Speakers
Keynote Speakers | |
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President, Archive A nationally-recognized leader in education policy and standards-based reform, Michael Cohen became President of Achieve in 2003. He has held several key roles in education during the past 20+ years, including Director of Education Policy at the National Governors Association (1985-90) and Director of Planning and Policy Development at the National Association of State Boards of Education (1983-1985). During the Clinton Administration he served as Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education, Special Assistant to President Clinton for Education Policy, and Senior Advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley. Achieve is an independent, bipartisan, non-profit education reform organization based in Washington, DC that helps states raise academic standards and graduation requirements, improve assessments and strengthen accountability so all students graduate ready for college, work and citizenship. Under Mike’s leadership, Achieve launched the American Diploma Project Network, formed the Partnership for the Assessment of College and Career Readiness (PARCC), and helped develop the Common Core State Standards. |
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Ranking Member, Education & the Workforce Committee, U.S. House of Representatives | |
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Commissioner, Federal Communications Commission | |
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Acting Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education Michael K. Yudin most recently served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE). In this role, he helped lead policy development and operations of all grant programs administered by OESE, including Title I. Yudin also helped lead the Department’s efforts on Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) flexibility. He served as Acting Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education from June 2011 to May 2012. Prior to joining the Department, Yudin spent nine years in the United States Senate, serving as legislative director for Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, senior counsel to Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, and HELP Committee counsel to Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont. Working for senior Members of the HELP Committee, Yudin helped draft, negotiate, and pass various pieces of legislation, including the No Child Left Behind Act, and IDEA 2004. Before joining the Senate, Yudin served as an attorney at the Social Security Administration and at the U.S. Department of Labor for nearly ten years. |
Additional Speakers | |
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COO, Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) Tony Alpert serves as the chief operating officer for the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, where he oversees the fiscal operations of Smarter Balanced, collaborating with Washington as the lead fiscal state; and provides expert guidance on assessment design and technology. Prior to joining Smarter Balanced, Alpert—who is recognized as a leading expert in statewide computer-based and adaptive testing—served as the director of assessment for the Oregon Department of Education. He also served on the U.S. Department of Education’s National Technical Advisory Committee where he provided technical counsel. Alpert earned his master’s degree at the University of Oregon. | |
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Executive Director, Digital Learning Now!, Foundation for Excellence in Education John Bailey serves as the Executive Director of Digital Learning Now! He co-founded Whiteboard Advisors, which provides strategic consulting for investors, philanthropies, and entrepreneurs. John previously served at the White House as Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during the Bush administration where he coordinated education and labor policy. John has also worked at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as serving as a top technology and innovation advisor to the Secretary of Commerce. He also served as the nation’s second Director of Educational Technology, where he oversaw more than $1 billion in annual grants and research projects. John has also served as a formal or informal advisor to three Presidential campaigns. |
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Chief Assessment Officer, Indiana Department of Education Wes is the Chief Assessment Officer for the Assessment Office at the Indiana Department of Education. Wes also currently chairs the PARCC Technology committee and served on the US Department of Education’s technical advisory committee. He was the 2006-07 Chair of the Education Information Management Advisory Consortium (EIMAC) for the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO). He chaired the NCES Forum task force on accounting for student exits, dropout and mobility. Wes previously served as an administrator with South Bend Community School Corporation, and also served 11 years in the Kanawha County Schools of Charleston, West Virginia. | |
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Deputy Director, Office of Educational Technology, US Department of Education As Deputy Director of the Office of Educational Technology for the US Department of Education, Richard Culatta focuses on leveraging open data to create personalized learning experiences for all students and promoting increased connectivity to improve access to education and make college more affordable. Prior to joining the Department of Education, he served as an education policy advisor to U.S. Senator Patty Murray. Culatta’s previous work centered around leveraging social media to create effective large-scale distributed learning environments. As Chief Technology Officer at CIA University, Culatta developed an online learning platform to extend learning opportunities to CIA officers worldwide. Prior to joining the federal government, Culatta was the Director of Operations for the Rose Education Foundation and learning technologies advisor at Brigham Young University where he was instrumental in redesigning the teacher preparation program at the McKay School of Education. He began working with educational technology at the University of Rhode Island where he co-taught the university’s first technology integration workshops for faculty. |
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Chief Officer of Accountability, Equity and Innovation, Education Achievement Authority | |
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Principal, Pocatello (ID) Public Schools Betsy Goeltz is an elementary school principal in Pocatello, Idaho. Dr. Goeltz has served as a principal for nine years and is always advancing excellence in teaching and learning through the innovative and effective implementation of technology and 21st Century Tools in schools. She was a founding member of the Idaho Education Technology Association (IETA) and served twice as president for the organization. Dr. Goeltz supports the region as a longtime member of Northwest Council for Computer Education (NCCE) providing additional input and service as a board member for the past seven years. She was awarded the NCCE Administrator of the Year award in 2008. Previously Dr. Goeltz taught at the elementary level, worked as a curriculum director, technology director and district grant writer. | |
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Principal, Penn Hill Group | |
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Writer, Politics K-12, Education Week Alyson Klein covers federal policy for Education Week and writes the Politics K-12 blog, with Michele McNeil. She joined Education Week after nearly two years at CongressDaily and internships at the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Baltimore Sun. She holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. |
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Executive Director, State Educational Technology Directors Association Doug Levin is the Executive Director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA). In this position, Doug works with educational technology directors in state education agencies in all 50 states and DC and works with policy makers in other educational organizations. SETDA provides national leadership on educational technology, professional development, and partnership engagement with the public and private sector to collaborate on how educational technology supports teaching and learning. Doug has nearly 20 years of Washington, DC-based education policy and research experience. He formerly served as Deputy Executive Director of the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) and prior to that as Senior Director of Education Policy at Cable in the Classroom, the cable industry's national education foundation. Levin also served as a principal research analyst with the American Institutes for Research. |
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Senior Director of National Policy, KnowledgeWorks Lillian Pace works to craft and advance KnowledgeWorks’ federal policy agenda, advocating for policy conditions that empower state, community, and school-level transformation. She works closely with other education, philanthropic, non-profit, and business organizations to forge partnerships around the world of learning. Pace came to KnowledgeWorks after directing the U.S. House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education, chaired by Rep. Dale Kildee (MI). Pace worked on reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Head Start Act, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Before joining the Committee, Pace served in various legislative and communications roles for a number of Congressional offices. |
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Executive Director, Committee for Education Funding Joel Packer is a Principal with The Raben Group and serves as Executive Director of the Committee for Education Funding. The Committee for Education Funding (CEF) is a coalition that was founded in 1969 with the goal of achieving adequate federal financial support for our nation’s educational system. Packer is the former director of educational policy and practice at the National Education Association. Joel has successfully represented educators, state universities and college students before Congress and the Administration for more than 35 years. At NEA, Packer was responsible for key issues, including educator quality, funding, special education, high school reform, 21st century skills/STEM issues, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In 1993 Joel served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs in the U.S. Department of Labor. | |
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Learning Scientist for Educational Systems & Faculty Affiliate, Johns Hopkins School of Education | |
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Senior Policy Advisor, Office of the Under Secretary, United States Department of Education Hal Plotkin is the Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education. The OUS has responsibility for all federal higher education policies and programs. Previously, Mr. Plotkin was a trustee and board president at the Foothill-De Anza Community College District, based in Silicon Valley California, where he oversaw two community colleges with a combined enrollment of approximately 45,000 students. Mr. Plotkin is a writer and editor by profession, who has published more than 600 articles on business, science, technology and education. His publishers include Inc. magazine, Forbes ASAP, Family Business magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate.com, and CNBC.com, where he served as Silicon Valley correspondent. He is also a founding editor of public radio’s Marketplace program. |
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Program Director, Education Division, Center for Best Practices, National Governors Association | |
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Co-Founder and Partner, Bellwether Education Partners Andrew J. Rotherham is a co-founder and partner at Bellwether Education Partners, a non-profit organization working to improve educational outcomes for low-income students. Rotherham leads Bellwether’s thought leadership, idea generation, and policy analysis work. He also writes a weekly column on education for TIME.com as well as the blog Eduwonk.com and is co-publisher of “Education Insider” a federal policy research tool produced by Whiteboard Advisors. Rotherham previously served at the White House as Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during the Clinton administration and is a former member of the Virginia Board of Education. In addition to Bellwether, Rotherham has founded or co-founded two other influential education reform organizations including Education Sector and served on the boards of several other successful education start-ups. Rotherham is the author or co-author of more than 125 articles, book chapters, papers, and op-eds about education policy and politics and is the author or editor of four books on education policy. He is a senior fellow at the Center for Reinventing Public Education and also at the PostPartisan Foundation. He serves on advisory boards and committees for a variety of organizations including The Broad Foundation, Education Pioneers, and the National Governors Association. He is on the board of directors for the Indianapolis Mind Trust and the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and serves on the Visiting Committee for the Harvard Graduate School of Education. |
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Executive Director, Democrats for Education Reform Joe Williams has built a reputation as one of the most effective strategists and coalition-builders in the education reform community. He is a nationally recognized analyst and public speaker on education policy and politics, reaching thousands of listeners in audiences from coast to coast each year. Joe is also one of the most prolific writers and commentators in the education reform world, often tapping into his experience as a newspaper reporter and author to make the case for reform. He previously worked as an award-winning education journalist for the New York Daily News and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He has written extensively on education politics nationally and has served as a non-resident senior fellow for the Washington-based think-tank Education Sector. He is author of the book Cheating our Kids: How Politics and Greed Ruin Education. |
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Director of Federal Relations, Council of Chief State School Officers Peter Zamora is Director of Federal Relations for the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), representing public officials who head state departments of elementary and secondary education. Prior to CCSSO, Zamora was Senior Education Counsel, Office of Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee. He was previously the Washington, D.C. Regional Counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a Hispanic civil rights legal organization. He has also served as a bilingual-credentialed English teacher in a California public high school, an education lawyer in private practice, and a consultant to the D.C. Public Schools. | |
