Biographical Sketches of Committee Members
Christopher Edley, Jr. (Cochair) is dean and professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law and faculty codirector of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity, a multidisciplinary think tank. Previously, he was a professor at Harvard Law School, where he was founding codirector of The Harvard Civil Rights Project. His areas of special interest are administrative law, education policy, and race. His public service includes a 6-year term as a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, an assistant director of the White House domestic policy staff during the Carter Administration, and associate director of the Office of Management and Budget during the Clinton Administration. He also served as a special counsel to President Clinton and as a senior adviser on the President’s race initiative. He has also served on a national nonpartisan commission created to conduct an independent review of the No Child Left Behind Act. He is a trustee of the Russell Sage Foundation and of the Century Foundation, and a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, the Council of Foreign Relations, the American Law Institute, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received a B.A. in mathematics and economics from Swarthmore College and a J.D. and a master of public policy degree from Harvard’s Law School and JFK School of Government, respectively.
Robert M. Hauser (Cochair) is executive director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at the National Research Council (NRC). He is also Vilas Research Professor, Emeritus, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he has directed the Center for Demography
and Ecology and the Institute for Research on Poverty. He has worked on the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study since 1969 and directed it since 1980. His current research interests include trends in educational progression and social mobility in the United States among racial and ethnic groups, the uses of educational assessment as a policy tool, the effects of families on social and economic inequality, changes in socioeconomic standing, health, and well-being across the life course. He has contributed to statistical methods for discrete multivariate analysis and structural equation models and to methods for the measurement of social and economic standing. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and he is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Statistical Association, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. At the NRC, he has served on the Committee on National Statistics, the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, the Board on Testing and Assessment and numerous NRC research panels. He recently served on the secretary of education’s task force on the measurement of high school dropout rates. He has a B.A. in economics from the University of Chicago and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in sociology from the University of Michigan.
Beatrice F. Birman is a managing research scientist in the Education, Human Development and Workforce Program of the American Institutes for Research. Previously, she served as assistant director of education and employment issues for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, held a number of positions in the U.S. Department of Education, and taught program evaluation and research methods at George Washington University and Stanford University, respectively. The major focus of her work is evaluation of education programs, with experience in federal education policy, programs for students placed at risk, school reform, and teachers’ professional development. She has conducted national evaluations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title I and the Eisenhower Professional Development Program (for mathematics and science teachers), has studied district and school reform efforts aimed at reducing gaps in student outcomes, and has evaluated policy initiatives related to charter schools and the uses of educational technologies. She holds an M.A. in counseling psychology, an M.A. in sociology, and a Ph.D. in the sociology of education, all from Stanford University.
Carl A. Cohn is a clinical professor and codirector of the Urban Leadership Program at Claremont Graduate University and president of Urban School Imagineers, an educational consulting firm. Previously he served as superintendent of schools in the San Diego Unified School District, and he earlier served in that position for the Long Beach Unified School District,
both in California. He has also held positions as a clinical professor at the University of Southern California and a federal court monitor for the special education consent decree in the Los Angeles school system. His tenure in Long Beach culminated with his winning the McGraw Prize in 2002 and the district winning the Broad Prize in 2003. He has worked as a faculty advisor for both the Broad Superintendents Academy and the Harvard Urban Superintendents Program, and he currently serves on the boards of the American College Testing, Inc., the Freedom Writers Foundation, the Center for Reform of School Systems, and EdSource. He holds a B.A. in philosophy from St. John’s College, an M.A. in counseling from Chapman University, and an Ed.D. in administrative and policy studies from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Leslie T. Fenwick is the dean of the Howard University School of Education and a tenured professor of educational policy. She has nearly 20 years of experience in higher education, public policy, philanthropy, and urban PK-12 schools. Dr. Fenwick held consecutive appointments at Harvard University as a visiting scholar in education and a visiting fellow prior to serving as a program officer at the Southern Education Foundation. Fenwick’s commentary articles have appeared in Education Week and her published research focuses on superintendency and principalship, educational equity (particularly as it relates to race) and the minority teacher pipeline, and the link between school reform and community revitalization. A former elementary and junior high school teacher, principal and legislative aide on school reform for the State of Ohio Senate, Fenwick earned a B.S. degree in education from the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. in educational policy and leadership from The Ohio State University. Dr. Fenwick is a member of the National Advisory Board for the George Lucas Educational Foundation and also serves on the boards of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and the Council of Academic Deans from Research Education Institutions.
Michael J. Feuer is the dean at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at George Washington University. Previously, he served as the executive director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education of the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies, where he was responsible for a broad portfolio of studies and other activities aimed at improved economic, social, and education policy making. He was the first director of the NRC’s Center for Education and the founding director of the Board on Testing and Assessment. Prior to his work at the NRC, he was a senior analyst and project director at the Office of Technology Assessment. He has been the Burton and Inglis Lecturer at Harvard University. He is a member of the National Academy of Educa-
tion. He holds a B.A. (magna cum laude) from Queens College of the City University of New York and an M.A. from the Wharton School and a Ph.D. in public policy, both from the University of Pennsylvania.
Jon Fullerton is the executive director of the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University. Previously, he served as the director of budget and financial policy for the Board of Education of the Los Angeles Unified School District. In this capacity, he provided independent evaluations of district reforms and helped to ensure that the district’s budget was aligned with board priorities. Other positions—reflecting his broad interests in designing and implementing organizational change—include serving as vice president of strategy, evaluation, research, and policy at the Urban Education Partnership in Los Angeles and at as a strategy consultant at McKinsey & Company, in both the education and private sectors. He holds a Ph.D. in government and an A.B. in social studies, both from Harvard University.
Fernando A. Guerra is director of health for the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District and a long-time practicing pediatrician. He is also a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and an adjunct professor in public health at the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base and at the University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston. He has served on the federal advisory committees for immunization practices, and vaccines, infant mortality, as well as the Federal Advisory Committee for the National Children’s Study. He is currently serving on the board of trustees of the Urban Institute, as chairman of the board of the Children’s Environmental Health Institute, and as a member of the Committee on Biomedical Ethics for the March of Dimes. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a member of the New York Academy of Medicine, the Texas Academy of Medicine, Science, and Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine, and he was a founding scholar of the Public Health Leadership Institute. He holds a B.A. from the University of Texas, Austin, an M.D. the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston; and an M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Jonathan Gueverra serves as the chief executive officer of the Community College of the District of Columbia. Previously he was the provost for the Alexandria Campus of Northern Virginia Community College, one of the largest community colleges in the country. He also continues to work with doctoral students at Lesley University and Morgan State University, where he has taught undergraduate courses in accounting, management, and human resources, as well as graduate courses in leadership and strategic management. He has served on numerous boards, including those of the Massachusetts Business Educators Association, New England Educational
Assessment Network, Lesley University, ITT Technical Institute, and the Commonwealth Soccer Officials Association. Has has also implemented and coordinated Volunteer Income Tax Assistance programs to help low-income, elderly, and non-native English speakers. He has received a lifetime achievement award for his role in developing service learning programs at Wentworth Institute of Technology. He holds a B.A. from Providence College and an M.B.A. and an Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts.
Jonathan Guryan is an associate professor of human development and social policy and of economics, and a faculty fellow with the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. He is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and serves as a research consultant for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Previously, he was on the faculty of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. His work spans various topics related to labor markets, education policy, and social interaction. His research interests include the causes and consequences of racial inequality, the causes of truancy and school dropout decisions, the labor market for teachers, social interactions in the workplace, occupational licensure, and lottery gambling. He also studies race and discrimination in the labor market and in education. He is a recipient of the John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar Award from the Labor and Employment Relations Association. He received his A.B. in economics from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Lorraine McDonnell is a professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research has focused on the design and implementation of K-12 education policies and their effects on school practice. In recent studies, she examined the politics of student testing, particularly the curricular and political values underlying state assessment policies. Her publications have focused on various aspects of education policy and politics, including teacher unions, the education of immigrant students, and the role of citizen deliberation. McDonnell served for 7 years on the National Research Council’s (NRC’s) Board on Testing and Assessment, and is currently a member of the NRC’s advisory committee for the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. She was the 2008-2009 president of the American Educational Research Association and is a member of the National Academy of Education. She is also national associate of the National Academy of Sciences. She has a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University.
C. Kent McGuire recently became president and chief executive officer of the Southern Education Foundation. Previously, he was the dean of the College
of Education at Temple University and a professor in the university’s Educational Administration Program in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. Before working at Temple, he was senior vice president at MDRC, where his responsibilities included leadership of the education, children, and youth division. In the Clinton Administration, he served as assistant secretary of education, the senior officer for the department’s research and development agency. He also has served as education program officer for the Pew Charitable Trusts and education program director for the Eli Lilly Endowment, as well as assistant professor at the University of Colorado and senior policy analyst for the Education Commission of the States. His current research interests focus on education administration and policy and organizational change. He holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Michigan, an M.A. in education administration and policy from Columbia University Teachers College, and a Ph.D. in public administration from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Maxine Singer is president emeritus of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. She previously held positions at the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, where she remains as a scientist emeritus. At the Carnegie Institution, she established the Carnegie Academy for Science Education whose goal is to enhance learning of science and mathematics for DC public school teachers and students. Her work has ranged over several areas of nucleic acid biochemistry and molecular biology. She was one of the organizers of the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA. She has been a member of the board of directors of Johnson & Johnson, a trustee of the Yale University Corporation, and a director of the Whitehead Institute. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of its public welfare medal. She is also a member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Her several awards for public service include the Distinguished Presidential Rank Award, and the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest scientific honor She has received honorary degrees from, among others, Brandeis University, Dartmouth College, Williams College, New York University, Swarthmore College, Harvard University, and Yale University. She holds an A.B. (with high honors) from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Yale University.
William F. Tate IV is the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. He also directs the Center for the Study of Regional Competitiveness in Science and Technology and serves as chair of the Department of Education at the university, where he holds academic and research appointments in the Center for Applied Statistics, Institute for Public Health, urban studies, and medical education. He is a past president of the American Educational Research
Association. He has served as a scholar in residence and as assistant superintendent for mathematics and science in the Dallas Independent School District. He has concentrated his research efforts in four areas: (1) social determinants of mathematics, engineering, technology, and science attainment and disparities; (2) adolescent development and health; (3) political economy of urban metropolitan regions; and (4) leadership in public-private human services alliances and research collaborations. He received his B.S. in economics from Northern Illinois University, his M.A.T. from the University of Texas, Dallas, and his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. He is completing postdoctoral training in psychiatric epidemiology in the Department of Psychiatry at the Washington University Medical School.
