registration || hotel reservations || schedule || speakers 2008 STATEWIDE EDUCATION SUMMIT James H. Billington became the Librarian of Congress in 1987. He has championed the Library’s “American Memory” National Digital Library (NDL) Program which makes freely available on-line nearly 11 million American historical items from the collections of the Library and other research institutions. Under Dr. Billington’s leadership, the Library has placed on-line a major bilingual website with the National Libraries of Russia and has launched similar joint projects with the national libraries Susan Bonesteel is the Director of State Services for Just for the Kids and program manager for the National Center for Educational Accountability. Prior, Bonesteel was the Secretary’s regional representative for the U.S. Department of Education. She was the founding executive director of the Texas Public Education Reform Foundation and the Texas Education Reform Caucus. Bonesteel also served as coordinator of Tech Prep program development for Tarrant County College and director of career and technology education for the Arlington ISD. John Cornyn was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002. In 2006, he was selected to be a member of the five-person Republican Senate leadership team – Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference – the only first-term Senator in recent memory to be so honored. Cornyn is committed to bolstering our national defense, strengthening the economy, and improving educational opportunity for all Texans. He serves on the Armed Services, Judiciary and Budget Committees and is vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics. Larry R. Faulkner served as president of The University of Texas at Austin for eight years prior to becoming president of the Houston Endowment in 2006. The Houston Endowment is one of the largest foundations in Texas. While president of UT Austin, Faulkner led a capital campaign that raised more than $1.6 billion. Prior to his selection as president, he served as Provost, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and head of the department of chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he served on the faculty for 25 years. Mike Feinberg is co-founder of the KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) Foundation and the superintendent of KIPP Houston, which includes two middle schools, an early childhood and elementary school and high school. Now entering its second decade, KIPP has become one of the nation’s leaders in the movement to provide all children with access to an excellent education with 66 high-performing schools around the nation. John Fitzpatrick is the executive director of the Texas High School Project, a $261 million dollar public-private partnership managed by the Communities Foundation of Texas, working with the Texas Education Agency and the Governor’s Office. THSP is funded by an alliance of philanthropic organizations that includes the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. Previously, Fitzpatrick served as executive director of the Capital Area Training Foundation. Jon H. Fleming is chairman of Shepherd Creek Enterprises, an educational and health care consulting firm specializing in strategic planning and capital formation. His career in higher education includes serving as Professor of Psychology and President of Texas Wesleyan University from 1978-1984. In 1983, Fleming was appointed to the Governor's Select Committee on Public Education resulting in HB 72, “No Pass - No Play.” In 2003, he was appointed co-chair of the Steering Committee of the Texas eLearning Initiative, charged with making recommendations to the Legislature for technology's integration in Texas' schools. Bill Hammond was named President and CEO of Texas Association of Business & Chambers of Comerce in 1998. Prior to coming to TABCC, he served for three years as chairman of the Texas Workforce Commission. A four-term member of the Texas House of Representatives during the 1980s, Hammond successfully authored the Texas Education Agency Sunset Bill and was named one of the state’s top ten legislators by Texas Monthly and Dallas Morning News. Melody A. Johnson became the superintendent of the Fort Worth Independent School District in 2005 following her tenure as superintendent of schools in Providence, Rhode Island. Prior, Johnson served in various positions in school districts across Texas and as a senior director at the Texas Education Agency. While she served as Associate Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction, the San Antonio ISD was one of three districts in the nation to be recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for improving the achievement scores of the poorest students. Don McAdams is the president of the Center for Reform of School Systems. From 1990 to 2002, McAdams served as a member of the Houston ISD board of trustees, a tenure that included two terms as board president. McAdams has been a research professor at the University of Houston, president of the Texas Independent College Fund, president of Southwestern Adventist College, a professor of history and chairman of the Department of History at Andrews University. Rod Paige became the 7th U.S. Secretary of Education in 2001. He is the first school superintendent to serve as Secretary of Education. For Paige, the son of public school educators, that day was the crowning achievement of a long career in education. Paige has been a teacher, a coach, a school board member, a dean of a college school of education and superintendent of the nation’s 7th largest school district in Houston, Texas. His vast experience as a practitioner – from the blackboard to the boardroom – paid off during long hours of work to pass the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Raymund A. Paredes is the Commissioner of Higher Education. He is a former vice chancellor-academic development for ten years at UCLA where he had also been a professor of English. Paredes was the special assistant to the president, University of California System, from 1998-2000 on outreach efforts intended to improve access to education for students from educationally-disadvantaged communities. He is the former chair of the Cesar Chavez Center for Chicano Studies at UCLA. Richard M. Rhodes became president of El Paso Community College in 2001. Prior to being named president, Rhodes served as the Vice President of Business Services at Salt Lake Community College in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also served with the El Paso Community College from 1983-1994 in the role of Vice President of Financial and Administrative Services and Interim President. Prior to serving with EPCC, Rhodes was the Comptroller and Accountant at New Mexico State University. Doug Ridge is the director of Employer Initiatives for the Texas Workforce Commission and manager of Governor Perry’s “Texas Industry Cluster Initiative.” Doug brings to the position over 25 years of business experience. Most recently, he was the regional principal for the Americas in the management consulting arm of IBM where he led engagements in business strategy, organizational development, and process development with client companies from Alberta to Argentina. Phil Schlechty is the founder and CEO of The Schlechty Center for Leadership in School Reform. He and his staff help educators around the country implement permanent positive change at the district, school, and classroom levels. He has written many books and articles focused on helping schools create internal capacity for change. He has worked as a classroom teacher and an administrator and he has held faculty appointments at The University of North Carolina, Ohio State University, Ball State University, Vanderbilt, and the University of Louisville. Robert Scott was appointed Commissioner of Education in 2007. In this role, Scott serves as the head of the Texas Education Agency which oversees the state’s 1,200 school districts and charter schools. He has provided strategic leadership to the agency for the past four years, serving as the chief executive during a massive reorganization of its functions in 2003. In 2005, Scott was appointed chief deputy commissioner and was responsible for the daily operations of the agency and the implementation and execution of key statewide initiatives. |
