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2006 EdSource Forum Speaker Bios
Ron Bennett
is president and CEO of School Services of California (SSC), a business
serving most California school districts and county offices of
education. SSC’s areas of expertise include: public education
management, finance, and governance; legislative lobbying; collective
bargaining and fact-finding assistance, and leadership training.
Bennett has extensive experience in school facility policy and
management and served as a director of the Coalition for Adequate
School Housing. Previous to joining SCC in 1999, Bennett was chief
financial officer and deputy superintendent in Long Beach Unified
School District, Fresno Unified School District, and ABC Unified School
District.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Alan Bersin
secretary of education in July 2005. In this capacity, Bersin is the
governor’s primary education advisor, creating, promoting, and
supporting the governor’s education policies. Immediately prior to
becoming secretary he was superintendent of San Diego City Schools, the
nation’s eighth largest urban school district. While acting as
superintendent, Bersin also spent three years as a member of the
California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, serving as its chair
for two years. Prior to becoming involved in public education, he
worked as a lawyer, serving most recently as the U.S. attorney for the
Southern District of California. He is as a member of the policy board
of EdVoice, the Broad Superintendents Academy, and the Advisory Board
for the National Council on Teacher Quality.
As deputy director of the California County Superintendents Educational Association (CCSESA), Sue Burr
is responsible for advocacy efforts on state and federal legislation
and budget matters on behalf of all 58 county superintendents in the
state. Prior to joining CCSESA, she served as the assistant
superintendent for business services in the Elk Grove Unified School
District and as the interim secretary for education for Gov. Gray
Davis. She has codirected the California State University Institute for
Education Reform (CSU-IER) and worked for the California State
Legislature for 14 years. In the latter role she served as education
consultant to the Senate Education and Appropriations Committees and as
policy analyst for the Legislative Analyst's Office. Burr is a past
president of the California Network of Educational Charters Association
(CANEC).
Carl Cohn
has more than 35 years experience in education, serving as a teacher,
counselor, central office administrator, and superintendent. Before
coming out of retirement in July 2005 to become superintendent of San
Diego City Schools, Cohn worked for 10 years as superintendent of the
Long Beach Unified School District. During that tenure, Cohn became the
longest-serving superintendent of any large, urban district in the
nation. After retiring in 2002, he was appointed independent monitor by
the federal court in Los Angeles to oversee the Special Education
Consent Decree in the Los Angeles school system. Cohn has been a
faculty advisor for the Broad Superintendents Academy, a consultant for
GKK, an architectural and school construction firm; and an executive
search consultant for the California School Boards Association.
Chris Cross
is chairman of Cross & Joftus, LLC, an education policy consulting
firm. Cross also serves as a consultant to the Broad Foundation and the
C.S. Mott Foundation, and is a member of the advisory board for the
School Evaluation Service program of Standard and Poor's. From 1994 to
2002 he served as president and chief executive officer of the Council
for Basic Education (CBE). Before joining CBE, he was director of the
education initiative of The Business Roundtable and assistant secretary
for educational research and improvement in the U.S. Department of
Education. Cross was a senior fellow with the Center for Education
Policy and a distinguished senior fellow with the Education Commission
of the States. He is a former president of the Maryland State Board of
Education and has written extensively in the fields of education and
public policy.
Since 1999 Jean Fuller
has been superintendent of the Bakersfield City School District, the
largest pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade district in California.
She previously served as superintendent of Keppel Union School District
in Lancaster, California. Fuller’s 32 years in the field of education
include 16 as a superintendent, one as an assistant superintendent,
eight as a principal, and seven as a teacher. Fuller is a member of the
Urban Education Dialogues, part of the Institute for Education Reform,
and has served a three-year term on the California School Boards
Association (CSBA) Superintendents Advisory Committee. She is the Kern
County Cohort Leader for the Gates Superintendent’s Academy and was
president of the California City School Superintendents in 2003–04.
In 2004 Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Glee Johnson
to the State Board of Education (SBE), and currently she is its
president. The SBE is responsible for, among other things, setting K–12
education policy in the areas of standards, instructional materials,
assessment, and accountability. From 1998 to 2004, Johnson was a chief
deputy chancellor of the California Community Colleges. Immediately
prior to that, she served as undersecretary of the Office of Child
Development and Education, during which time the basic structure of
California's system of standards-based curriculum, instruction, and
assessment in K–12 education was developed and implemented. She was
deputy legislative secretary for former Gov. Pete Wilson, with
assignments that included K–12 education. Before entering state
service, Johnson taught high school–level math.
Mike Kirst
has been professor of education and business administration at Stanford
University since 1969. As a policy generalist, Kirst has published
articles on school finance politics, curriculum politics,
intergovernmental relations, and education reform policies. He is the
author of 10 books, including The Political Dynamics of American Education
(2005). Kirst was a member of the California State Board of Education
from 1975 to 1982 and its president from 1977 to 1981. He was cofounder
of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) in 1983, and is a
member of the management and research staff of the Consortium for
Policy Research in Education. Before joining the Stanford faculty,
Kirst held several positions with the federal government, including
program analyst for the Title I Elementary and Secondary Education Act
program at its inception in 1965.
Kelvin Lee
has been superintendent of Dry Creek Joint Elementary School District
since 1977 and is due to retire in June of this year. Dry Creek was
founded in 1876 with only a few students in a one-room schoolhouse, and
it remained a one-school district for more than one hundred years. The
district currently serves 7,400 K–8 students. Lee was a middle school
science teacher prior to becoming the Dry Creek superintendent. He is a
commissioner for the Mental Health Services Act (Proposition 63); a
board member for the National Clearing House for Educational
Facilities, U.S. Department of Education; and a member of the
California Department of Education’s Advisory Committee of the Public
Schools Accountability Act (PSAA). He is a past chair of the Coalition
for Adequate School Housing (CASH) and has served on the EdSource board
of directors since 1998.
Susanna Loeb
has been associate professor of education at Stanford University since
1999. She specializes in the economics of education and the
relationship between schools and federal, state, and local policies.
Her research focus is on teacher labor markets and on how the structure
of state finance systems affects the level and distribution of funds to
districts. Loeb is also codirector of Policy Analysis for California
Education (PACE) and is a faculty research fellow at the National
Bureau of Economic Research. She was recently selected by four private
foundations (Bill & Melinda Gates, the William and Flora Hewlett,
the James Irvine, and Stuart) to help design and oversee a series of
independent, nonpartisan research projects on California’s school
finance and governance systems.
Ted Mitchell
is chair of the Governor’s Committee on Educational Excellence, charged
with making recommendations to improve California’s system of K–12
finance and governance. He became president & CEO of NewSchools
Venture Fund in the fall of 2005, after having served on the NewSchools
Board of Directors for seven years. NewSchools Venture Fund is a
venture philanthropy firm focused on transforming public education for
underserved children. Prior to joining NewSchools, Mitchell served as
the 12th president of Occidental College in Los Angeles. A former
deputy to the president at Stanford University and vice chancellor at
UCLA, Mitchell is a national leader in the effort to provide
high-quality education for all students and has long been active in Los
Angeles and state educational reform initiatives.
Joe Nuñez
was appointed to the State Board of Education (SBE) in 2001 by Gov.
Gray Davis. The SBE is responsible for, among other things, setting
K–12 education policy in the areas of standards, instructional
materials, assessment, and accountability. Nuñez is also associate
executive director of the California Teachers Association (CTA), having
served previously as legislative advocate and UniServ director (acting
as a liaison between the National Education Association and its local
units) for the Stockton division of the CTA. From 1975 to 1994, Nuñez
taught a variety of subjects including agriculture science, practical
science, algebra, and ornamental horticulture at Ernest Righetti High
School in the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District. 
Jack O’Connell
was elected to serve as California's 26th state superintendent of
public instruction (SPI) in November 2002. The SPI is the head of the
California Department of Education (CDE), whose role it is administer
state education laws, advise school districts, and collect and analyze
school data. As SPI, O’Connell has focused his efforts on
accountability, rigor, and high standards for all students. Previously,
he served for two decades in the California State Legislature
representing the Central Coast. As the author of numerous education
bills in both the Assembly and the State Senate, quality education was
his number one priority. O’Connell attended California public schools
through college and obtained a teaching credential from CSU. He taught
at the high school in which he was a student prior to becoming a member
of the Santa Barbara County School Board.
Mary Perry
is EdSource’s school finance expert. Since joining EdSource as its
deputy director in 1993, she has been an author of several EdSource
publications each year, including reports on various aspects of
California’s school finance system and issues. Perry assists with the
planning and administration of the organization's annual publication
program, website, and various special projects. She has also worked on
both the content and administration of the Ed-Data Partnership website,
a project that makes public detailed financial, performance,
demographic, and staffing data for schools and school districts in
California. Her service for nine years as a member of the governing
board of Campbell Union School District also helps inform her work at
EdSource.
Jon Sonstelie
has been a professor of economics at the University of California,
Santa Barbara, since 1977 and a senior fellow at the Public Policy
Institute of California (PPIC) since 1999. His research is in the areas
of school finance and urban economics. For PPIC, he has written a
number of reports on school finance in California, including High Expectations, Modest Means: The Challenge Facing California’s Public Schools (2003); School Budgets and Student Achievement in California: The Principal’s Perspective (2004); and School Resources and Academic Standards in California: Lessons from the Schoolhouse
(2006). His current research focuses the resources schools need to meet
the academic standards the state has set for them. He is researching
the opinions of superintendents, principals, and teachers on this
issue.
Dale Vigil
became the superintendent of Hayward Unified School District in July
2005. He served the previous four years as an area superintendent in
the Los Angeles Unified School District (Local District Six), where he
experienced success in closing the achievement gap by focusing on
culturally relevant education for all students. He served as
superintendent of the Santa Rosa City Schools and assistant
superintendent for community relations and integration services with
San Diego City Schools. Vigil began his educational career teaching
Spanish in Colorado public schools and is a former director of
bilingual education and second language education in the Denver Public
Schools. He has also worked in secondary education, including serving
as an adjunct professor of educational administration at San Diego
State University.
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