GFE Annual Conference Speakers

Read more about our plenary and spotlight speakers.

Calvin O. Butts, pastor, Abssynian Baptist Church 

Calvin O. Butts, III, is pastor of the nationally renowned Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, and president of SUNY College at Old Westbury. Rev. Butts also helped found and chairs the Abyssinian Development Corporation – a comprehensive, community-based nonprofit that has brought over $500 million in housing and commercial development to the neighborhood – and was instrumental in establishing Harlem's first new public school in 50 years, the Thurgood Marshall Academy for Learning and Social Change.

Clayton Christensen, professor, Harvard Business School

Clayton Christensen has been on the faculty member of the Harvard Business School since 1992, before which he served as chairman and president of CPS Technologies. Christensen is widely acclaimed throughout the business world for his theory of "disruptive innovation." He is the author of the bestselling books The Innovator's Dilemma and The Innovator's Solution. In his latest book--Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns--he takes a critical look at how his market theories might change the way we think about efforts to reform education.

Eleanor Clift, contributing editor, Newsweek

Eleanor Clift, a contributing editor of Newsweek since 1994, writes on the Washington power structure, the influence of women in politics and other issues. Clift also writes a weekly column on Newsweek.com in which she analyzes the political news of the week. Formerly Newsweek's White House correspondent, Clift also served as congressional and political correspondent for six years. She was a keymember of the magazine‘s 1992 election team, following the campaign of Bill Clinton from its start to inauguration day. In June 1992, she was named deputy Washington bureau chief. As a reporter in Newsweek‘s Atlanta bureau, Clift covered Jimmy Carter‘s bid for the presidency. She followed Carter to Washington to become Newsweek‘s White House correspondent, a
position she held until 1985. Clift is a regular panelist on the syndicated talk show ―The McLaughlin Group‖ and a political analyst for the Fox News Network. She is also co-chair of the board of the International Women‘s Media Foundation.

Pedro Noguera, professor, Steinhardt School of Education at New York University

Pedro Noguera is a professor at the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University and the director of its Metropolitan Center for Urban Education. Noguera has held tenured faculty appointments at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and at the University of California, Berkeley. His publications include The Trouble With Black Boys … and Other Reflections on Race, Equity and the Future of Public Education and Unfinished Business: Closing the Achievement Gap in Our Nation’s Schools.

Richard Rothstein, research associate, Economic Policy Institute

Richard Rothstein is a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute and a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Previously, he was the national education columnist at The New York Times, and served as a visiting professor at Columbia University's Teachers College.  He is the author of Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap and The Way We Were? Myths and Realities of America’s Student Achievement.

David Whitman, freelance journalist and former senior writer, U.S. News & World Report

David Whitman covered social policy for U.S. News & World Report for nearly two decades from 1985 to 2003. He is the author of the new book, Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner City Schools and the New Paternalism (Thomas B. Fordham Institute, 2008), a two-year study of six high-performing inner-city secondary schools and their successful educational models. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, the Atlantic, New Republic, and numerous other publications. Since leaving U.S. News in 2003 to embark on a career as a freelance author and editor, Whitman has written widely on education, as well as environment and energy issues.

Richard Baron, co-founder, chairman and CEO,McCormack Baron Salazar

Richard Baron is co-founder, chairman and CEO of McCormack Baron Salazar, which has redeveloped neighborhoods in inner-city areas across the country. Baron was the co-founder and co-chairman of the Vashon Education Compact, a partnership of the St. Louis Public Schools and major corporations, and he is the founder and developer of The Center of Creative Arts in University City, Mo.  In 2003, he established the Center for Urban Redevelopment Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania.  A graduate of Oberlin College, Baron holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of California - Berkeley and a law degree from the University of Michigan.

Anthony Berkley, deputy director, W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Anthony Berkley is the deputy director for the education & learning, success by third grade, and Michigan teams at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Previously, Berkley was a program director in youth and education at the foundation, where he also directed the learning and evaluation process around its youth and education grants. Berkley has held faculty positions at the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan. He is the author of numerous publications and presentations in the fields of knowledge management, education and anthropology. Berkley holds both master‘s and doctoral degrees in anthropology and a bachelor‘s degree in political science from the University of Chicago.

Christine Doby, program officer, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation 

Cris Doby is a program officer with the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in their program entitled, “Pathways Out of Poverty,” with a specialty in community organizing. Previously, she worked as a community organizer and local director of the Campaign for Human Development and served as social action director for several Catholic dioceses. Doby also served as a fellow with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She graduated from University of Detroit-Mercy with a bachelor of arts in political science and business administration and from Loyola College of Maryland with an adult education degree. Doby received a master’s degree in theology from Loyola University of New Orleans. 

Salin Geevarghese, senior associate for neighborhood development, The Annie E. Casey Foundation

Salin Geevarghese is a senior associate for neighborhood development at The Annie E. Casey Foundation.  Before joining the foundation, Geevarghese served in many roles including a project manager at The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, management consultant with TCC Group and as the associate director-grantmaking for the BellSouth Foundation in Atlanta.  He received a J.D. from University of Cincinnati College of Law, where he was a Chapin-Thomas Scholar, and his B.S. from University of Tennessee where he was a William E. Brock Scholar.  

Kavitha Mediratta, principal associate, Annenberg Institute for School Reform

Kavitha Mediratta is a principal associate at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform, where she recently completed a six-year national study of community organizing for school reform, funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and has authored numerous reports and articles on education organizing. She also has been responsible for the institute’s youth organizing program, and has provided leadership support to Urban Youth Collaborative, a coalition of youth-led organizations aimed at improving high school education in New York City. Previously, Mediratta served as a Warren Weaver Fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation, and taught elementary and middle school in south India, Chicago, and East Orange, New Jersey.

Sandra Moore, president, Urban Strategies

Sandra Moore is president of Urban Strategies, a nonprofit that works with its development partner, McCormack Baron Salazar, to rebuild distressed urban core communities into vibrant, safe residential neighborhoods.  As a companion to the McCormack Baron family of housing development and management companies, Urban Strategies works to revitalize such systems as elementary schools, senior living facilities, parks and recreation space in 22 locations around the country.  Previously, Moore was director of the Missouri Department of Labor, where she served as a member of Governor Mel Carnahan’s cabinet.  She is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., where she received both a J.D. and a B.A. in urban studies. 

Karen Nicodemus, Cochise College

Karen Nicodemus has worked for Cochise College since 1986 and in 1998 became its 10th president. She was appointed by Governor Janet Napolitano to serve on the State Board of Education and as a member of the governor‘s P-20 Council. Nicodemus currently chairs the Council‘s Education Alignment subcommittee and serves on the council‘s steering committee. She also serves on the Arizona Global Network and the Arizona Town Hall board of directors. Previous board service includes the Cochise Community Foundation Board and the Arizona-Mexico Commission, among others. Nicodemus earned a master‘s degree in physical education and a Ph.D. in education administration from the University of Nebraska.

Tammi Oyadomari-Chun, executive director, Hawai`i P-20 Partnerships for Education

Tammi Oyadomari-Chun is executive director of the Hawai‗i P-20 Initiative, a collaboration of the Good Beginnings Alliance, the Hawai‗i Department of Education, and the University of Hawai‗i. Her experience working across educational sectors and with a variety of partners includes directing GEAR UP Hawai‗i, a federal program at the University of Hawai‗i; researching educational and social policy at the RAND Corporation and the Consortium for Policy Research in Education at the University of Pennsylvania; and working at the Los Angeles Educational Alliance for Restructuring Now, facilitating school reform in the nation‘s third-largest school district. Oyadomari-Chun holds a B.A. from Pomona College and a master‘s in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

John Rogers, co-director, Institute for Democracy, Education and Access

John Rogers is co-director of the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access and an associate professor at the University of California - Los Angeles, where he studies strategies for engaging urban youth, community members and educators in equity-focused school reform.  Rogers draws extensively on the work of John Dewey to explore the meaning of and possibilities for democratic education today.  He teaches in the Principal Leadership Institute, where his focus is on democratic leadership and the relationship between school leaders and community members.  He is the co-author (with Jeannie Oakes) of the recently published Learning Power: Organizing for Education and Justice.