Forum Network

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.

Veteran reporter Daniel Schorr, the last of Edward R. Murrow's legendary CBS team still fully active in journalism, currently interprets national and international events as senior news analyst for NPR. Schorr's career of more than six decades has earned him many awards for journalistic excellence, including three Emmys, and decorations from European heads of state. He has also been honored by civil liberties groups and professional organizations for his defense of the First Amendment. In 1996, he received the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Golden Baton for "Exceptional Contributions to Radio and Television Reporting and Commentary." The Golden Baton is the most prestigious award in the field of broadcasting and is considered the equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize. Other awards include a George Foster Peabody personal award for "a lifetime of uncompromising reporting of the highest integrity," the George Polk radio commentary award for "interpretations of national and international events," and the Distinguished Service Award of the American Society of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communications. Schorr has also been inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Now a history professor at George Mason University, Roger Wilkins served as an editor at *The New York Times*, *The Washington Post*, and *The Washington Star*. It was at *the Post* that he shared in the Pulitzer Prize for that paper's reporting on the Watergate scandal.

Louis Menand is Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of English at Harvard University. He received his BA (1973) from Pomona and his MA (1975) and PhD (1980) from Columbia. His primary interests are 19th and 20th century cultural history. His books include *The Marketplace of Ideas* (W. W. Norton & Co, 2010); *American Studies* (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002); *The Metaphysical Club* (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001); *The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, Volume 7: Modernism and the New Criticism*, co-ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2000); *The Future of Academic Freedom*, ed. (University of Chicago Press, 1997); *Pragmatism: A Reader*, ed. (Vintage, 1996); and *Discovering Modernism: T. S. Eliot and His Context* (Oxford University Press, 1987). He is also a staff writer for *The New Yorker*.

Jill Kathryn Ker Conway (born 1934) was a historian interested in the role of women in American history. She became the first woman president of Smith College in 1975. For this achievement, Time magazine named her one of its 12 "Women of the Year." Conway's appointment heralded a change in leadership of the so-called Seven Sisters Colleges, and as a result of this breakthrough all of them became headed by women by the early 1980s. In the first portion of her presidency, Conway changed the college from a genteel institution which eschewed feminist ideals into a women's college that respected and reflected feminist values. Through a strong financial aid program, Smith for the first time admitted older, working women and welfare recipients as Ada Comstock scholars. Conway expanded the career development office and took pride in promoting the "old girl" network among alumnae. She endorsed the expansion of athletic facilities, enabling Smith to become the first women's college to join the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Conway articulated a concern that Smith tenure more women faculty, and she frequently publicized the plight of women scholars and the value of women's institutions in educational journals. While not in favor of a women's studies program at Smith per se, Conway did encourage the development of the Smith College Project on Women and Social Change funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Out of her presidential budget she helped launch The Society of Scholars Studying Women's Higher Educational History, a group of researchers studying women's intellectual history.

Derek Curtis Bok (born 1930) served as dean of the Harvard Law School until he was named president of Harvard University in 1970. In this position he helped broaden the university's mission in its relationship to the larger community while retaining its tradition of intellectual and academic excellence. Bok went to the Harvard law school in 1958 as an assistant professor specializing in antitrust and labor law. He was lured to Harvard by one of his professors, Kingman Brewster, who later became president of Yale. Bok became a full professor in 1961 and was named to succeed Erwin Griswald as dean of the Harvard law school in 1968. His leadership began at a time of great student unrest, and he wasted little time in initiating reforms to meet the changing needs of students and society. He affirmed the link between the law school and wider concerns of racial unrest, the Vietnam War, and a perceived confidence gap between students and institutions. Symposia on Vietnam issues, increased minority recruitment, emphasis on success of lower ranking students, and emphatic opposition to Nixon Supreme Court nominee Harold Carswell were a few of his activist initiations as dean. His style and deliberate manner were tested by both faculty and students in a series of confrontations and resulted in respect for his ability as a mediator and problem solver. Bok's reputation soon became one of firm decision-making and of unwavering keeping of commitments. Unrest over admission and hiring policies precipitated a presidential letter in 1981 which publicly committed Bok to developing a strong minority presence at Harvard. ibility in major corporations, law firms, teaching hospitals, and agencies of government.

Caroline Kennedy is an attorney and the editor of *the New York Times* best selling *A Family Christmas*; *A Patriot's Handbook*; *The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis*; *A Family of Poems - My Favorite Poetry for Children*; and *Profiles in Courage for Our Time*, and the co-author of *The Right to Privacy and In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action*. From 2002-2004, Ms. Kennedy served as chief executive for the Office of Strategic Partnerships for the New York City Department of Education where she helped raise more than $65 million in private support for the city's public schools. She currently serves as the Vice Chair of The Fund for Public Schools. Ms. Kennedy is also the President of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation and a member of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award Committee. She is a Director of the Commission on Presidential Debates, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and serves as Honorary Chairman of the American Ballet Theatre. Ms. Kennedy was born on November 27, 1957. She is a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School. She lives in New York City with her husband Edwin Arthur Schlossberg, president of Edwin Schlossberg Inc., a multi-disciplinary design company that specializes in interactive exhibit design and museum master-planning. Kennedy and Schlossberg were married on July 19, 1986. They have three children.

U.S. poet, scholar, and critic, Adrienne Rich was a student at Radcliffe College when her poems were chosen for publication in the Yale Younger Poets series; the resulting volume, *A Change of World* (1951), reflected her formal mastery. Her subsequent work traces a transformation from well-crafted but imitative poetry to a highly personal and powerful style. Her increasing commitment to the women's movement and a lesbian/feminist aesthetic influenced much of her work. Among her collections are *Diving into the Wreck* (1973, National Book Award) and *The Dream of a Common Language* (1978). She also wrote compelling books of nonfiction, including *Of Woman Born *(1976; National Book Award), *On Lies, Secrets, and Silence* (1979), and *What Is Found There* (1993).