Dr. Ackerman was recently named the Chief Executive Officer of the School District of Philadelphia. Previously, Dr. Ackerman served as the Christian A. Johnson Professor of Outstanding Educational Practice and Director of Inquiry Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Prior to that, Dr. Ackerman served as the Superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District and has served in public education for 32 years.

Before coming to San Francisco, Dr. Ackerman served as Superintendent of the Washington, D.C. Public Schools. Other work experiences include classroom teacher at both the elementary and middle school levels; principal at the middle school level; Director, Upward Bound Program for first generation college-bound students; Director, Basic Skills Academy for at-risk high school youth; Assistant Superintendent, Special Services; Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Academic Achievement; and Deputy Superintendent/Chief Academic Officer.

Dr. Ackerman received Masters and Doctoral degrees from Harvard University. She also received a Masters Degree from Washington University, St. Louis and a Bachelors Degree from Harris Stowe Teachers College in St. Louis.

Dr. Ackerman has received numerous honors and awards including Apple for the Teacher Award-Iota Lambda Sorority, Distinguished Alumni Award-Harris Stowe Teachers College, and recognition from Harvard University’s Urban Superintendents Program.

Dr. Ackerman is also actively involved with many organizations including Bay Area School Reform Collaboration, BROAD-Urban Superintendents Academy Program, Council of the Great City Schools, Harvard Urban Superintendents Program, San Francisco Fine Arts Board of Trustees, San Francisco Symphony Board of Governors and WestEd.

Ramon C. Cortines was recently named Senior Deputy Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District. Previously, Mr. Cortines has overseen two of the nation’s largest school districts as chancellor in New York City (1993-1995) and superintendent in Los Angeles (1999-2000). In addition, he was superintendent in San Jose, California, for two years, in San Francisco for six years, and superintendent and administrator in Pasadena for eleven years.

Mr. Cortines’ career as an educator dates back to 1956 when he began teaching in Aptos, California, and includes work at the elementary, middle, and senior high levels. He served as special advisor to the Secretary of Education in 1995 and acting assistant secretary for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) in1997. He currently sits on numerous boards, including those of the J. Paul Getty Trust, Scholastic Inc., Board Governor S.F. Symphony and the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.

Mr. Cortines formerly served as distinguished Senior Fellow of the Education Commission of the states in Denver, Colorado, National Advisory Council to Columbia University’s Positive Action for Teen Health in New York City, Special Olympics, Inc., Director of the Annenberg Institute at Brown University and Advisory for the Exploration S.F. He has also served as an adjunct Professor of Education at Brown University, Stanford University, and Harvard University.

He is a consultant to the Eli Broad Foundation LA, William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, Menlo Park, CA, James Irvine Foundation S.F., and The Institute for Learning University of Pittsburg.

Mr. Cortines recently served as the Deputy Mayor of Education, Youth and Families for the Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio R. Villaraigosa, and also oversaw and acted as the liaison to several city departments including the Department of Aging, The Commission on Children, Youth, and Families, the Department of Cultural Affairs, El Pueblo Historical Monument, Libraries, and Recreation and Parks.

Dr. James L. Hager is a Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Educational Leadership. Jim Co-Directs the Center for Education Policy Studies and the Superintendents’ Institutes. He also coordinates the Executive Leadership Doctoral Program. His areas of expertise include policy, politics, and governance, organizational development, school improvement, the principalship, and the superintendency. Dr. Hager has served as a Superintendent of Schools, deputy superintendent, director of secondary education, and a high school principal. He began his career as a high school teacher of biology and chemistry.

Jim, in 2004, was honored by receiving a number of prestigious awards for his leadership as Superintendent. He was named State Superintendent of the Year by both the Nevada State Superintendent’s Association and the Nevada School Board's Associations. He was one of four finalists for AASA's National Superintendent of the Year and was named Plato Learning Corporation's Educator of the Year. He also received various local leadership awards including Educator of the Year by the Reno Chapter of the NAACP. Jim has served on many public and private boards and committees.

He has wide experience in conducting seminars and providing consulting services at the national and international level in such areas as board-superintendent relations, executive searches, organizational and/or personnel evaluations, conflict resolution and/or mediation, needs assessments, building a winning team, time-stress and self management, strategic planning, school improvement planning & implementation, Facilitation, conducing focus groups, coaching and mentoring, and other organizational development activities.

Dr. Hager received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Science from St. Benedict's College, Atchison, Kansas; a Master of Science Degree in Educational Administration from Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas; and a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Educational Administration and Curriculum from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.

James H. Lytle (Torch) is Practice Professor of Educational Leadership at the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania.

From 1998 – 2006, Dr. Lytle was superintendent of the Trenton, NJ Public Schools where he led an aggressive effort to implement New Jersey’s urban education reform initiative. Prior to his appointment in Trenton, he served in a variety of capacities in the School District of Philadelphia as an elementary, middle, and high school principal; executive director for planning, research and evaluation; regional superintendent; and assistant superintendent.

Dr. Lytle has been active in a number of national professional organizations, including the Council of Great City Schools, the Cross Cities Campaign, and the American Educational Research Association. He has written and presented frequently on matters relating to the improvement of urban schooling. His research interests relate to increasing the efficacy of urban public schools and leading school change efforts. Currently he is a consultant to the Wallace/Reader’s Digest Foundation project on school leadership development.

Dr. Lytle received his doctorate in education from Stanford, a master’s degree in English from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his bachelor's degree from Cornell University.

Mike Moses currently holds the Distinguished Meadows Visiting Professorship in Educational Leadership at Texas A&M University-Commerce. Dr. Moses serves as an instructor and guest lecturer in the Educational Leadership Department. He also serves as a special advisor to the Dean of the College of Education.

Prior to accepting this appointment, Dr. Moses served on the board of the American College of Education. This College is located in Chicago, Illinois, and develops educational programs for teachers and administrators focusing on improving teacher training and executive leadership.

Dr. Moses has served in Texas public education for thirty years, starting as a teacher and administrator in the Duncanville and Garland school districts. He then served as superintendent for the Tatum, La Marque and Lubbock school districts.

From 1995 to 1999, Dr. Moses served as Texas Commissioner of Education, appointed twice by then Governor George W. Bush and confirmed by the Texas Senate. In 1999, he joined the Texas Tech University System as deputy chancellor. His responsibilities included governmental relations, development and institutional advancement, linkages between public education and the Texas Tech University system, and supervision of the news and publication division of the system as well as oversight of the Chancellor’s Council.

In October 2000, Mike Moses accepted the appointment as general superintendent of the Dallas Independent School District. He was selected unanimously for this position as the nineteenth superintendent of the district. He served in that capacity until assuming the role with Higher Ed Holdings in October 2004.

As the superintendent of the Dallas district, Dr. Moses spearheaded a successful school bond election in January 2002. As one of the largest bond elections in the nation, the $1.37 billion capital improvement program included renovations of existing schools and the construction of twenty new schools. Dr. Moses also led the Dallas district through the successful conclusion and release from federal court supervision of a thirty-three year old school desegregation court order. During his tenure, student achievement in the Dallas district markedly improved while the financial fund balance of the school district almost doubled.

Among awards that Dr. Moses has received are the Texas Business and Education’s “Distinguished Service Award” and the “Golden Deeds in Education Award” from Texas A & M University. The Texas School Public Relations Association awarded Dr. Moses its “1999 Key Communicator for Public Education Award”. Both the national and Texas PTA organizations have presented him with life memberships. He was also selected “Superintendent of the Year” in two Texas education regions and was one of the four national finalists for “Superintendent of the Year” in 2003.

His wife, Debi, is a former public school teacher and the couple has two sons.

Mr. Parsons currently serves as Director Emeritus of McKinsey and Company Inc., a leading international management consultancy. He joined McKinsey in 1976 in New York, was elected a Principal in 1982 and a Director in 1988 and was on the McKinsey Advisory Council from 2001 to 2004 after his retirement as an active partner. At various times he led the North American Consumer practice, created the Global Marketing practice and founded the E-Marketing initiative. He served clients globally on strategic, organizational and marketing functional issues in the consumer goods and services, retail, marketing services, media and pharmaceutical/medical devices sectors.

During a leave of absence from McKinsey in 1978-9, Mr. Parsons was a principal in setting up and the subsequent sale to Xerox of Kurzweil Computer Products, a pioneer in artificial intelligence and OCR technology. Prior to joining McKinsey, Mr. Parsons was Vice President of Marketing for the Prestige Division of American Home Products. Earlier he had worked in London as an Account Executive for LPE/Leo Burnett.

In addition to serving on Boards/Advisory Boards of public and private companies in the consumer and marketing services fields, Mr. Parsons has been an active investor in and advisor to early stage companies with personal interests including Bio-Technology, Internet-based software tools and applications, Supply Chain Management, Customer Relationship Management, Restaurant/Catering services, and Media digital content management.

Mr. Parsons has an MA from Oxford University and an MBA with High Distinction from Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar and was awarded the George Hay Brown prize for Marketing.

Mr. Parsons is active in various not-for-profit institutions including as a Director of the United Way of NY where he serves on the Executive Committee, as a Governor of the United Way of TriState, and on the Advisory Board of the Salvation Army of Greater NY of which he is a past Chairman.

Dr. Payzant is a Professor in Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is the former Superintendent of Boston Public Schools which received the 2006 Broad Prize for Urban Education.

Dr. Payzant received his Bachelor’s degree in American History and Literature from Williams College. He received a Master’s in Teaching and a Doctorate in Education from Harvard University.

Dr. Payzant started his education career as a teacher in 1963 and as a superintendent in 1969 starting with the School District of Springfield Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He was also superintendent of the Eugene, Oregon, Public Schools, Oklahoma City Public Schools and the San Diego Unified School District.

In March of 1993, Dr. Payzant was appointed by President Clinton to serve as Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education with the United States Department of Education. Dr. Payzant led the Department’s delegation to Congress when it enacted the Improving America’s Schools Act (IASA), which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. He also worked closely with the Administration to enact passage of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, the Safe Schools Act, and the School-to-Work Opportunities Act.

Dr. Payzant was awarded the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education in December 1992. He was awarded an Honorary doctorate from Williams College in 1984, Claremont Graduate University in 1994, and from Lesley College in 1996. Dr. Payzant has written more than 30 journal articles and book reviews and several chapters for inclusion in books. In January 1999, Dr. Payzant was named Massachusetts Superintendent of the Year by the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents. He went on to be named one of four finalists for National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators.

Dr. Smith is Commissioner of the Florida Department of Education. Previously, Dr. Smith served as Vice President of The College Board. He is the prior superintendent of Anne Arundel County Public Schools, Maryland and previously served as superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.

Dr. Smith has been recognized across the country as a leader in providing quality public education for all children and he has received numerous honors and awards. He received the 2002 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education, awarded to educators whose innovations and leadership have raised the bar for the field of education. He also was named Superintendent of the Year by the North Carolina Association of School Administrators and was one of four finalists for the National Superintendent of the Year. In 2001, Dr. Smith was named the country’s top urban educator by the Council of the Great City Schools

Dr. Smith has served on numerous Advisory Boards and panels including having served as the President of the Board of Directors for the College Board, and as the Chairman of the United States Department of Education Title 1 Independent Review Panel.  He has also served as a member on the Board of Directors for the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), the Arts and Science Council Board of Directors, Communities In Schools Board of Trustees, Echo Foundation International Board of Advisors, Quality Education for Minorities Board of Directors, Educational Technology Connectivity (ETC) Forum Advisory Board, Gethsemane Enrichment Program Advisory Board, and many others. 

Dr. Smith received his undergraduate degree from Colorado State University and his masters in school administration from the University of Central Florida in Orlando. He earned his doctorate of curriculum and instruction from the University of Florida in Gainesville.