Joseph A. Aguerrebere Jr., is president and CEO of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Previously, he was deputy director in the Knowledge, Creativity, and Freedom Program at the Ford Foundation where he focused on the development of quality teachers and school system leaders.

Barnett Berry is the founder and President of the Center for Teaching Quality, Inc., based in Hillsborough, NC. The Center seeks to improve student learning by shaping policies through developing teacher leadership, building coalitions, and conducting practical research. Berry's career, which began as an under-prepared, inner-city high school teacher in 1978, has focused on a wide-range of efforts to close America’s student achievement gap by closing the teaching quality gap.

Kevin Carey is the Policy Manager at Education Sector, a new education think tank. Prior to working at Education Sector, Carey was director of policy research at Education Trust, where he published numerous policy papers and analyses that have been cited in such media outlets as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today.

Tom Carroll was named President of the National Council on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF) in November 2001. In his role as NCTAF's President, Carroll leads the organization's efforts to raise standards for teaching and learning, improve professional, and restructure school environments so that the needs of all students are met.

Segun Eubanks is the Director of Teacher Quality for the National Education Association, the nation's leading organization committed to advancing the cause of public education. He has spent more than twenty years of his professional career working to promote opportunity, access and equity in America's education systems.

Daniel Fallon served as Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences at Binghamton University, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences of the University of Colorado at Denver, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University, and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost at the University of Maryland in College Park. In 1986-87 he was President of the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences.

Richard A. Flanary serves as the Director of National Association of Secondary School Principals' Department of Professional Development Services and is responsible for leading the design of professional skills and programs for prospective and practicing principals. He chairs the Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC), a partnership involving the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), the National Association of Elementary School Principals, and NASSP.

Prior to joining the Sacramento County Office of Education in July 2004, David W. Gordon served as Superintendent of the Elk Grove Unified School District. Elk Grove is an ethnically and economically diverse district of more than 55,600 students covering 320 square miles of Sacramento County, CA, where he was responsible for 51 schools and budgets totaling $500 million.

Carole Kennedy served as a teacher and principal for thirty-eight years in the public schools of Missouri before her retirement in 2001. In 1999, she was appointed by Secretary of Education Richard Riley to the position of Principal in Residence at the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, DC. Following completion of that two-year term, she joined the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards in Arlington, VA, as principal consultant.

Ellen Moir is Executive Director of the New Teacher Center (NTC) at the University of California, Santa Cruz, a national resource for high quality new teacher and new administrator induction programs. The NTC conducts research, develops and administers induction programs, and consults with organizations, educational leaders, and policy makers throughout the U.S. on issues related to new educator support.

Catherine Fisk Natale is currently the Acting Bureau Chief for the Bureau of Educator Assessment and co-director of the Connecticut SAELP Project. She joined the Department in 1987 and has worked primarily on the development, validation and administration of teacher performance assessments and a state-wide teacher induction initiative (the Beginning Educator Support and Training [BEST] Program).

Heather Peske is the Director of Teacher Quality at The Education Trust, a non-profit research and advocacy organization whose mission is to close achievement gaps that separate low-income students and students of color from other youth. Peske is a former member of the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, as well as an Editorial Board Member of the Harvard Education Review.

Jon Schnur is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of New Leaders for New Schools - a national non-profit organization devoted to improving education for every child by attracting and preparing the next generation of outstanding principals for our nation's urban public schools. Schnur was a policy advisor on K-12 education in president Bill Clinton's administration for seven years, serving as White House Associate Director for Educational Policy, Vice President Gore's Senior Policy Advisor on education, and Special Assistant to U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley.

Karen Seashore has served as professor of Educational Policy and Administration at the University of Minnesota since 1987. Her primary research interests focus on school improvement and school reform, although she teaches and advises in all areas of educational policy and administration. Her main area of expertise includes improvement in K-12 leadership and policy over the last 30 years, particularly in urban secondary schools.