Home » Producers and Speakers: Money and Power in Post-Election America
Producers and Speakers: Money and Power in Post-Election America
Angela Glover Blackwell is the Founder and CEO of PolicyLink, a leading voice in the movement to use public policy to improve access and opportunity for all low-income people and communities of color. Prior to PolicyLink's founding in 1999, Angela oversaw the Rockefeller Foundation's Domestic and Cultural divisions as a Senior Vice President. She founded the Oakland (CA) Urban Strategies Council and is a former partner at Public Advocates. A frequent commentator for the Washington Post, Salon, the Huffington Post, public radio's Marketplace, The Tavis Smiley Show, Nightline, and PBS's Now, Angela co-authored Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America's Future and contributed to Ending Poverty in America: How to Restore the American Dream and The Covenant with Black America. She serves on many boards, including The President's Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She also co-chaired the Center for American Progress task force on poverty. Angela earned a B.A. from Howard University and a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.
David Blumenthal, M.D. became President and CEO of the Commonwealth Fund, a national health care philanthropy based in New York City, in January 2013. Previously, he served as Chief Health Information and Innovation Officer at Partners Health System in Boston, MA, and was Samuel O. Thier Professor of Medicine and Professor of Health Care Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. From 2009 to 2011, David was the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology under President Barack Obama. In this role, he was charged with building an interoperable, private and secure nationwide health information system and supporting the widespread, meaningful use of health IT. As a renowned health services researcher and national authority on health IT adoption, David has authored over 250 scholarly publications, including the seminal studies on the adoption and use of health information technology in the United States.
Ronna Brown is the President of Philanthropy New York. Under her leadership since 2007, Philanthropy New York's membership has grown and its mandate expanded. Now it not only fosters collaboration and knowledge-sharing among its 285 member organizations and presents programs that foundations rely upon, it is increasingly acknowledged as a key voice in advancing public policies that support effective philanthropy and a productive nonprofit sector. Prior to Philanthropy New York, Ronna served for nine years as President and CEO of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Metropolitan New York and its foundation. While at BBB, she was also a board member of BBB's Wise Giving Alliance. Ronna was the Co-Chair of the original Standards Review Panel that created the current guidelines used by the BBB system nationwide for reviews of local and national charities. Before BBB, Ronna was Deputy Bureau Chief of the Consumer Frauds and Protection Bureau of the New York State Attorney General's office. Ronna is admitted to the practice of law in New York and California.
Sheila Burke is a Faculty Research Fellow at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy and an Adjunct Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Earlier in her career, she was a staff member to the Senate Finance Committee responsible for legislation relating to Medicare, Medicaid and other health programs. She was later Deputy Staff Director of the Finance Committee, and then served as Chief of Staff to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, where she was involved with numerous health-related legislative issues including those to reform health care. In 1995, she was elected Secretary of the Senate, the body's chief administrative officer, the first woman to hold the post. Sheila is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. She has served on foundation and corporate boards, including the Kaiser Commission on the Future of Medicaid and the Uninsured and Wellpoint Health Networks. A practicing nurse in New York and California early in her career, Sheila holds an M.P.A. from the Harvard Kennedy School and a B.S. in Nursing from the University of San Francisco.
Michele Cahill is Vice President for National Program and Director of Urban Education at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, where she leads efforts to create pathways to educational and economic opportunity by generating K-16 systemic change, as well as pathways to citizenship, civil participation and civic integration. Michele co-chaired the Carnegie–Institute for Advanced Study Commission on Transforming Mathematics and Science Education that published Opportunity Equation in 2009, and she leads the subsequent mobilization, including the 100kin10 partnership for STEM teaching recognized by the White House and the Clinton Global Initiative America. Michele is a founding board member of the Shared Learning Collaborative, a public-private alliance in nine states that aims to accelerate the progress of public schools towards personalized learning through shared technology services. Prior to the Corporation, Michele was Senior Counselor for Education Policy in the NYC Department of Education under Chancellor Joel Klein. She served on the Children First senior leadership team that oversaw and implemented the full-scale reorganization and reform of NYC public schools.
Mitchell Chester is the Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education. Mitchell began his tenure as Massachusetts Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education in May 2008. From 2001 through 2008 he worked for the Ohio Department of Education, where he was the second ranking educator. He served as the Executive Director for Accountability and Assessment for the School District of Philadelphia from 1997 through 2001. Prior to working in Philadelphia, Mitchell was Chief of the Bureau of Curriculum and Instructional Programs of the Connecticut State Department of Education. He was a teacher, assistant principal and curriculum coordinator in three school districts. Mitchell holds a doctorate in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Abigail Disney is a filmmaker and philanthropist. She has written and/or produced a number of documentaries with social themes, including Pray the Devil to Hell (Tribeca Best Documentary 2008), Peace Unveiled and Sun Come Up (Academy Award® Nominee 2011, Best Documentary Short). She co-founded the Daphne Foundation, which makes grants to community-based organizations working with low-income communities in New York City. Since 1991, Daphne has made millions of dollars in grants in areas ranging from women's rights to labor conditions and incarceration. Abigail is Co-Founder of the Gwobee Peace Foundation and Founder of Peace is Loud, both of which support peace-building women around the world. She has served on many boards and is currently a Director for the Global Fund for Women, The White House Project, The Fund for the City of New York, Shining Hope for Communities, The Roy Disney Family Foundation and The Peace Research Endowment. She is the recipient of a number of awards, including the White House Project's Epic Awards, which honor innovators advancing women's leadership. Abigail holds degrees from Yale, Stanford and Columbia.
Peter Edelman is a Professor of Law at Georgetown Law Center and Faculty Co-Chair of the Georgetown Center on Poverty, Inequality and Public Policy. On the faculty since 1982, he has also served in all three branches of government. During President Clinton's first term he was Counselor to Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and then Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Earlier in his career he was a Legislative Assistant to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Issues Director for Senator Edward Kennedy's 1980 Presidential campaign, and a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg. He also served as Vice President of the University of Massachusetts and as Director of the New York State Division for Youth. Peter is Chair of the American Constitution Society and of the District of Columbia Access to Justice Commission. His new book, So Rich, So Poor: Why It's So Hard to End Poverty in America, was published by The New Press in the spring of 2012.
Donna Edwards represents Maryland's Fourth Congressional District, comprising portions of Prince George's and Anne Arundel Counties. She was sworn in as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 110th Congress, and began her first full term in the 111th Congress in 2009. Congresswoman Edwards has secured a number of legislative accomplishments to improve the lives of working families, as well as expand research and development, domestic manufacturing and infrastructure spending to create jobs and grow our economy. She was also the first Member of the House to introduce and champion a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. Just prior to serving in Congress, she was the Executive Director of the Arca Foundation, where she gained national prominence on many fronts, including her efforts to promote labor and human rights. A longtime public interest advocate, she has headed the National Network to End Domestic Violence and the Center for a New Democracy and served on numerous nonprofit boards. She graduated from Wake Forest University and received her J.D. from the University of New Hampshire School of Law.
Katherine Fulton is a partner of Monitor Group and President of Monitor Institute, the Group's social enterprise dedicated to helping innovative leaders develop and achieve sustainable solutions to significant social and environmental problems. In her more than three decades as a change agent, Katherine has been a journalist, teacher, entrepreneur, philanthropist, convener, strategist, advisor, leader and citizen. In whatever role she finds herself, she aspires to work with leaders who are creating the future and to help people and organizations have courage in the face of uncertainty. In recent years, she has advised many of this generation's leading philanthropists and foundations as well as rising social entrepreneurs and established business leaders. She is the co-author of What's Next for Philanthropy: Acting Bigger and Adapting Better in a Networked World and Investing for Social and Environmental Impact: A Blueprint for Catalyzing an Emerging Industry.
Ana Garcia-Ashley is the first woman of color in America to head an international community organizing network. As Executive Director of Gamaliel, she spearheads efforts to assist grassroots leaders of racially diverse, multi-faith community organizations in the U.S. and abroad to become independent forces for tackling local issues. She joined Gamaliel in 1992 as the lead organizer of MICAH in Milwaukee, where she led one of the most successful campaigns in Gamaliel's history, winning a $500 million commitment from local banks to invest in affordable housing, enabling 7,000 low-income families to buy homes. She also founded Gamaliel's statewide Wisconsin affiliate, WISDOM. Long considered a rising star by veterans in her field, Ana accepted her latest role at Gamaliel in 2011. Ana's deep sense of organizing as a ministry, her interest in the relationship between faith and politics and her status as a naturalized immigrant dovetail perfectly with the goal of Gamaliel to serve as a community of people living out their faith and values to collectively transform their communities and bring about justice locally, nationally and globally.
David Gergen is a Professor of Public Service and Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, positions he has held for the past decade. He also serves as a Senior Political Analyst for CNN. In the past, David has served as a White House adviser to four U.S. presidents: Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton. He authored the New York Times best-seller Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton. In the 1980s, he served as Chief Editor of U.S. News & World Report, initiating him in journalism. David has been active on many boards, including Yale and Duke universities, Teach for America, City Year, the Schwab Foundation and the Aspen Institute. David is a member of the D.C. bar, a veteran of the U.S. Navy, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the U.S. executive committee for the Trilateral Commission. He is an honors graduate of Yale and the Harvard Law School. David is currently at work on a new book about renewing America's political culture.
Ron Haskins is a Senior Fellow in the Economic Studies Program and Co-Director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution and Senior Consultant at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. He is the author of Work Over Welfare: The Inside Story of the 1996 Welfare Reform Law (2006), co-author of Creating an Opportunity Society (2009) and Senior Editor of The Future of Children. In 2002, he was the Senior Advisor to the President for Welfare Policy at the White House. Prior to joining Brookings and Casey, he spent 14 years on the staff of the House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee, serving as the subcommittee's Staff Director after Republicans took control of the House in 1994. In 1997, Ron was selected by the National Journal as one of the 100 most influential people in the federal government. He holds a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from UNC.
Stanley Katz is a Professor and Director of the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. Author and editor of numerous books and articles, he specializes in American legal and constitutional history and on philanthropy and nonprofit institutions. He serves as President Emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies, Editor in Chief of the Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History, member of the American Philosophical Society, and a Fellow of the American Society for Legal History, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of American Historians. Formerly a History Professor at Princeton, Stan has served as President of the Organization of American Historians and the American Society for Legal History, and as Vice President of the Research Division of the American Historical Association. He received the Fellows Award from Phi Beta Kappa in 2010 and the National Humanities Medal in 2011. Stan received his undergraduate, J.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard University.
James Knickman is the first President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York State Health Foundation (NYSHealth), a private foundation dedicated to improving the health of all New Yorkers, especially the most vulnerable. Under Jim's leadership, NYSHealth has invested more than $75 million since 2006 in initiatives to improve health care and the public health system in New York State. Equally important, the Foundation is committed to sharing the results and lessons of its grantmaking; informing policy and practice through analysis and commentary; and serving as a neutral convener of health care leaders and advocates. Prior to joining NYSHealth, Jim was the Vice President of Research and Evaluation at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and served on the faculty of New York University's Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Jim serves on numerous boards, including the National Council on Aging, the Center for Effective Philanthropy and Philanthropy New York. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Psychology from Fordham University and his Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis from the University of Pennsylvania.
Gara LaMarche is a Senior Fellow at New York University's Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service. From 2007 to 2011, he was President and CEO of the Atlantic Philanthropies. Prior to Atlantic, he served as Associate Director of Human Rights Watch and Director of its Free Expression Project, then Vice President and Director of U.S. Programs for the Open Society Institute, after stints as a Revson Fellow at Columbia University and Director of the Freedom-to-Write Program of PEN American Center. Early in his career, Gara held various positions with the American Civil Liberties Union, including New York branch Associate Director and Executive Director of the Texas affiliate. Gara blogs at http://garala.typepad.com, has authored numerous articles on human rights and social justice issues and edited Speech and Equality: Do We Really Have to Choose? He serves on the boards of StoryCorps, of which he is Chair, and ProPublica, the New Press, Open Society Policy Center and the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. Gara is a graduate of Columbia College at Columbia University.
Stanley Litow is IBM's Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs and President of IBM's Foundation. Under his leadership, IBM has been widely regarded as the global leader in Corporate Citizenship, and praised for societal and environmental leadership, labor practices and civic leadership. Under Stan, IBM developed innovative voice recognition technology to help children and adults learn to read, a humanitarian virtual supercomputer to speed research on cancer and AIDS and new digital imaging technology to improve water quality. Stan helped devise P-TECH, a grade 9 through 14 schools initiative to engage companies, colleges, communities and schools to help strengthen America's economic competitiveness by connecting education to jobs; IBM's Corporate Service Corps, a corporate version of the Peace Corps; and IBM's Smarter Cities Challenge, which is helping 100 cities worldwide become more effective. Prior to joining IBM, Stan served as Deputy Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools, and was the Founder and CEO of Interface, a nonprofit think tank. The Civic 50 recently named IBM as America's most community-minded company.
Félix V. Matos Rodríguez is President of Eugenio María de Hostos Community College of The City University of New York. Immediately prior to Hostos, Félix served as Secretary of the Department of the Family for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and as Senior Social Welfare and Health Advisor to the Governor of Puerto Rico. He is currently on leave from his position as Professor of Black and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies at Hunter College of CUNY. While at Hunter, Félix served as Director of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies. Prior to Hunter, Félix was a Program Officer at the Social Science Research Council. Félix serves on many boards, including the American Council on Education, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, the Bronx Chamber of Commerce and FedCap. He is a member of The Century Foundation's "Task Force on Preventing Community Colleges from Becoming Separate and Unequal." Félix earned his B.A. from Yale College and his Ph.D. in History from Columbia University.
Heather C. McGhee is the Vice President of Policy and Outreach at Demos, a public policy organization working for an America in which we all have an equal say in our democracy and an equal chance in our economy. She is a frequent writer, speaker and media commentator on issues of democracy reform, economic opportunity, racial equity and financial regulation. She is also a regular guest on MSNBC, Fox News and CNN. Her opinions, writing and research have appeared in numerous outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, National Public Radio, The Washington Post and The New York Times. She is the co-author of a chapter on retirement insecurity in the book Inequality Matters: The Growing Economic Divide in America and its Poisonous Consequences (New Press, 2005). In 2009, she co-chaired a task force within Americans for Financial Reform that helped shape key provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. She holds a B.A. in American Studies from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.
Anthony (Tony) Miller is the Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer at the U.S. Department of Education. Prior to joining the Department in 2009, Tony was an operating partner with Silver Lake, a leading private equity firm. He has also worked as Executive Vice President of Operations for the LRN Corporation, a compliance software and e-learning company, and spent 10 years at McKinsey & Company, where as partner he specialized in growth strategies, operating performance improvement and restructuring for companies throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia. In education, Tony has advised the Los Angeles Unified School District and Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, developing student achievement goals and strategies, aligning budgets and operating plans and designing metrics and processes for overseeing district-wide performance. Through his service as an ex officio member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education Budget and Finance Committee, he deepened his understanding of state funding and school district budgeting matters. Tony is a graduate of Purdue University and holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
David Morse is interim Vice President and Senior Fellow at Encore.org (formerly Civic Ventures), a nonprofit building a movement to promote encore careers—second acts for the greater good. David has had an eclectic career leading public policymaking, advocacy and strategic communications and planning across sectors, as a "shoe-leather" epidemiologist for the New York State Department of Health, staffer for the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, Director of the President's Task Force on the Arts and Humanities, Associate Vice President for Policy Planning, Director of Federal Relations and Instructor in Higher Education and Public Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, Chief Communications Officer for the Pew Charitable Trusts and, from 2001 to 2011, Vice President for Communications for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He serves on several nonprofit boards, chairs the Norwegian Language Institute board and teaches public policy and strategic communications at the University of Southern California. He earned a B.A. from Hamilton College and a Master's degree in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University.
Anna-Nanine Pond has provided management consulting services to private foundations, higher educational institutions and nonprofit groups for the past twelve years. Her consulting projects have included designing and closing out grantmaking portfolios, serving in interim executive leadership capacities for philanthropic organizations and initiatives and facilitating institution-wide strategic planning and organizational assessment processes. Recent clients have included Philanthropy New York, D5/Diversity and Philanthropy Project, the Ford Foundation, The California Foundation, the Foundation Center, the Progressive Public Foundations Project, the Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York, Hostos Community College and Naugatuck Valley Community College. Anna works across issue areas but has published on a range of topics including women's multicultural leadership and access to health care services for underserved communities. A former program officer at The California Endowment, Anna started her career in nonprofit leadership development and immigrants' rights. Anna earned her Bachelor's degree from Yale College and her Master's in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Ai-jen Poo, Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), has been organizing immigrant women workers since 1996. In 2000 she co-founded Domestic Workers United, the New York organization that spearheaded the successful passage of the state's historic Domestic Workers Bill of Rights in 2010. In 2007, DWU helped organize the first national domestic workers convening, out of which formed the NDWA. Ai-jen serves on the Board of Directors of Momsrising, National Jobs with Justice, Working America, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy and the National Council on Aging. Among Ai-jen's numerous accolades are the Ms. Foundation Woman of Vision Award, the Independent Sector American Express NGen Leadership Award, Newsweek's 150 Fearless Women list and the Time 100 list.
Andrew Rasiej is an entrepreneur and technology strategist who counsels leaders across sectors on issues related to civic engagement, technology, transparency, digital diplomacy and campaign strategy. Andrew started working at the intersection of technology and politics in 1999, offering new media advice to leaders like Hillary and Bill Clinton, Tom Daschle and Dick Gephardt. In 2003, he became Chairman of the Technology Advisory Committee for the Dean for America Campaign, which pioneered digital media tactics in constituency development, community building and networked political fundraising. In 2004, Andrew founded Personal Democracy Forum, the international cross-partisan conference series that examines how technology impacts the global political landscape while advancing a more participatory, connective and transparent world. He is Founder of MOUSE.org, Co-Founder of Mideastwire.com, Chairman of NY Tech Meetup, Senior Technology Advisor to the Sunlight Foundation and a board member of PopTech. Andrew is a graduate of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and an alumnus of the David Rockefeller Fellowship Program.
David Rubenstein is a Co-Founder and Co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private equity firms. Since David co-founded the firm in 1987, Carlyle now manages more than $157 billion from 32 offices around the world. Prior to Carlyle, in addition to practicing law for major firms, David spent years in public service. From 1975 to 1976, he served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments and, for four years during the Carter Administration, he served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. David is Chairman of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution, President of the Economic Club of Washington and Vice-Chairman of the Boards of Duke University, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution. David serves as an advisor, trustee and board member for many nonprofit, academic and business institutions ranging from the University of Chicago to the National Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution. He graduated magna cum laude from Duke University and then from The University of Chicago Law School.
William Schambra is Director of the Hudson Institute's Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal. From 1992 to 2002, Bill served as Director of Programs at the Bradley Foundation. He has served as a senior advisor and chief speechwriter for Attorney General Edwin Meese III, Director of the Office of Personnel Management Constance Horner and Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan. He was Director of Social Policy Programs for the American Enterprise Institute and co-directed AEI's "A Decade of Study of the Constitution." Bill was appointed by President Reagan to the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and by President George W. Bush to the Corporation for National and Community Service's board. Bill has written extensively on the Constitution, civic revitalization and civil society in The Public Interest, National Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, Policy Review, The Christian Science Monitor, Nonprofit Quarterly and Philanthropy and has edited volumes, including As Far as Republican Principles Will Admit: Collected Essays of Martin Diamond. He is a regular columnist for The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Eric Schneiderman is New York's Attorney General. Since he took office in 2011, Eric has worked to restore the public's faith in its public and private sector institutions by focusing on areas including public integrity, economic justice, social justice and environmental protection. As Attorney General, Eric has taken action on a number of regulatory issues relating to nonprofits, including: convening a Leadership Committee for Nonprofit Revitalization with 32 nonprofit leaders from across New York to recommend proposals that would reduce regulatory burdens on nonprofits, while strengthening governance and accountability; introducing the Nonprofit Revitalization Act to implement many of the Committee's recommendations; and announcing new regulations requiring nonprofit groups, including 501(c)(4) "social welfare" organizations, that are registered with the state to report their electioneering activities and file schedules of their contributions and expenses with the Attorney General. He has also taken a leading role in the national fight for a comprehensive investigation of misconduct in the mortgage market and fair settlements for homeowners in the foreclosure crisis. As a state senator, Eric passed sweeping ethics reforms, chaired the committee to expel a corrupt senator for the first time in modern history and led the effort to reform the Rockefeller drug laws.
Edward Skloot is Director of the Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society and Professor of the Practice of Public Policy at Duke University. He joined Duke in 2008 after retiring as CEO of the $1 billion Surdna Foundation, where he served for 18 years. Surdna was deeply involved in programs ranging from urban revitalization and environmental sustainability to helping young people learn and do social justice organizing. For nine years before Surdna (1980-89) he created and ran New Ventures, a nonprofit consultancy that was one of the first planners and advocates for what is now called social entrepreneurship. He serves on the boards of Venture Philanthropy Partners, Citizen Schools, Partners for Palliative Care, TROSA and Duke Engage. He most recently co-edited Scaling Social Impact: New Thinking (Palgrave MacMillan, 2010).
Mark Smith, M.D. has been President and CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) since its formation in 1996. A board-certified internist, Mark serves on the clinical faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, and is an attending physician at the Positive Health Program for AIDS care at San Francisco General Hospital. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and chaired the IOM committee on The Learning Health Care System in America. Prior to CHCF, Mark was Executive Vice President at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and Associate Director of AIDS Services and Assistant Professor of Medicine and of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins University. He has served on the National Business Group on Health board, the Annals of Internal Medicine editorial board, and is author of On Practical Progress. Mark received a Bachelor's degree from Harvard College, a medical doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master's in Business, with a concentration in Health Care Administration, from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jonathan Soros is CEO of JS Capital Management LLC, a private investment firm. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and Co-Founder of Friends of Democracy, a Super PAC and advocacy organization dedicated to reducing the influence of money in politics. Jonathan is a member of the board of the New America Foundation and holds several board positions affiliated with the Open Society Foundations. Prior to founding JS Capital, Jonathan spent nine years with Soros Fund Management LLC, serving as its President and Deputy Chairman. He has clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, worked as Assistant Director of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems' mission to Moldova, and co-founded the Fair Trial Initiative. Jonathan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government and received his B.A. from Wesleyan University.
Dennis M. Walcott is Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education. Previously, Dennis served as Mayor Bloomberg's Deputy Mayor for Education and Community Development, where he oversaw and coordinated the operations of the Department of Education, the New York City Housing Authority, the Department of Youth and Community Development and the Mayor's Office of Adult Education. He also reviewed the activities of the New York City School Construction Authority, City University of New York and the City University Construction Fund. Dennis currently serves on the board of the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation, and previously served as Co-Chair of the Mayor's Commission for Construction Opportunity. Before joining the Bloomberg Administration in 2002, he was President and CEO of the New York Urban League and Executive Director of the Harlem Dowling Westside Center. He has been an adjunct professor of social work at York College and started his career as a kindergarten teacher. A graduate of New York City public schools, Dennis received his Bachelor's degree and Master's in Education from the University of Bridgeport and his Master's of Social Work from Fordham University.