Dr. Ross Greene

American Psychologist

Dr. Katie McKnight

Educator and Award-winning Author

Dr. Shawn Jackson

President of Harry S Truman College

Dr. Greene was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School for over 20 years and is now the founding director of the non-profit Lives in the Balance, which provides a vast array of free, web-based resources on the CPS model. He has appeared in a wide range of media, including The Oprah Show, Good Morning America, The Morning Show, National Public Radio, Mother Jones magazine, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and the Boston Globe. Dr. Greene lectures and consults widely throughout the world and lives in Portland, Maine.

Dr. Katherine McKnight is a dynamic presenter, dedicated teacher, and award-winning author. She began her career in education over 30 years ago as a middle school and high school English and social studies teacher in the Chicago Public Schools. In addition to speaking at professional development conferences, she is a regular consultant in schools and classrooms in the United States and internationally.

Dr. Shawn L. Jackson is the President of Harry S Truman College. He is a longtime educator, who has served as a teacher, Assistant Principal/Principal, and a Chicago Public Schools District Office Administrator over a 15-year span in primary and secondary education. Most recently, Dr. Jackson served as the Chief of Leadership and Learning. While in this role, he worked to scale essential district-wide efforts such as Chicago Public School’s Parent University, P.L.A.Y. (Personalized Learning Advancing Youth), and CPS Connects. These efforts helped to support the growth of educators in and out of classrooms across the City.     

Jane Swift

69th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts 

Barton Dassinger

Principal of Chávez Elementary from Chicago Public Schools

Nancy Septa Hanks

Partner and Executive Coach

Former Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift is an education executive and
entrepreneur. She has served in leadership roles in the public, private, political, and
non-profit sectors for over three decades fueled by a passionate belief in the power of
education to transform lives.

Today, she is an operating partner with the Vistria Group, a senior advisor to
WhiteBoard Advisors, the President of LearnLaunch Institute, and serves on several
public and private company boards.

Barton Dassinger has been a principal for over 16 years at two different Chicago Public Schools. Currently, he serves as the principal of Cesar E Chavez, a PK – 8th-grade open-enrollment neighborhood school in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. His school has been in the top district ranking for the last 12 consecutive years, with a population of 99% of students qualifying for free or reduced-priced meals and over 50% qualifying for bilingual education. In addition to having partnerships with many community organizations and philanthropic groups, Chavez has won both NGLC and 21st CCLC grants. 

As a principal in Chicago, Hanks led the transformation and continual growth of her school as well as the successful transition of adding 90 minutes to their school day -  a complex move that led to improved literacy and math outcomes as well as a more well-rounded school day for her students and staff. Her leadership as Chief of Schools for Elementary in the Madison Metropolitan School District led to across the board gains in elementary schools. In addition to a ten-point increase in literacy and mathematics overall, 17 schools made at least ten-point gains in literacy in five years, and five schools made over 20-point gains in literacy in the past five years. 

Dr. Christina M. Kishimoto

Educator and Founder of Voice4Equity

Bogdana Chkoumbova

Chief Education Officer, Chicago Public Schools

Eileen Murphy

Founder and CEO, ThinkCERCA

Dr. Christina M. Kishimoto is the founder of Voice4Equity LLC and a Clinical Professor at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California.

A native of the South Bronx in New York City, she is a bold advocate for social justice and a national leader on education policy and equity matters. Prior to founding Voice4Equity, Christina led education systems in Hartford Connecticut, Gilbert Arizona, and most recently as the State Superintendent of Education for the State of Hawaii. She has served on a number of boards including the Council of Chief State School Officers, the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents where she served as President, the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, and she is a national Chief for Change. Christina has a daughter who is serving as an officer in the U.S. Air Force, and lives in Vancouver, Washington with her husband.

As Chief Education Officer, Bogdana Chkoumbova ensures that students across Chicago have access to high-quality educational experiences that will help prepare them for success in college and fulfilling careers.

Prior to this role, she served as Chief Schools Officer and was responsible for managing Chicago's 17 school networks and the Independent Schools Principals (ISP) Network by ensuring principal quality and strong school performance across the District. She began her CPS career as a special education teacher at Frederic Chopin Elementary School and was also selected to open the K–8 Disney II Magnet School in 2008 and oversee its 9-12 grade expansion in 2012. Under her leadership, Disney II consistently performed in the top 10 percent of all Illinois public elementary schools and in 2012 achieved the School of Excellence designation from the Illinois State Board of Education.

Eileen Murphy is the founder and CEO of ThinkCERCA, a tool designed to support systems-level literacy growth. Eileen spent 20 years as a classroom teacher, English department chair, and Director of Curriculum and Instruction for 115 schools before founding ThinkCERCA. She is also an NCTE author and a Pahara Aspen Fellow.