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Alan Schneider, tenor, has performed in opera, operetta, and music theatre productions with many groups in his native New England, including the North Shore Music Theatre, Opera New England, and Commonwealth Opera. Last season he made his Boston Lyric Opera debut as the Second Jew in Salome, and returned in September to sing the Comte de Lerme in Don Carlos.

Lorenzo Mariani has been the Artistic Director of the Teatro Massimo di Palermo since 2005 and studied at Harvard and Florence University. Mariani's first direction was *Bluebeard's Castle* at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, where he has since also directed *L' Heure Espagnole*, *Le Comte Ory*, *La forza del destino*, and *Aida*. The last two of these were conducted by Zubin Mehta. In 1998 the Ferrara Festival began with his direction of *Don Giovanni* with Claudio Abbado conducting and Simon Keenlyside and Bryn Terfel in the leading roles. In the same year he also directed *La bohome* in Cagliari. In the United States he has directed *La bohome* at Chicago's Lyric Opera and *Rigoletto* at Boston's Lyric Opera. He has also directed in Shanghai and Tokyo and at such festivals as the Bergamo Donizetti.

Dan French is the executive director of the Center for Collaborative Education, a non profit organization dedicated to working with networks of schools engaged in reform. The Center is the National Turning Points Center, which works with regional centers and middle schools across the nation to adopt the Turning Points design, a comprehensive and rigorous middle school reform model that is based on ten years of research and practice in implementing the Turning Points principles. Formerly, Dan was the director of Instruction and Curriculum for the Massachusetts Department of Education.

Dr. Blumer teaches in and is the chair of the Boston College Graduate School Educational Administration and Higher Education Department. Prior to Boston College, he worked in public education for 35 years as a teacher, counselor, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent of schools. He is also a past President of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents. Dr. Blumer received his B.S. and M.A. degrees from Northeastern University and his Ed.D. degree from Boston College.

Donna Rodrigues is a Program Director for the Early College Initiative at Jobs for the Future in Boston, Massachusetts. For 35 years prior to this position, she was an outstanding and well-recognized leader in public education. Her success as the founding principal of University Park Campus School (UPCS), a public school collaboration with Clark University, has been well documented by CNN, and featured in the *New York and LA Times*, and *the Christian Science Monito*r. Recently named the highest performing high school in Massachusetts, and ranked number 68 in the top 100 high schools in the country in Newsweek, UPCS is existence proof that the achievement gap for students of color, students living in poverty, and students who are English Language Learners can be challenged and defied. The schools population, students from the most economically challenged part of the city, enters the seventh grade with skills 3 to 4 years behind grade level. These same students have scored advanced or proficient on the states graduation required exam (MCAS), and have been accepted to, and are attending college. The accomplishment is outstanding and exemplary of what can happen. Donna speaks across the country about the challenges and outcomes of a prep school education for all.