Speakers

Moderator:

• Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and CEO, PolicyLink; Vice Chair, CDF Board of Directors

Speakers:

• David Ellwood, Ph.D., Dean, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
• Robert Greenstein, President and Founder, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
• The Hon. Steven Horsford, Majority Leader, Nevada State Senate
• Heather McGhee, Vice President of Policy and Outreach, Demos
• The Hon. Holly Mitchell, Assembly Member, California Assembly, 47th District, Chair of Budget Sub-Committee on Health and Human Services
• The Hon. Mark Ridley-Thomas, Supervisor, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, 2nd District, former State Senator and Chair of California Black Caucus
• Joseph Stiglitz, Ph.D., Nobel Prize Economist, Author of The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future (invited)

Moderator:

• Michael Nettles, Ph.D., Sr. Vice President & Edmund W. Gordon Chair, ETS Policy Evaluation & Research Center

Speakers:

• Geoffrey Canada, President & CEO, Harlem’s Children Zone, Chair, CDF Board of Directors
• Ronald Mason, Jr., President, Southern University System – Baton Rouge, La.
• The Rev. Dr. Robert Michael Franklin, Ph.D., President, Morehouse College – Atlanta, Ga.

Moderator:

• Elaine Jones, Former Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.; Chair, CDF strategic planning committee on mass incarceration and the privatization of prisons

Speakers:

• Myrlie Evers-Williams, former NAACP Board chair and wife of slain Mississippi civil rights leader Medgar Evers
• The Rev. Dr. Bernard Lafayette, civil rights leader and Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Candler School of Theology, Emory University
• David Lawrence Jr., former publisher of the Miami Herald; president of The Early Childhood Initiative Foundation and “Education and Community Leadership Scholar” at the University of Miami’s School of Education and Human Development and key Florida children’s movement Leader
• James Lawson, chief nonviolent strategist for the Nashville Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
• David Levering Lewis, Julius Silver University Professor and Professor of History at New York University; two time Pulitzer Prize winner for biographies of W.E.B. DuBois
• Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Director, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America

Moderator:

• Geoffrey Canada, President & CEO, Harlem Children’s Zone, Inc.; Chair, CDF Board of Directors
• Video Keynote: The Economic Case for Investing in Quality Early Childhood Development and Public Education Systems
• Ben Bernanke, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Speakers:

• Robert Balfanz, Ph.D., Associate Research Scientist, Center for Social Organization of Schools, Johns Hopkins University
• The Rev. Calvin Butts, III, Pastor, Abyssinian Baptist Church and Development Corporation’s K-12 Public Schools, President, State University of New York at Old Westbury
• Jonah Edelman, Ph.D., CEO, Stand for Children
• Deborah Jewell-Sherman, Ph.D., Director, Urban Superintendents Program, Harvard University and former Superintendent, Richmond, Virginia Public Schools
• Craig Ramey, Ph.D., Professor and Distinguished Research Scholar, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• Jerry Weast, Ed.D., former Superintendent of Schools, Montgomery County, Maryland

Moderator:

• Charles Ogletree, Jesse Climenko Professor at Harvard Law School; Founder and Executive Director, Harvard’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice

Speakers:

• Michelle Alexander – Legal scholar and author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness
• The Hon. Patricia Martin – Presiding Judge, Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois Child Protection Division; President, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
• The Hon. Michael A. Nutter – Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors
• Bryan Stevenson – Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative, Montgomery, AL

This panel will feed into an interactive town hall discussion with additional leaders and respondents including:

• The Rev. Janet Wolf – National Program Coordinator and Director of Nonviolent Organizing to End the Cradle to Prison Pipeline, CDF Haley Farm
• Ndume Olatushani, formerly incarcerated prisoner for almost 28 years; 19 years on death row
• Zach Schiller, Research Director, Policy Matters Ohio
• Preston Shipp, former prosecutor in Nashville, Tenn. and currently Disciplinary Counsel at the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Supreme Court of Tenn.

Moderator:

• Wade Henderson, President and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Speakers:

• Robert Edgar, President and CEO of Common Cause
• Barbara Arnwine, Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
• Arturo Vargas, Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials

Co-Moderators:

• Wendy Puriefoy, President, Public Education Network; CDF Board Member - Washington, D.C.
• Barbara Best, Director of Foundation Relations and Special Projects, Children’s Defense Fund - Cambridge, Mass.

Speakers:

• Lan Bentsen, Vice Chair, CDF Board of Directors - Houston, Texas
• Jeff Johnson, Journalist, social activist and political commentator - Washington, D.C.
• Peggy Lewis, Assistant Professor, Broadcast Sequence Coordinator at Howard University; Communications Consultant, Children’s Defense Fund, Washington, D.C.
• Fred Senn, Founding Partner, Fallon Worldwide - Minneapolis, Minn.
• The Rev. Al Sharpton, President, National Action Network (invited) - New York, N.Y.
• Kent Wong, Director, Center for Labor Research and Education, University of California, Los Angeles, Calif.

Opening Keynote:

• Dr. Maya Angelou, who will receive CDF’s lifetime award for helping children Beat the Odds Moderators:
• The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, Pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, Ill.
• The Rev. Janet Wolf – National Program Coordinator and Director of Nonviolent Organizing to End the Cradle to Prison Pipeline, CDF Haley Farm

Speakers:

• Vincent Harding, Ph.D., Chair, Veterans of Hope Project, author Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero
• Nelson and Joyce Johnson, Beloved Community, Greensboro, N.C.
• Clemmie Greenlee, founder, Galaxy Star, peacemaking organization working with young gang members; former prostitute and gang member who became community organizer/peacemaking leader after her son was killed
• Kim Odom, Family Support Coordinator, Boston Public Health Commission and Boston Medical’s Violence Intervention Advocacy Program (VIAP)
• Pastor Ronald Odom Sr., True Vine Church, Dorchester, Mass.
• Ndume Olatushani, formerly incarcerated prisoner for almost 28 years; 19 on death row

• Elisabeth Wright Burak, Senior Program Director, Center for Children and Families, Georgetown University Health Policy Institute
• Donna Cohen Ross, Senior Policy Advisor, Centers for Medicaid and CHIP Services
• Sharon Adams-Taylor, Associate Executive Director, American Association of School Administrators, AASA
• Amy Swanson, CEO, Voices for Ohio’s Children

• Rochelle Davis, President & CEO, Healthy Schools Campaign
• Dr. Marilyn Crumpton, Medical Director, Division of School and Adolescent Health, Cincinnati Health Department
• Eve Bolton, President, Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education
• Charles Basch, Richard March Hoe Professor of Health Education, Columbia University Teachers College
• Kathleen King, Executive Director, Santa Clara Family Health Foundation

• Madeline Levin, Child Nutrition Senior Policy Analyst, Food Research Action Center
• Dalila Butler, Program Coordinator, Prevention Institute
• Rebecca Kelley, Vice President, YMCA of Greater Cincinnati
• Rochelle Davis, President & CEO, Healthy Schools Campaign

• Sharon Adams-Taylor, Associate Executive Director, American Association of School Administrators
• Juanita Elizondo, Fiesta Mart, Inc.
• Dawn Meyers, Director of Social Work, Clarke County School District, Athens, GA
• Beth Quill, Director, CDF-Texas
• Donna Cohen Ross, Senior Policy Advisor, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

• Madeline Levin, Child Nutrition Senior Policy Analyst, Food Research Action Center
• Jessica Shelly, Food Service Director, Cincinnati Public Schools
• Charlie Koslosky, Senior Vice President, School & Summer Nutrition, Children’s Hunger Alliance
• Kelly Beckwith, Project Director, American Association of School Administrators

• Angela Lariviere, Founder, Youth Empowerment Project of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio
• Sharon McDonald, Director for Families and Youth, National Alliance to End Homelessness
• Rob Podlogar, National Director, Siemer Institute for Family Stability
• Kevin Ryan, President and CEO, Covenant House
• Stacey Pelika, Research Director, Children’s Defense Fund

• Elaine Cunningham, Outreach Director, CDF-Minnesota
• Hon. Charniele Herring, Minority Whip, Virginia House of Delegates
• Shannon Hughes, Coordinator, NETWORK Education Program
• Ed Sivak, Founder and Director, Mississippi Economic Policy Center
• Stacey Pelika, Research Director, Children’s Defense Fund

• Andrew Sum, Professor of Economics and Director, Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University
• Dorothy Stoneman, Founder and President, YouthBuild USA, Inc.
• Terry Flood, Co-Founder, Executive Director and Job Counselor, Jubilee Jobs
• Stacey Pelika, Research Director, Children’s Defense Fund

• Elaine Fink, Managing Attorney, Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, LLC
• Carla Guenthner, Chief Magistrate, Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, Juvenile Division
• Kathleen McNaught, Assistant Director, American Bar Association Center for Children and the Law
• Dauntea Sledge, Media Spokesperson, Ohio Youth Advisory Board,  2011 FosterClub All- Star

• Kristin Shrimplin, Director, Family Violence Prevention Project, YWCA of Greater Cincinnati
• Theresa Singleton, Director, Protection from Abuse, YWCA of Greater Cincinnati
• Kiersten Stewart, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, Futures Without Violence
• MaryLee Allen, Director, Child Welfare and Mental Health, Children’s Defense Fund

• Mary Bissell, Partner, ChildFocus
• Dionne Simmons, Program Director, Kinship Caregiver Coalition, Center for Healthy Communities, Wright State University
• Connie Siskowski, President, American Association of Caregiving Youth

• Amanda Bryans, Director, Educational Development and Partnerships Division, Office of Head Start
• Catherine McCarty, Vice President for Clayton Educare, Clayton Early Learning
• Sarah Sexton, Director, Center for the Advanced Study of Excellence Family, Infant and Preschool Program (FIPP)
• Cathy Grace, Director of Early Childhood Development, Children’s Defense Fund

• Cathy Grace, Director of Early Childhood Development, Children’s Defense Fund
• Kristie Kauerz, Research Scientist and Program Director for Prek-3rd Education, University of Washington
• John D. Stanford, Chief Operating Officer, Columbus City Schools

• Janine G. Bacquie, Director, Division of Early Childhood Programs and Services, Montgomery County (MD) Public Schools
• Kristie Kauerz, Research Scientist and Program Director for Prek-3rd Education, University of Washington
• Sharon Ritchie, Senior Scientist, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC Chapel Hill
• Cathy Grace, Director of Early Childhood Development, Children’s Defense Fund

• Iheoma U. Iruka, Investigator, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at UNC Chapel Hill
• Rashanda Perryman, former Senior Policy Associate, Children’s Defense Fund
• Lauren Hogan, Director of Public Policy, National Black Child Development Institute
• Cathy Grace, Director of Early Childhood Development, Children’s Defense Fund

• Chandra Banks, Conflict Mediator, Cambridge Public Schools
• Blaine Griffin, Director of Community Relations, City of Cleveland, Ohio
• Billie Weiss, Associate Director of the Southern California Injury Research Center at UCLA and National Co-Chair of UNITY
• Kathleen King, Senior Policy Associate, Children’s Defense Fund

• Yali Lincroft, Child & Family Policy Consultant, First Focus Campaign for Children
• Jessi Leigh Swenson, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Human Rights Project for Girls
• Kiersten Stewart, Director of Policy and Advocacy, Futures Without Violence
• Kathleen King, Senior Policy Associate, Children’s Defense Fund

• Ronald Chisom, Co-Founder, People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
• Kimberley Richards, Organizer and Trainer, People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
• Jaime T. Koppel, Senior Program Associate, CDF-New York

• The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Jr., Pastor emeritus, Olivet Institutional Baptist Church, Cleveland, Ohio
• The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, Illinois
• Dr. Eli Wilson, Jr., Eli Wilson Ministries

• Bart Campolo, Walnut Hills Fellowship, Cincinnati, Ohio

• The Rev. Dr. Luther E. Smith, Jr., Pan-Methodist Campaign for Children in Poverty
• The Rev. Shannon Daley-Harris, Children’s Defense Fund
• Bishop (Retired) Kenneth L. Carder, Duke Divinity School

Engaging Key Community Partners to Support and Advance Your CDF Freedom Schools Program

• George H. Moses, North East Area Development, Inc., Rochester, New York
• Adam McFadden, Rochester City Council
• Mary Nell McPherson, Freedom Schools Partners, Charlotte, North Carolina
• Dwayne Crompton, Kansas City Freedom School Initiative

• Tambra Jackson, Department of Instruction and Teacher Education, University of South Carolina
• Sherell Fuller, Department of Reaching and Elementary Education, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

• Robin Sally, CDF South Carolina
• Shaquite Pegues, CDF South Carolina

• Ron Fairchild, Smarter Learning Group

• Ann Adalist-Estrin, Director, National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated
• Yali Lincroft, Child & Family Policy Consultant, First Focus Campaign for Children
• The Rev. Mark V. Scott, Associate Pastor, Azusa Christian Community

• Jody Kent Lavy, Director & National Coordinator, Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth
• Kim McGill, Director, Youth Justice Coalition
• Greg Johnson, Field Organizer, Campaign for Youth Justice
• Erin Davies, Public Policy Attorney, Children’s Law Center, Inc.

• Portia Ballard Espy, Chief Administrative Officer, CDF Southern Regional  Office
• Mary Joseph, Director, CDF-Louisiana
• Avery Irons, Director of Youth Justice Programs, CDF-New York
• Barbara Best, Director of Foundation Relations and Special Projects, Children’s Defense Fund
• The Rev. Emma Jordan-Simpson, Executive Director, CDF-New York

• Kent Wong, Director, Center for Labor Research and Education, UCLA
• Carlos Amador, Project Coordinator, Dream Resource Center, UCLA
• Sofia Campos, Graduate, UCLA

• David Domenici, Co-Founder, See Forever Foundation
• David Sapp, Staff Attorney, American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California
• Lia Venchi, Teacher, Stadium View School
• Angelica Salazar, Children’s Defense Fund

• Tambra Jackson, Assistant Professor, Department of Instruction and Teacher Education, University of South Carolina
• Sherell Fuller, Assistant Professor, Department of Reaching and Elementary Education, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

• Bryan Joffe, Project Director for Education and Youth Development, American Association of School Administrators
• N. Jean Walker, Vice President for Education, United Way of Metro Atlanta
• Karen E. Napier, Director, Education Initiatives, Metro United Way, Louisville, KY
• Kathlyn Burkhardt, Superintendent, Erlanger-Elsmere Independent Schools (KY)

• Paul Graham, Training Director, Ohio Organizing Collaborative
• Reverend Christopher McKee, Director of Training, Ohio Organizing Collaborative
• Maisie Chin, Executive Director & Co-Founder, CADRE Los Angeles

• Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Associate Professor, Department of History, Ohio State University
• Professor Daniel P. Tokaji, Robert M. Duncan/Jones Day Designated Professor of Law and Senior Fellow, Election Law, Ohio State University Moritz College of Law
• Carrie Davis, Executive Director, League of Women Voters of Ohio

• The Rev. Dr. Bernard Lafayette, civil rights leader and Distinguished Scholar in Residence, Candler School of Theology, Emory University
• The Rev. Jim Lawson, civil rights leader and Visiting Faculty, California State University Northridge's (CSUN) Civil Discourse and Social Change initiative
• Janet Wolf, Children's Defense Fund

• Margaret Brodkin, Margaret Brodkin and Associates, former Director, San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and their Families
• David Pepper, former Cincinnati City Council Member and Hamilton County Commissioner
• Crystal Ward Allen, Executive Director, Ohio Public Children’s Service Association
• Hon. Steven Horsford, Majority Leader, Nevada State Senate
• Beth Quill, Executive Director, CDF-Texas

• Judith Van Ginkel, President, Every Child Succeeds
• Nicole Barcliff, Senior Associate, Government Relations,  The Pew Center on the States
• Stefanie Sprow, Child Welfare and Mental Health Policy Associate, Children’s Defense Fund

• Ron Ferguson, Faculty Director, Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University

• Crystal Mattison, Development Associate, Bennett College
• David Poms, Agency Achievement Academy Coordinator, Capital Area Food Bank
• Itang Young, Class of 2012, Union Theological Seminary

• Peter Yarrow, Peter, Paul & Mary, Founder and President, Operation Respect

• Holly Hollingsworth, Vice President at Resolute Consulting and Senior Public Relations Consultant at AT&T Ohio
• Victor Neufeld, Executive Producer, Fenton Communications
• Patti Hassler, Vice President for Communications, Children’s Defense Fund

• Jimi Izrael, Web Editor and Writer, Children’s Defense Fund
• Monifa Bandele, Campaign Director, Moms Rising
• Scott Jacobsen, Deputy Director of Communication & Outreach, Children’s Defense Fund

• Victor Neufeld, Executive Producer, Fenton Communications
• Tina Kelley, Author, Author, former reporter for the New York Times
• Patti Hassler, Vice President for Communications, Children’s Defense Fund

• Michael Nettles, Sr. Vice President & Edmund W. Gordon Chair, ETS Policy Evaluation & Research Center
• Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children’s Defense Fund
• Geoffrey Canada, President & CEO, Harlem Children’s Zone
• Ronald Mason, So, Jr., President, Southern University System
• The Rev. Dr. Robert M. Franklin, President, Morehouse College

• Mia Smith-Bynum, Associate Professor, Department of Family Science, University of Maryland
• David Wall Rice, Associate Director of Psychology, Morehouse College
• James Roland, Directory of Community Outreach & Engaged Scholarship, Barkley Forum at Emory University
• Alvin Irby, Education Director, The Boys’ Club of New York

• Sharon Washington, Executive Director, National Writing Project
• Eric Kearney, Minority Leader of the Ohio State Senate
• Arnetha Ball, Professor and Director of the Program in African and African-American Studies, Stanford University
• Mary Evans Sias, President, Kentucky State University

• Tyrone Howard, Professor, Graduate School of Education & Information Studies and Director, Center X and Black Male Institute, UCLA
• Lezli Baskerville, President, National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education
• Brandon Corley, Project Director, Grace CDF Freedom Schools at Longfellow Middle School

• Kriner Cash, MemSuperintendent, Memphis City Schools
• Meria Carstarphen, Superintendent, Austin Independent School District
• Jerry Weast, Founder & CEO, Partnership for Deliberate Excellence
• Michael Nettles,  Sr. Vice President & Edmund W. Gordon Chair, ETS Policy Evaluation & Research Center