development for New York City public schools, she currently serves as the chief executive officer of the National Urban Alliance, and adjunct professor at Teachers College at Columbia University. She has been a visiting presenter for Harvard and Stanford Universities, the Feuerstein Institute in Israel, the Conference of Associação Nacional para o Estudo e Intervenção na Sobredotação (ANEIS) in Portugal, and Thinking Schools International in the United Kingdom.

Kristen Zimmerman is a senior fellow at the Movement Strategy Center. She was drawn to the Center for its spirit of innovation and the opportunity to bring bold, audacious ideas to life. She has stayed because of a shared commitment to risk taking and embodying new ways of being. As a senior fellow, she leads the development of the Center’s transformative movement building methodology. Her primary focus is the integration of mind-body practices with movement building and social change strategy. Her writing, which includes Out of the Spiritual Closet: Organizers Transforming the Practice of Social Justice, has helped to catalyze and shift innovative work in multiple sectors. She currently serves on the design team and faculty for the NoVo Foundation’s Move to End Violence — a 10-year movement building initiative to end gender-based violence. She trains in Zen, is an activist-organizer in special education, and is the proud and inlove parent of Jonah, her nine-year-old son with Down syndrome.

Christopher Knaus, PhD, is a race scholar and critical race theory practitioner who focuses on student voice as a foundation for educational systems transformation. He directs of the inaugural Doctorate in Educational Leadership Program at the University of Washington, Tacoma, where he also serves as professor of education. In addition to preparing and supporting leaders who transform their professional arenas and community contexts, he collaborates to develop and sustain diverse educator pathways that strengthen culturally responsive, socially just approaches. His focus on developing the urban youth voice helps educators to create inclusive, challenging classrooms and schools that provide children with the skills to transform the immediate world they live into one of meaning – one in which addressing social inequalities becomes the purpose of their education. He has visited with students and schools in 12 countries, and his research centers on the silencing impact of racially biased curriculum, pedagogy, and policy on global communities of color. He is currently completing his third book, Whiteness Is the New South Africa: Qualitative Research on Post-Apartheid Racism, based on research that he conducted as a Fulbright Scholar.

Jerome Murphy, PhD, is the Harold Howe II professor of education at Harvard University, and former dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is a specialist in the management and politics of education. His teaching and research focus on administrative practice and organizational leadership, government policy, program implementation and evaluation, and qualitative methodology. He has examined educational policy and practices in England, Australia, Colombia, China, and South Africa, and has participated in international exchange meetings on educational issues in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Israel, and Russia. As dean, he led the development of new initiatives in learning technologies, arts education, neuroscience and education, and school leadership. A former math teacher, he helped develop domestic legislation in the former U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; was associate director of the White House Fellows Program; and founded and directed the Massachusetts Internships in Education.

Janice Jackson, PhD, is a senior associate with the National Equity Project. She is an independent education consultant with a focus on leadership and organizational change in public schools and districts, equity strategies, teaching and learning, teachers’ and principals’ professional identity, and reflective judgment of principals and teachers. Prior to her current role, she was the executive director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. She has served as a lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a senior associate on the Wallace-funded Executive Leadership Program for Educators, a faculty member in the Leadership for Change Program in the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, and an assistant professor at Boston College in the Lynch School of Education. She has served as the deputy superintendent for Boston public schools, and deputy and acting assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education for the U.S. Department of Education. She has also worked as a human relations coordinator, a personnel analyst, and an elementary school teacher.

Doug Coatsworth, PhD, is professor of human development and family studies at Colorado State University, and the director of the Colorado State University Prevention Research Center. He earned his AB from Harvard University in psychology and social relations and his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Minnesota, and received postdoctoral training in prevention science at Arizona State University. His research has focused on understanding the developmental process of resilience in childhood and adolescence, and on evaluating interventions that promote competence, resilience, and well-being in children, youth, and families. Most of his studies involve intervening with families to promote positive parenting and effective family functioning as a mechanism for creating nurturing home environments and enhancing youth resilience. Recently, he and his collaborators developed a theoretical model of mindfulness in parenting that has guided pilot and large-scale randomized clinical trials of a mindfulness-enhanced, family skills program. Their program infuses brief mindfulness activities into an evidence-based program to study the additive effects of mindfulness on positive parenting, family functioning, parent-youth relationships, and youth behavior.

Zakiyah Ansari is the Advocacy Director of the New York State Alliance for Quality Education (AQE), a leading statewide organization that has fought for educational equity for the last decade. Appointed to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Transition Committee, she has addressed parents, educators, elected officials, and administrators across the United States about the importance of organizing parents and communities in schools. She is a co-initiator of a new, national movement, Journey for Justice, composed of grassroots community-based organizations representing youth, parents, and intergenerational organizations that are impacted by the closing, turnaround, and charter expansion of schools in communities of color. She was interviewed for the February 2013 edition of American Prospect (“Pushing Arne Duncan to Fast Forward”); has appeared on MSNBC’s weekly national program, Melissa Harris-Perry; was a panelist on the City & State and Schoolbook panel on education; and is one of the parent voices in the film Parent Power, produced by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform. She resides in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, and is the mother of eight children and a grandmother of three.

Patricia St. Onge is founder and partner at Seven Generations Consulting and Coaching. Supporting individuals, organizations, and communities in increasing their capacity for fullness and effectiveness, she believes that much of the wisdom necessary to solve a dilemma rests within those experiencing the challenge. She has worked to support the progressive social justice movements all of her adult life, and has served as executive and interim director of more than a dozen nonprofit organizations. She is a member of Native Americans in Philanthropy and Common Counsel Foundation, a trustee of funders for LGBTQ issues, and core faculty at the Chaplaincy Institute for Interfaith Studies. Her work is deeply rooted in the concept of Seven Generations, where we honor the generations who have come before us, and are mindful of those yet to come and how the impact of our decisions will last for seven generations. Lead author of Embracing Cultural Competency: A Roadmap for Nonprofit Capacity Builders, she holds a bachelor’s degree in human services and a master’s of divinity. Of Haudenosaunee (Mohawk) and Quebecoise descent, she is an activist and member of an indigenous grandmothers’ circle. She and her life partner have 10 grown children and six grandchildren.

Jaimie Cloud is the founder and president of the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education in New York City. The Cloud Institute is dedicated to the vital role of education in creating awareness, fostering commitment, and guiding actions toward a healthy, secure, and sustainable future for ourselves and for future generations. We monitor the evolving thinking and skills of the most important champions of sustainability, and transform them into educational materials and a pedagogical system that inspire young people to think about the world, their relationship to it, and their ability to influence it in an entirely new way. A pioneer of Education for Sustainability (EfS) in the United States, she has authored The Cloud Institute’s EfS Framework, and several peer-reviewed journal chapters and articles on sustainability and the significance of education for sustainability. Working extensively with educators, administrators, and school boards across the nation, she designs and facilitates professional development programs and directs the collaborative development of numerous instructional units and courses for K-12 and higher education designed to teach and learn across disciplines through the lens of sustainability. In addition to her commitment to furthering the mission of The Cloud Institute, she serves as an advisor, board member, or committee member to several organizations with related goals and interests.