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2008 Forum Speakers

Sue BurrSusan K. Burr serves as Executive Director for the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA). County Superintendents are responsible for providing financial accountability and academic support to every California school district. She also served as the Deputy Executive Director for the County Superintendents organization where she was responsible for advocacy efforts on state and federal legislation and budget matters on behalf of all 58 county superintendents in the state.
Andrew Calkins Andrew Calkins is Senior Vice President of the Mass Insight Education & Research Institute, Inc., a Boston-based, independent, non-profit group focused on using higher standards reform to improve student achievement in Massachusetts and across the nation. He co-authored The Turnaround Challenge: Why America’s Best Opportunity to Dramatically Improve Student Achievement Lies in Our Worst-Performing Schools (2007), Mass Insight's pioneering national study of school turnaround.
Davis Campbell Davis Campbell, who retired as Executive Director of the California School Boards Association in 2001, is very active in public education at the state and local level. He currently serves as a senior advisor and faculty for the California School Boards Association, Governance Institute, he is a Senior Fellow in the University of California School of Education, and maintains an active consulting practice in effective governance. He serves on a number of state level boards in public education including the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning (founding Chairperson), EdSource (President, 2007-2009), The California Institute for School Improvement, and the Cities, Counties, Schools Partnership (founding board member). In Yolo County he also serves as a Commissioner for the Yolo County Aging and Adult Services Commission and is a member of the Board of Advisors for the UCD School of Education.
Kevin Gordon Kevin Gordon serves as the President of School Innovations and Advocacy which represents local school agencies on school finance and policy issues and provides an array of products and services to support public school administration. Before joining SI&A, Gordon was the Executive Director of the California Association of School Business Officials. He also served for 12 years as the chief lobbyist and assistant executive director for the California School Boards Association. He also served as staff director to former Congressman Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento) and as a legislative advocate for the Building Industry Association.
Elizabeth Hill Elizabeth Hill began a career in state government in 1976, joining California's Legislative Analyst's Office as a program analyst focusing on criminal justice. Following specializations in other policy areas, she was appointed California Legislative Analyst by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee in 1986. As Legislative Analyst, she serves as a nonpartisan fiscal advisor to both houses of the California Legislature and oversees the preparation of annual fiscal and policy analyses of the State of California's $126 billion budget and its various programs. Her office has the responsibility of preparing impartial analyses for all initiatives and constitutional measures qualifying for the state's ballot.
Mike Kirst Mike Kirst is Emeritus Professor of Education and Business Administration, by courtesy, at Stanford University. 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 From High School to College (2004), and 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 staff director of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Manpower and Poverty.
Goodwin Liu Goodwin Liu is a law professor at Boalt Hall specializing in constitutional law, education policy, civil rights, and the Supreme Court. He is also Co-Director (with Christopher Edley, Jr.) of the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity, a multidisciplinary research center at UC Berkeley devoted to civil rights issues in California and the nation. Before joining the Boalt faculty in 2003, Professor Liu was an appellate litigator at O'Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C., and clerked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the U.S. Supreme Court. He served as special assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Education during the Clinton Administration. A Stanford alumnus, Rhodes Scholar, and graduate of Yale Law School, Professor Liu serves on the board of directors of the ACLU of Northern California, the American Constitution Society in Washington, D.C., and Chinese for Affirmative Action in San Francisco.
John MocklerJohn Mockler is president of John B. Mockler and Associates, a consulting firm specializing in education policy and finance. He is the former executive director of the California State Board of Education in the Davis Administration and served in an interim capacity as California's secretary of education. For more than three decades, Mockler has worked in both the public and private sectors, focusing on issues regarding adequate education funding and educational achievement. He was a chief architect of Proposition 98, which sets a minimum funding level for K–12 schools and community colleges, as well as many of the other laws governing California's structure for financing schools. Mockler has been a member of the EdSource Board of Directors since 1996.
Joel MonteroJoel Montero has 30 years of service in public sector institutions in a variety of roles. He holds a master’s degree in educational administration and a Bachelor of Science Degree in design engineering. In addition, he has obtained life credentials in administrative services and secondary education. His past experience includes Superintendent of a medium-sized unified school district, assistant superintendencies in business, personnel and curriculum and instruction, principal, assistant principal, and classroom teacher.
Gavin PayneGavin Payne has served as Chief Deputy to California's State Superintendent Jack O'Connell since 2003, managing all activities of the state Department of Education. He guides partnerships with a diverse array of stakeholders and philanthropy groups, and oversees relationships between his Department and the state's school districts and counties, as well as with the federal government. Payne represents the Superintendent on the Boards of Directors of the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) and WestEd. He also serves on the Board of the Council of Chief State Schools Officers' (CCSSO) Deputies Leadership Commission and the CCSSO/Smithsonian Institution Steering Committee.
Jay PfeifferJay Pfeiffer co-chairs the National Education Longitudinal Data Committee of the Council of Chief State School Officers and is a member of the Independent Advisory Panel for the National Assessment of Career and Technical Education. He has been Deputy Commissioner for Accountability, Research and Measurement since January 2007. This Division includes the Department of Education's primary student and staff databases, the Education Data Warehouse, the state's Assessment program offices, and offices responsible for state and federal K-12 accountability.
Rick SimpsonRichard Simpson is Deputy Chief of Staff for the Speaker of the California State Assembly, Fabian Núñez. He is responsible for advising the Speaker and other members of the Assembly on a wide variety of policy and budget issues. He has served as a senior adviser for five other Assembly Speakers, spent two years as Chief of Staff for the Senate Education Committee, six years as Chief Consultant for the Assembly Education Committee, and, for a short time, as a lobbyist for the California Teachers Association. He has either written or played a key role in developing California's major education reforms of the past decade. Simpson served for 12 years as trustee and president of the Sacramento County Board of Education.
Randolph Ward Dr. Randolph E. Ward became San Diego County Superintendent of Schools in June, 2006. He was previously the state-appointed administrator of the Oakland Unified School District, where, student test scores in Oakland increased significantly, drop-out rates declined, and he was credited with closing a multi-million dollar budget shortfall. He also served as the state-appointed administrator in the Compton Unified School District, where he was credited with restoring fiscal and academic solvency, and Compton student test scores increased five consecutive years.
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