Co-Chairs and Advisory Council

Dr. Helen F. Ladd is the Edgar Thompson Professor of Public Policy Studies and professor of economics at Duke University. Ladd is a prolific researcher in the field of education policy, a member of the management team of the Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER) and a member of the National Academy of Education. With Edward Fiske, she is the editor of The Handbook of Research on Educational Finance and Policy, the official handbook of the American Education Finance Association. She is currently serving as President of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Dr. Pedro Noguera is the Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education at New York University, with tenured faculty appointments in the departments of Teaching and Learning and Humanities and Social Sciences at the University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Development and in the Department of Sociology. He is also Executive Director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education and co-Director of the Institute for the Study of Globalization and Education in Metropolitan Settings (IGEMS). Noguera has authored five books on a range of topics and appears as a regular commentator on educational issues on CNN, National Public Radio, and other national news outlets. In 2009, he was appointed by the Governor to serve as a State University of New York (SUNY) Trustee.

Dr. Thomas W. Payzant is currently a professor of practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Prior to this position he served as superintendent of the Boston Public Schools from October of 1995 until his retirement in June of 2006. Before coming to Boston, he was appointed by President Clinton to serve as assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education with the U.S. Department of Education. In addition to his tenure in Boston, Payzant has served as superintendent of Schools in San Diego; Oklahoma City; Eugene, Oregon; and Springfield, Pennsylvania. In February, 2011, Jossey-Bass published his book, Urban School Leadership.