Robert Steven Kaplan has served as the thirteenth president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas since 2015. Kaplan was previously the Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice and a Senior Associate Dean at Harvard Business School. He is the author of several books, including “What You Really Need to Lead: The Power of Thinking and Acting Like an Owner,” “What You’re Really Meant To Do: A Road Map for Reaching Your Unique Potential,” and “What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential.”

He serves as Chairman of Project A.L.S. and Co-Chairman of the Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, a global venture philanthropy firm that invests in developing non-profit enterprises dedicated to addressing social issues. He is also a board member of Harvard Medical School.

Kaplan was appointed by the Governor of Kansas as a member of the Kansas Health Policy Authority Board. Born and raised in Prairie Village, Kansas, Kaplan received a bachelor of science degree in business administration from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.

Dr. Robert D. Putnam is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. In addition to teaching, he is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the British Academy, and past president of the American Political Science Association. He has received numerous scholarly honors, including the Skytte Prize, the most prestigious global award in political science, and the National Humanities Medal, the nation’s highest honor for contributions to the humanities.

He has written 14 books, translated into more than 20 languages, including “Bowling Alone” and “Making Democracy Work,” both among the most cited publications in the social sciences in the last half century. His 2010 book, co-authored with David E. Campbell, “American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us,” won the American Political Science Association’s 2011 Woodrow Wilson Award as the best book in political science.

He has consulted for the last three American presidents, the last three British prime ministers, the last French president, prime ministers from Ireland to Singapore, and hundreds of grassroots leaders and activists in many countries. His most recent book, “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis,” a New York Times bestseller, chronicles the growing gap in opportunity for American youth. Putnam is now working on a major empirical project about 20th century economic, social and political trends and the implications for American culture.

Dr. Richard V. Reeves is Senior Fellow in Economic Studies and Co-Director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution. His research focuses on social mobility, inequality, and family change. Prior to joining Brookings in 2013, he was director of strategy to the UK’s Deputy Prime Minister. Richard’s publications for Brookings include his latest book “Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do about It” (2017), “Time for justice: Tackling Race Inequalities in Health and Housing” (2017), and Ulysses Goes to Washington: Political Myopia and Policy Commitment Devices” (2015) among others.

He is also a contributor to The Atlantic, National Affairs, Democracy Journal, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. In September 2017, Politico magazine named Richard one of the top 50 thinkers in the U.S. for his work on class and inequality. He is a member of the Government of Canada’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Poverty, and also teaches at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. Richard has a BA from Oxford University and a Ph.D. from Warwick University.

Ruth J. Simmons is the President of Prairie View A&M University and former President of Brown University from 2001-2012. Under her leadership, Brown made significant strides in improving its standing as one of the world’s finest research universities.

A French professor before entering university administration, President Simmons held an appointment as a Professor of Africana Studies at Brown. After completing her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and literatures at Harvard, she served in various faculty and administrative roles at the University of Southern California, Princeton University, and Spelman College before becoming president of Smith College, the largest women’s college in the United States. At Smith, she launched a number of important academic initiatives, including an engineering program, the first at an American women’s college.

Simmons is the recipient of many honours, including a Fulbright Fellowship to France, the 2001 President’s Award from the United Negro College Fund, the 2002 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, the 2004 Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal, the Foreign Policy Association Medal, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and the Centennial Medal from Harvard University. Simmons is a member of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the boards of Texas Instruments, Chrysler, Mondelez and Square, as well as a number of non-profit boards. Awarded numerous honorary degrees, she received the Brown Faculty’s highest honour: the Susan Colver Rosenberger Medal in 2011. In 2012, she was named a ‘chevalier’ of the French Legion of Honour.

Andreas Schleicher is Director for Education and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). As a key member of the OECD’s Senior Management team, he supports the Secretary-General’s strategy to produce analysis and policy advice that advances economic growth and social progress. In addition to policy and country reviews, he oversees the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC), the OECD Skills Strategy, the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS), and the development and analysis of benchmarks on the performance of education systems (INES).

Before joining the OECD, Mr. Schleicher was Director for Analysis at the International Association for Educational Achievement (IEA). He studied Physics in Germany and received a degree in Mathematics and Statistics in Australia. He is the recipient of numerous honours and awards, including the “Theodor Heuss” prize, awarded in the name of the first president of the Federal Republic of Germany for “exemplary democratic engagement”. He holds an honorary Professorship at the University of Heidelberg.

Tom Luce was a founding partner of Hughes & Luce, LLP and served as US Assistant Secretary of Education for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development during the George W. Bush administration. He was founding CEO of the National Math and Science Initiative, Inc. from 2007 to 2011. Additionally, Tom served on Dell, Inc.’s Board of Directors from 1991 until 2012.

His life’s passion has been volunteer efforts to improve public education for all children. He has co-founded and led various non-profit entities such as: the Texas Business and Education Coalition, Just for Kids, the National Center for Education Accountability, and the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI). Mr. Luce’s work with NMSI has been featured in a national advertising campaign by ExxonMobil, in which the program highlights the success in improving math and science education across the country.

From 2013 to 2015, he undertook a new mission- improving mental health services for all of Texans as the founding President and CEO of the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute. He remains on its board. Tom earned a bachelor of business administration in accounting and a juris doctor degree from Southern Methodist University.

Dr. Michael J. Sorrell is the 34th President of Paul Quinn College. Under his leadership, Paul Quinn has become nationally renowned for its innovative approach to using higher education to address societal problems. The school’s numerous accomplishments during President Sorrell’s nine-year tenure include winning the HBCU of the Year, as well as reducing tuition and fees to $14,300.

Sorrell received his J.D. and M.A. in Public Policy from Duke University and his Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He graduated from Oberlin College with a B.A. in Government. Among the entities on which Sorrell serves as a trustee or director are Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, the College Board, the Center for Minority Serving Institutions at the University of Pennsylvania, and Dallas Advisory Board of Teach for America.

The Washington Monthly magazine recently identified Sorrell as one of America’s 10 Most Innovative College Presidents and he is the only two-time recipient of the HBCU Male President of the Year Award (2016 and 2012) in history. Sorrell has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education; and the A. Kenneth Pye Award for Excellence in Education from Duke University’s School of Law Alumni Association.

Dr. Gasko is the Dean and Professor at the School of Education at the University of North Texas at Dallas. He holds a doctorate in educational administration with a focus on policy and planning from the University of Texas at Austin’s Public School Executive Leadership Program; a Master of Arts in education and teaching from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio; and a Bachelor of Science in engineering from the SUNY Maritime Academy.

Dr. Gasko served as the Chief Executive Officer of UChicago Impact and Managing Director of the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Institute (UEI). In this role, Dr. Gasko led school turnaround work to close third grade reading gaps across Minneapolis and St. Paul public school districts and charter networks. He also partnered with the CEO and founder of Groupon to implement a high school and college readiness transformation initiative for middle school students across 38 schools on the South and West sides of Chicago.

As Founder and Chair of the Texas Early Learning Council, Dr. Gasko successfully wrote and received an $11 million grant to support change across these systems, which was matched by $30 million in state funds by the Texas Education Agency.

Mike Morath was appointed Texas Commissioner of Education by Gov. Greg Abbott in December 2015 and took office in January of this year.

As Commissioner, he heads the Texas Education Agency, which oversees pre-kindergarten through high school education for more than five million students enrolled in both traditional public schools and charter schools.

Prior to becoming the state’s Education Commissioner, Morath served on the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees for more than four years. During that time, he focused on academic improvements. And by his final year on the board, DISD witnessed dramatic improvement in the areas of kindergarten readiness, fourth grade math proficiency on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, high school graduation rates, and minority student performance on Advanced Placement tests that outpaced all large urban districts in the country.

A strong advocate of public education, Commissioner Morath graduated from Garland High School in the Garland Independent School District. And thanks to the great public school education he received in Texas, he went on to earn a Bachelor of Business Administration degree, summa cum laude, from George Washington University in two-and-a-half years.

Kate Rogers serves as Executive Vice President of The Holdsworth Center. She previously served as the Vice President of Corporate Communication and Health at H-E-B, where she oversaw all internal media and corporate communications as well as employee engagement programs for the company. While at H-E-B, Rogers created and launched the company’s early childhood literacy program, Read 3, which provides an in-store experience, a community outreach curriculum, and access to free and affordable books to ensure all children begin their school experience with an opportunity to succeed.

In 2006, she was awarded Ford’s Salute to Education award for her work in creating the H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards, the largest monetary awards program in the state honoring outstanding public school teachers, principals and districts.

She is currently leading the development of a series of career-themed high schools known as the Centers for Applied Science and Technology (CAST) to support San Antonio students in reaching their maximum potential while also helping to fill local workforce needs.