Lunchtime Lessons Bios Page

Tom Vander Ark, CEO of OpenEd Solutions
Tom Vander Ark served as the first Executive Director of Education for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Tom was the first business executive to serve as a public school superintendent for one of Washington State’s larger school districts. Tom is a partner in Learn Capital and blogs at GettingSmart.com. Tom is the chairman of the International Association of K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) and is author of Getting Smart: How Digital Learning Is Changing the World.

 
Dawn Chavous, Executive Director of Students First PA & Secretary
 Office of Senator Anthony H. Williams
Dawn Chavous is the Executive Diredor of Students First PA and the Chief of Staff to State Senator Anthony H. Williams (PA). Ms. Chavous serves as advisor and liaison between various governmental bodies, legislators, special interest groups, public/private agencies and staff throughout four senate offices. Ms. Chavous is also the co-founder of Greentree Education, a tutoring program she co-founded which serves students from low income families who attend low performing schools. In 2008, Ms. Chavous was awarded a prestigious Fellowship with the nationally recognized Education Policy and Leadership Center in Harrisburg, PA. Ms. Chavous is also a talented singer and performer. Her first solo album, Life Without Limit, sold out twice at Soul Brother Records in the United Kingdom and at Tower Records in Philadelphia.

 
Jeanne Allen, President & CEO of The Center for Education Reform
Jeanne is Founder and President of The Center for Education Reform (CER), a national policy and grassroots advocacy organization based in Washington, DC, that, since 1993, has been the pioneer and leading voice for structural and sustainable changes that can dramatically improve educational opportunities for decades to come. As one of the nation’s leading experts on education, Jeanne appears frequently quoted in the media, representing the voices of the thousands of parents, community leaders, policy makers and influencers, with whom she has worked to improve education throughout the United States.

 
Larry Sand, President of California Teachers Empowerment Network
Larry Sand taught elementary and middle school for over 28 years in NY and CA. Now retired, he is president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues – information teachers will often not get from their school districts or unions. CTEN was formed in 2006 because a wide range of information from the more global concerns of education policy, education leadership, and education reform, to information having a more personal application, such as professional liability insurance, options of relationships to teachers’ unions, and the effect of unionism on teacher pay, comes to teachers from entities that have a specific agenda. Sand’s comments and op-eds have appeared in City Journal, Associated Press, Newsweek, Townhall Magazine, Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union Tribune, Los Angeles Daily News, San Jose Mercury News, Orange County Register and other publications.