William Bowen is founding chairman at Ithaka Harbors. He is also President Emeritus at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where he served as President from 1988 to 2006. He was the president of Princeton University from 1972 to 1988. In 1988, he left Princeton and joined the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where he created a research program to investigate doctoral education, collegiate admissions, independent research libraries, and charitable nonprofits in order to ensure that the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's grants would be well-informed and more effective. Bowen has authored 19 books, including the Grawemeyer award-winning The Shape of the River: Long-Term Consequences of Considering Race in College and University Admissions (co-authored with Derek Bok). His most recent book, Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education (2005), was coauthored with Eugene M. Tobin and Martin A. Kurzweil. Bowen's current research project involves a study of graduation rates at selective public universities in the United States.

Fred Frelow is Director of Early College Initiatives at the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation where he is responsible for managing the development of 14 Early College High Schools. Prior to joining the Foundation, he was Associate Director in the Working Communities division of the Rockefeller Foundation where he was in charge of the continuing development and implementation of the Foundation’s school reform program. He has also served as Director of National Affairs and Associate Director of Urban Initiatives for the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future at Teachers College, Columbia University, Director of Curriculum for the Nyack, New York public schools, and Director of the US Department of Education’s Magnet School Assistance Project at Louis Armstrong Middle School in Queens, New York. He taught for 12 years in Newton, Massachusetts public schools. He has a doctorate in educational administration and policy analysis from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a Master’s education and policy analysis from Boston University.

Robert  Hughes is the President of New Visions. A prominent lawyer, Mr. Hughes formerly served as Deputy Director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a coalition of parent organizations, community school boards, concerned citizens and advocacy groups that seeks to reform New York State's education finance system to ensure adequate resources and the opportunity for a sound basic education for all students in New York City. Prior to joining Campaign for Fiscal Equity in 1993, Mr. Hughes was Deputy Director for Advocates for Children, a leading non-profit agency long active in securing quality and equal public education services for New York City's most impoverished and vulnerable families. Mr. Hughes received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and his law degree from Stanford Law School. Mr. Hughes' articles on public education have appeared in the Record of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Connecticut Law Review, the Journal of Law and Education and the Yale Journal of Law and Policy.

Joel Klein is the New York City schools Chancellor. As Chancellor, he oversees more than 1,450 schools with over 1.1 million students, 136,000 employees, and a $15-billion operating budget. Before Mr. Klein became Chancellor, He also served as Acting Assistant Attorney General and as the antitrust division’s principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General. His appointment to the U.S. Justice Department came after Klein served two years (1993-95) as deputy counsel to President William J. Clinton. He received his BA from Columbia University where he graduated magna cum laude/Phi Beta Kappa in 1967.  Klein earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1971, again graduating magna cum laude.

Randi Weingarten is president of the United Federation of Teachers, representing more than 140,000 active and retired educators in the New York City public school system since 1998. She is also a vice-president of the 1.2-million-member American Federation of Teachers and a board member of New York State United Teachers.  Weingarten, serves also as vice-president of the New York City Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO, and heads the city Municipal Labor Committee, an umbrella organization for some 100 city employee unions. Weingarten holds degrees from Cornell University and the Cardozo School of Law. She worked as a lawyer for the New York firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan from 1983 to 1986.

Chung-Wha Hong is the Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition.
Prior to her current position, Chung-Wha was the Executive Director of the National Korean American Service and Education Consortium, Inc. NAKASEC works for the education and empowerment of the Korean- American community nationwide, with particular emphasis on immigrant rights. She has worked on health care issues at the Committee of Interns and Residents, and served as the Assistant to the Director at the Washington, DC-based Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO. Working with NAKASEC staff, Chung-Wha initiated a national campaign which encouraged thousands of immigrants to voice their opposition to anti-immigrant legislation. Through her national leadership, more than 800 volunteers around the country worked to bring immigrants of all backgrounds into the democratic process. She serves as a member of the Board of Directors at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. She recently received the Asian Pacific American Award. Chung-Wha holds a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Pennsylvania.

Kathryn Wylde is the President and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit organization of the city’s business leaders, established by David Rockefeller in 1979. The Partnership is dedicated to maintaining New York City as a center of world commerce, finance and innovation. Its public policy focus is on issues in the areas of education, infrastructure and the economy. Wylde was also founding President and CEO of the Housing Partnership Development Corporation, serving from 1982-96. Wylde serves on a number of boards and advisory groups, including the NYS Commission on Public Authority Reform, the NYC Economic Development Corporation, the NYC Leadership Academy, the Manhattan Institute, and the Biomedical Research Alliance of New York. She chairs the board of Lutheran Medical Center, a community hospital in Brooklyn. She has authored numerous articles and policy papers and has been recognized for leadership by dozens of educational, professional and nonprofit institutions. She is a graduate of St. Olaf College,’68.