Colonel Ralph Capio
President, International and Business Consultants
Ralph Capio is President of International and Business Consultants, Las Vegas, NV. Previously, he was of Counsel to Armstrong Teasdale LLP, one of the Midwest's oldest and largest law firms, located in St. Louis. His practice focuses on commercial and government contracting and international business, and he lectures extensively on contemporary business subjects.
Prior to his present position, he held a number of senior positions in the Air Force. His Service included Legal Advisor to the U.S. Transportation Command and Chief Counsel to the U.S. Training Mission to Saudi Arabia--an organization responsible for more than $75 billion annually in foreign military sales and Government contracts--where he provided guidance on fiscal and contract law, international law, and criminal law.
Ross Hiatt
Capital Markets, Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Mr. Hiatt is a member of the Equity Capital Markets team in the Investment Banking Division at Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he focuses on equity-linked transactions. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Mr. Hiatt worked at J.P. Morgan Securities in High Yield Capital Markets focusing on highly leveraged capital raisings, restructurings and leveraged buy outs. Throughout his career, he has been involved in capital raising from a variety of markets across a broad range of industries and has worked on more than 30 transactions raising over $15 billion in proceeds. Mr. Hiatt holds a BBA from The University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business and has studied internationally at HEC in Paris and Fudan University in Shanghai.
Naomi Housman
Director, National High School Alliance
Ms. Housman is the Director the National High School Alliance and facilitates the work of the Steering Committee and partner organizations to achieve NHSA's mission: to mobilize the resources, knowledge, and capacity of individuals and organizations to work collectively in shaping policy, research, practice, and public engagement that foster high achievement, close the achievement gap, and promote civic and personal growth among all youth in our high schools communities.
Ms. Housman has focused her career on serving public school systems in high poverty, urban communities, with a particular emphasis on secondary education. At the Institute for Educational Leadership, she served as the assistant director of outreach for the National Clearinghouse for Comprehensive School Reform, where she helped to provide tailored assistance to national, state, district and school leaders focused on schoolwide improvement. Prior to her work in Washington, Ms. Housman taught in innovative programs serving middle and high school students, and helped to develop and implement a pilot academic program for the Steppingstone Foundation to prepare low-income minority students from Boston's lowest performing schools for entrance and successful transition into the district's public exam schools.
Dr. Robert Monson
Senior Lecturer and Director of Educational Policy Fellowship Program
Teachers College, Columbia University
Professor Monson is currently the director of the Education Policy Fellowship Program at Columbia University, Teachers College. His interests lie in curriculum, Federal education policy, accountability systems, and public engagement. He has co-authored two volumes on performance assessment and published numerous journal articles on curriculum, assessment, and literacy education.
In recent years Professor Monson has served as a consultant for A.S.C.D., Public Agenda, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, the Tri-States Standards Consortium, and school systems in the United States and South America. He was also a senior lecturer in Lesley College's national curriculum and instruction program, a member of the advisory board of the Harvard Principals Center, and a visiting faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Throughout his career in education, Professor Monson has served public school children in the capacities of teacher, high school assistant principal, high school principal, and superintendent.
Chris Muller
Director, American International School
Mr. Muller is Director of the American International School of Lusaka in Zambia. Prior to his current position in Africa, he was Middle School Principal at the United Nations International School in New York and Secondary School Principal at the American International School of Bucharest in Romania. He was born and raised in Windhoek, Namibia, and began his career teaching high school Mathematics in Cape Town, and English as a foreign language to adults in London. Mr. Muller entered the world of International Schools as a high school English and Mathematics teacher in Paris, and then as a teacher and administrator in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
Mr. Muller has chaired several committees for the European Council of International Schools, conducted workshops and accreditation visits for the International Baccalaureate Organization, and is presently writing his doctoral dissertation at Columbia University.
Dr. Rob Reich
Assistant Professor of Political Science, Ethics in Society, and Education
Department of Political Science, Stanford University
Professor Reich's main interests are in contemporary liberal theory, and he is working on two projects, the first on questions about the moral and legal status of the child in liberal democracies, the second about topics in ethics, public policy, and philanthropy.
He is the author of Bridging Liberalism and Multiculturalism in American Education (University of Chicago Press, 2002) and other articles on the intersection of political theory and educational theory. Rob is the recipient of the Walter J. Gores Award, Stanford University's highest award for teaching. He has also received fellowships from the Spencer Foundation and the Stanford Humanities Center. In 2004-05, he was a Laurance Rockefeller Visiting Fellow at the Center for Human Values at Princeton University. Before attending graduate school, Rob was a sixth grade teacher at Rusk Elementary School in Houston, Texas.
Dr. Susan Sclafani
U.S. Counselor to the Secretary and Assistant Secretary of Education, 2001-2005
Managing Director, Chartwell Education Group
Dr. Sclafani retired from the United States Department of Education as Assistant Secretary of Education for Vocational and Adult Education, and brings to Chartwell a wealth of domestic and international experience and relationships. She also served as Counselor to the Secretary of Education, where she was the U.S. representative to OECD, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and APEC, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Dr. Sclafani is an active Board member of upublic and is currently collaborating with them on projects in the U.S., China, India and the Middle East.
Before championing education at the national and international level, Dr. Sclafani worked alongside former United States Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, in the Houston public school system. Together their strong leadership and implementation of innovative programs led a district lagging behind in student performance to win the first Broad Prize for Urban Education. Propelled by her passion for improving the lives of children and adults through learning, from teaching math and computers in Houston classrooms to chief academic officer to her service at the U.S. Department of Education, Dr. Sclafani has always promoted and ensured the highest standards in education.
Dr. Michael Usdan
Senior Fellow, Institute for Educational Leadership
Michael Usdan served as President of the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) from 1981 through 2001 before becoming a Senior Fellow at the organization. Prior to joining IEL, Mr. Usdan was Connecticut's Commissioner of Higher Education and the President of the Merrill-Palmer Institute in Detroit, Michigan. Dr. Usdan has taught at Columbia University, the City University of New York, Northwestern and Fordham Universities, and in schools in New York City and White Plains. He also served as a member and president of the school board in the city of New Rochelle.