National After-School Summit

Karl Dean
Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee

Karl Dean is the sixth mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. He was elected on Sept. 11, 2007 and was re-elected on Aug. 4, 2011. Mayor Dean’s priorities are improving schools, making neighborhoods safer and bringing more and better jobs to Nashville. He also works to sustain and improve Nashville's high quality of life through numerous initiatives that promote health, sustainability and volunteerism.

Mayor Dean first held public office when he was elected as Nashville’s Public Defender in 1990, a post he was re-elected to in 1994 and 1998. Mayor Dean served as Metro Law Director from 1999 to January 2007, when he resigned to run for the office of mayor. Mayor Dean completed the program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 1999. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Vanderbilt.

Mayor Dean is married to Nashville native Anne Davis, whom he met in law school. Ms. Davis practiced civil and criminal litigation with Bass, Berry & Sims and Neal & Harwell. She has taught at Vanderbilt Law School for nearly two decades, including courses on white collar crime, trial advocacy and legal writing. Ms. Davis is currently the director and managing attorney of the Southern Environmental Law Center’s Nashville office. They have three children: Rascoe, Frances, and Wallen.

Tim Ferriss
Author, Entrepreneur, and Angel Investor

Timothy Ferriss has been listed as one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People”, Forbes Magazine’s “Names You Need to Know,” and is the 7th “most powerful” personality on Newsweek’s Digital 100 Power Index for 2012.  He is an angel investor/advisor- Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, and 20+ more – and author of three #1 NYT/WSJ bestsellers, including The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Body. His experiments can be found on his award-winning blog."

?

Frank L. Fowler
Chief of Police – Syracuse Police Department

Chief Frank Fowler served a total of 20 years in the Armed Forces, including 3 years active and 17 years reserves, receiving numerous awards and commendations, including the Army Commendation Medal for his actions during Operation Desert Storm

He joined the Syracuse Police Department.  Achieving the ranks of Detective and Sergeant.  Attended numerous schools and training programs including but not limited to: Instructor Development Course, Master Instructor Course, DEA Basic Narcotics School, Train the Trainer Courses on Cultural Diversity, Ethnic Sensitivity and Sexual Harassment, Train the Trainer Course on Racial Profiling and Biases Based Policing and Train the Trainer course, AT-ONE Sensitivity Training, and The Law and You as Trainer/Facilitator.

Jodi Grant
Executive Director, Afterschool Alliance

Since 2005, Jodi Grant has served as Executive Director of the Afterschool Alliance, a non-profit public awareness and advocacy organization working to ensure that all children and youth have access to quality, affordable afterschool programs. The Afterschool Alliance seeks to educate the public, the media and policy makers about the enormous potential of quality afterschool and summer learning programs and how programs across the country are inspiring children and creating opportunities for them to succeed academically, socially and professionally.  The Afterschool Alliance serves as a national voice for afterschool and provides resources and materials to more than 22,000 afterschool programs.  It organizes national and local afterschool events, including the organization’s signature event, Lights On Afterschool; conducts research on the need and support for afterschool; creates tools for afterschool practitioners; and connects afterschool leaders to national, state and local opinion leaders. Grant graduated from Yale University with honors in 1990. She received her law degree from Harvard University. Grant, her husband and two children live in Bethesda, Maryland.

Eric Gurna
CEO of LA’s Best

Eric Gurna founded the firm Development Without Limits in 2000 with the vision of supporting youth programs and schools to improve the quality of their work and create more youth-centered environments. He led the organization until January of 2015, when he accepted his current position at LA’s BEST, a partnership between the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the private sector that operates in 195 schools.
He hosts the podcast, Please Speak Freely: Honest Conversations About Youth Development and Education, during which he interviews leaders and practitioners to shed light on key issues and explore different perspectives.

Eric lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife Elia, who is an artist, their two children, Rosalie and Rafael, and their two cats, Gigi and Uppy.

Michael E. Hanson, Superintendent
Fresno Unified School District

Michael Hanson has been serving the Fresno Unified School District as superintendent since 2005.  He is responsible for leading California’s fourth largest school district and overseeing the academic performance of almost 73,000 students at 106 schools, as well as responsible for balancing a $1 billion budget over the past ten years.  Mr. Hanson currently serves as the President of the CORE Districts, a non-profit organization consisting of ten districts serving over one million students in California.  The CORE Districts received an unprecedented waiver from No Child Left Behind legislation in 2013/14 and 2014/15 for its innovative accountability system and highly-productive and meaningful collaboration.  Mr. Hanson is a proud alumnus of UCLA as well as Harvard Graduate School of Education and Syracuse School of Education.  His wife, of 23 years, is a psychologist and all three children attend public schools in Fresno.  They are all proud to call Fresno their home.

Maggie Johnson
Director of Education and University Relations, Google

Maggie Johnson is Director of Education and University Relations for Google.

She manages all technical training, content development, and information management programs for Google engineers and operations staff, as well as Google’s K12 educational programs in STEM and computer science. She also manages the University Relations area, building research partnerships with faculty and labs globally; and Google's strategic initiatives in online teaching and learning. Prior to Google, Maggie was teaching faculty and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University.

Jack Knott
Dean, USC Price School of Public Policy

Jack H. Knott is the Dean of the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, where he holds the C. Erwin and Ione L. Piper Chair. He is a leading scholar in the fields of political institutions and public policy, and is a past president of NASPAA, the international association of schools of public affairs.

Under Dean Knott’s leadership, the Price School has experienced significant growth and has strengthened its position as leader in public affairs research and education. In addition to several major gifts, Dean Knott was instrumental in securing the school’s $50 million endowment and naming gift from the Price Family Charitable Fund in November 2011.

In 2007, Dean Knott was elected as a fellow to the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA), a non-partisan organization chartered by the U.S. Congress to assist federal, state, and local governments to improve their effectiveness, efficiency, and accountability.

Phil Libin
CEO, Evernote

Phil Libin is the CEO of Evernote, the company that's helping millions of people worldwide work effectively and achieve personal and professional success. He is an entrepreneur and executive who has led two Internet companies from the very beginning to proven commercial success, and helped three others through rapid growth. Prior to joining Evernote, Phil founded and served as president of CoreStreet, a company that provided smart credential and identity management technologies to governments and large corporations throughout the world. CoreStreet was acquired by ActivIdentity, now owned by HID Global, in 2009. Previously, Phil was founder and CEO of Engine 5, a leading Boston-based Internet software development company acquired by Vignette Corporation (VIGN) in 2000, where he went on to serve as principal architect and chief technologist for applications.

Jeffrey Lunde
Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota

In 2011, he became Mayor of the City after a special election, and reelected with 60% of the vote in 2014. Previously, he was a Council Member for the city’s East District.
Mayor Lunde is an active member of the NLC’s Afterschool Policy Action Network and was honored in 2013 with the Minnesota After School Champion Award.    
He is a founding Mayor with Cities United and the Presidential Initiative My Brother’s Keeper.  Mayor Lunde was a community leader involved in the building of the 1st Suburban Teen Homeless Shelter.       
During the day, Mayor Lunde is currently starting his own technology consulting practice, specializing in IT Strategic Planning and Operational Assessments, having worked for Dell, Microsoft and VMware.    
Jeff is married to wife, Jodi, and has two sons, Joshua, 11, and Jedrik, 8, who are both taking the plunge into the sport of lacrosse.

Dr. Dan Mazmanian, Academic Director
USC Schwarzenegger Institute

Daniel A. Mazmanian is Professor of Public Policy in the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy and Academic Director of the Schwarzenegger Institute. Author of eight books, numerous articles, and the recipient of National Science Foundation and other research grants, his areas of interest are public policy analysis with special emphasis on environmental and climate change policy. He served as Dean of the Price School from 2000-2005 and Dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan from 1996-2000.

In 2005-07 he served as a member of the Task Force on Environmental Governance for the Chinese Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, Beijing. In 2009-2010 he served as director of the Task Force on California’s Adaptation to Climate change. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation since 1994. He holds a doctorate degree in political science from Washington University, St. Louis, with master and bachelor degrees from San Francisco State University.

Sarah McMinimy
Schwarzenegger Institute Undergraduate Student Fellow

Sarah McMinimy is an undergraduate in her final year studying Sustainable Planning at the USC Price School of Public Policy. Born in the U.S. and raised in Luxembourg, growing up as an expat has been significant in driving her interest in international planning and development.  Within this field, her strongest areas of interests are in crowdsourcing through mobile technology to identify urban problems, in situ housing and infrastructure improvements within informal settlements, and the use of mega events to expedite the implementation of large infrastructure projects. The most important commitment in her time outside of school is her work with youth from South Los Angeles through USC Troy Camp, where she considers her experiences as a summer camp counselor and year-long mentor and tutor to children as one of the most valuable parts of her life.  After graduating from USC in May 2015, Sarah hopes to begin her career in transportation planning within the United States.  She plans to return to get school to get her masters after gaining professional experience, and eventually, to practice planning in the context of developing countries. 

Jose Mendoza
Bell Gardens Councilmember and Educator

Jose J. Mendoza grew up in Bell Gardens. After graduating from Bell Gardens High school he attended California State University, Long Beach with a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal studies. He also received his Master of Arts in Education from UOP. He returned to his community where he taught at Bell Gardens Intermediate. While in college, Jose volunteered his time working with youth teaching them the art of dance. Students learned about self-esteem, healthy living, freedom of expression, and positive ethical values.  His performing arts program continued to grow and became a model program for the city of Bell Gardens, where his team represented the city in various competitions, professional performances. They even performed for former Governor Schwarzenegger. Jose's dedication and compassion for teaching has been recognized by many. In 2009 he received the Honorary Service Award.  In 2012 he received the Secondary Honorary Award. He is a great representative of his city, inspiring others to pursue their dreams and achieve their goals. He is currently pursuing a doctoral degree. 

Dr. Rod Paige
U.S. Secretary of Education 2001-2005

The son of a school principal and a librarian, Rod Paige rose from humble roots in segregated small-town Mississippi all the way to the United States’ Secretary of Education.

From 2001 to 2005, Paige served in the first George W. Bush administration. As the Nation’s top educator, he championed student achievement and employed "best of breed" solutions to raise national standards of educational excellence.  A member of the Presidential Cabinet, Paige spearheaded the implementation of the historic No Child Left Behind Act, with the goal of reinvigorating America’s education system.

As the superintendent of the Houston Independent School District from 1994 to 2001, he was the first African-American in the district’s history to serve in that position. Paige was honored as National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators in 2001. In 2006 he authored The War Against Hope and in 2010 published The Black-White Achievement Gap: Why Closing it is the Greatest Civil Rights Issue of Our Time.

Ben Paul
President and CEO, After-School All-Stars

Ben Paul is President & CEO of After-School All-Stars (ASAS), a national non-profit organization founded by Arnold Schwarzenegger, which provides free daily after-school programs for 90,000 students from low-income families.   Since joining ASAS in 2003, Mr. Paul has helped guide the expansion of programs from 45 to 400 schools. Today ASAS is one of the largest national after-school program providers solely focused on providing comprehensive school based programs.

Mr. Paul was a founding partner of a Los Angeles real-estate investment group; he worked in anti-terrorism flight-security; and served for four years as a commander in the Israeli army. Since 2004, Mr. Paul has co-founded six diverse, high-performing charter schools in Los Angeles, as well as serving as Board Chair of them, including Larchmont Charter Schools, Valley Charter network and The City School charter network. Paul is a former member of the Board of Trustees of America’s Promise Alliance, a past member of YPO and former director of Palindrome Advisors. 

Betsy Price
Mayor of Fort Worth, Texas

Betsy Price, a Fort Worth native, was elected in 2011 as the 44th mayor of the City of Fort Worth. In 2013, Price ran unopposed and was re-elected to a second two-year term. As the 16th largest city in the United States, Fort Worth remains one of the fastest growing large cities in the country.
Along with her focus on promoting jobs, strengthening education, fighting crime and improving mobility, Price has made significant strides along the path toward her vision of a healthy, engaged and fiscally responsible city. 

Miguel A. Pulido
Mayor of Santa Ana, California

Since he was first elected to the Santa Ana City Council in 1986, Mayor Miguel Pulido has been a major force in the renaissance and economic revitalization of the City.  He is currently serving his tenth term as Mayor and has proven to be a leader, not only within the community, but regionally and nationally.  Mayor Pulido has focused his efforts on improving the quality of life for all Santa Ana residents.

During his tenure the City has experienced a 58 percent reduction in crime, an increase in home values, a rise in the number of business licenses, an enhancement of the economic opportunities for the private sector, an overall revitalization of the City’s infrastructure and an expansion in social and culture venues.  

Mayor Miguel Pulido holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from California State University, Fullerton.   

Bonnie Reiss, Global Director
USC Schwarzenegger Institute

Bonnie Reiss is the Global Director of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute on State and Global Policy, which launched in September 2012. She is an accomplished attorney, advocate and strategist, and has a remarkable career having worked in the public sector for U.S. Senators and Presidents and founded and served as CEO for three national nonprofit organizations. She was a highly respected entertainment attorney and utilized her legal and accounting background to the benefit of many corporate boards she served on or advised.

She served as Senior Advisor to Governor Schwarzenegger from 2003-2007, advising on all major policy initiatives, budget and political strategy and served on the California State Board of Education from 2003-2005. In 2009 she stepped in to serve as California Secretary of Education for the final year of Governor Schwarzenegger's term of office. She currently serves on the University of California Board of Regents, the Afterschool Alliance and After-School All-Stars Board of Advisors, as well as the University of Miami President's Council. 

Christopher J. Steinhauser
Superintendent of Long Beach Unified School District

Christopher J. Steinhauser, superintendent of the highly diverse Long Beach Unified School District, has earned national and international recognition for improving student achievement and closing achievement gaps.  Steinhauser began his career as a teacher more than 30 years ago at an inner-city elementary school in Long Beach.  He became deputy superintendent in 1999 and then superintendent in 2002.  He earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies and a master’s degree in educational administration from California State University, Long Beach.  LBUSD is California’s third largest school district and is a five-time finalist and national winner of the Broad Prize for Urban Education.  The school district also was listed among the world’s top five performing school systems by the Battelle for Kids nonprofit organization.  

Marilyn Strickland
Mayor of Tacoma, Washington

Marilyn Strickland is serving her second term as Mayor of Tacoma. Her pro-growth agenda focuses on creating family-wage jobs by improving education and workforce training, promoting entrepreneurship, investing in transportation and attracting international investment. Born in Seoul, she is a graduate of the University of Washington and holds an MBA from Clark-Atlanta University. Prior to elected office, she worked in both the private and public sectors. Mayor Strickland’s regional and national board leadership includes Sound Transit, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Democratic Mayors Association. Strickland has appeared on Meet the Press, National Public Radio and is a Rose Fellow with the Urban Land Institute. She has been recognized by the National League of Cities Women in Municipal Government for outstanding local leadership.  

Cherie Wood
Mayor City of South Salt Lake, Utah

Cherie Wood is a lifelong resident of the City of South Salt Lake, and began her career with the City 22 years ago. She graduated from the University of Phoenix with dual Bachelor’s Degrees in Business Management and Business Administration, and was elected as South Salt Lake’s first female Mayor in 2009. She was named one of “30 Women to Watch” by Utah Business Magazine, and chosen by the University of Phoenix for their 2011 National Icon Campaign. She was selected as “Best of State, Elected Official” in both 2012 and 2013. In 2013 Cherie was re-elected for a second term as Mayor.

Cherie believes that every resident deserves a safe, clean, home and neighborhood, and the opportunity to prosper. She has set in motion the Promise South Salt Lake Initiative, which is changing the face of her city forever. ?