BIOGRAPHIES
State Senator Edward Augustus, Massachusetts
Senator Augustus is serving his first term in the Massachusetts legislature. He is Senate Chair of the Joint Election Laws committee and Senate Vice-Chair of the Joint Education committee. He also serves on the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, and the Labor & Workforce Development and Veterans & Federal Affairs committees. For six years prior to his election to the Senate, he served as Chief of Staff to Congressman James P. McGovern. A leader on education issues, Senator Augustus was also a high-ranking official at the U.S. Department of Education during the Clinton Administration. He received his B.A. from Suffolk University, and his M.A. from The Johns Hopkins University.
W. Steven Barnett
W. Steven Barnett is a Professor of Education Economics and Public Policy and Director of the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) at Rutgers University. His research includes studies of the economics of early care and education including costs and benefits, the long term effects of preschool programs on children's learning and development, and the distribution of educational opportunities. Mr. Barnett earned his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan. Recent publications include The State of Preschool: 2005 State Preschool Yearbook, the third in a series of annual reports profiling state-funded prekindergarten programs in the United States, and "Early Childhood Program Design and Economic Returns: Comparative Benefit-Cost Analysis of the Abecedarian Program and Policy Implications" with Leonard Masse for Economics of Education Review (in press).
Steffanie Clothier
Steffanie Clothier is the Program Director for the Child Care and Early Education Project at the National Conference of State Legislatures. In this capacity, she coordinates the project, developing new project ideas based on legislative feedback and trends in the field; providing testimony or individual responses to requests from states on child care and early education issues; convening meetings and coordinating research, writing and other projects. Her work relates to a range of early childhood issues including child care subsidy programs, child care financing, prekindergarten, school readiness, and coordination of programs. Ms. Clothier has over fifteen years of experience working on state policy issues, including ten years of experience working on issues affecting low-income families, such as child care, welfare, and family Medicaid and children’s health issues. She has authored or co-authored, edited or overseen a variety of NCSL's child care and early education publications including Early Education in the States: A Year in Review 2004, Incentives for Quality: Tiered Strategies in Child Care, Funding and Policy Choices in a Changing Fiscal Environment, and Children, Youth and Families Issues: 2003 State Legislative Summary. She is a graduate of the University of Denver School of Law and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.
State Representative LeRoy Dangeau, Arkansas
Representative LeRoy Dangeau is serving his third term in the Arkansas House of Representatives. He is Chairman of the 85th General Assembly's Legislative Council, a member of the House Education Committee, and the House Agriculture, Forestry and Economic Development Committee. He also is a member of the House Rules Committee. Born in Forrest City, Arkansas, Representative Dangeau is a retired educator and coach. Currently, he is President of the Southwestern States Resource Conservation and Development Council. He also is a member of the Parkin Archeological Support Team and a member of the East Arkansas Enterprise Community. Representative Dangeau is a past president of the City of Wynne Rotary and a Paul Harris Fellow. He received his B.S.E. from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and his M.S.E. from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
Eugene Garcia
Mr. Eugene Garcia has been the Dean and Professor of Education at Arizona State University’s College of Education since 2002. In May 2003, the President of ASU gave him an additional role as Vice President for University-School Partnerships. In this role his task is to strengthen K-12 education in the state of Arizona by linking together the University and private sector for distribution of fiscal and human resources. Prior to joining ASU, Mr. Garcia was a Professor of Education at the University of California, Berkeley.
Mr. Garcia has published extensively in the area of language teaching and bilingual development. He served as a Senior Officer and Director of the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs in the U.S. Department of Education from 1993-1995. He is currently chairing the National Task Force on Early Education for Hispanics, which is funded by the Foundation for Child Development and the Mailman Family Foundation. Mr. Garcia is presently conducting research in the areas of effective schooling for linguistically and culturally diverse student populations. His most recent books include, Hispanic Education in the United States: Raíces y Alas, and Student Cultural Diversity: Understanding and Meeting the Challenge — both published in 2001. A new book, Teaching and Learning in Two Languages, was recently released (Columbia Teachers College Press, 2005).
Mr. Garcia received his B.A. degree from the University of Utah. At the University of Kansas, he earned a M.A. in Child Development and a Ph.D. in Human Development. He also did postdoctorate work in Psycholinguistics at Harvard University.
Cathy Jones
Cathy Jones has served as Early Childhood/Even Start Coordinator for the West Virginia Department of Education since December 2001. Her primary responsibilities include oversight of West Virginia’s federal Even Start grant and the development, implementation and oversight of the West Virginia Universal Pre-k System. Her prior experience includes Public School teacher, Private Preschool Teacher/Director, Family Child Care Provider, and Head Start Area Supervisor. In addition, Ms. Jones served as Executive Director of an agency that provided services for children and families in 20 counties including child care, after school programs, child care resource and referrals, Birth to Three special education, and two state wide training programs. She received her BA and MA in Early Childhood Education from Marshall University and received her Doctorate in Educational Leadership with a minor in Preschool Special Education from West Virginia University.
Senator Gay Kernan, New Mexico
Senator Gay Kernan has served in the New Mexico State Senate for four years. She is a member of the Education and Public Affairs committees. Senator Kernan also serves as an interim member of the Courts, Corrections & Justice Committee; Funding Formula Study Task Force; Legislative Education Study Committee; and Legislative Health & Human Services Committee. She was a teacher for 18 years, and is currently the Assistant Coordinator for Early Reading First in the Hobbs Municipal Schools. Senator Kernan was named a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow, and the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce awarded her “Rookie of the Year” in the New Mexico Senate. She received her B.A. from the University of Mississippi in Oxford.
Charles Kolb
Charles Kolb is President of the Committee for Economic Development (CED), and has held this position since 1997. Founded in 1942, CED is an independent, nonpartisan research and policy organization of 200 business and education leaders dedicated to economic and social policy research and the implementation of its recommendations by the public and private sectors.
Prior to joining CED, Mr. Kolb served as General Counsel and Secretary of United Way of America (UWA). During nearly ten years of U.S. Government services, Mr. Kolb held several senior-level positions. At the White House he served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy from 1990 to 1992. From 1983 to 1990, he held three other government positions: Assistant General Counsel, Office of Management and Budget (1983-1986); Deputy General Counsel for Regulations and Legislation, U.S. Department of Education (1986-1988); and Deputy Under Secretary for Planning, Budget and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Education (1988-1990).
Mr. Kolb is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Council for Excellence in Government, and America’s Promise Alliance, and serves on the boards of the Ethics Resource Center, the National Center for Nonprofit Law, National Center for Higher Education and Public Policy, Common Cause, Asia Society, Common Good, National Board for Professional Teaching President’s Roundtable, and Campaign Legal Center. Prior to government service, he practiced law in Washington, D.C. Mr. Kolb received his undergraduate degree at Princeton University and did graduate study at Balliol College, Oxford University, from which he received a Master’s Degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He holds a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Virginia Journal of International Law. He is also the author of a book on White House policymaking and more than 20 law review and op-ed articles.
Barbara "Bobbi" Lussier
Bobbi Lussier is the Executive Director of the Office of Early Learning with the Tennessee State Department of Education. Ms. Lussier has been an educator for 32 years. She taught science, math and reading and served as principal of Willow Brook Elementary in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. At Willow Brook, where approximately 80 percent of the students were from low-income families, she implemented several programs to improve student achievement and worked closely with preschool staff to ease the transition for students entering kindergarten classes. Ms. Lussier has a Bachelor's degree from Mars Hill College in North Carolina and a Master's degree from the University of Tennessee.
Anne W. Mitchell
Anne Mitchell is the President of Early Childhood Policy Research, an independent consulting firm specializing in evaluation research, policy analysis and planning on child care/early education issues with government, foundations and national nonprofit organizations. She also co-founded the Alliance for Early Childhood Finance, a learning community on finance reform and system-building for early care and education. Previously, Ms. Mitchell was Associate Dean of the Research Division at Bank Street College of Education in New York City. She began her early childhood career as the teacher-director of a child care center in a low-income housing development in Cambridge, M.A.
Ms. Mitchell has conducted national studies of state and local prekindergarten policy and early care and education finance; and has written widely on child care and early education policy and practice. Currently, Ms. Mitchell is President of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. She received her B.S. degree from Wellesley College, her M.S. degree in early childhood education leadership from Bank Street College of Education, and an honorary Certificate in Early Childhood Leadership Development from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Marsha Moore
Marsha Moore is the Commissioner of Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning. In this capacity, she manages state programs to improve the quality of Georgia’s early care and education program. She has worked closely with governors’ offices and legislators in other states sharing Georgia’s experience in implementing the largest prekindergarten program in the country. Commissioner Moore has twenty-four years of experience in state government. She began her career with the Department of Family and Children Services in Child Protective Services. She transferred to the Child Care Licensing Section of Department of Human Resources, where she remained for eleven years as a field representative and regional director. She has been at Bright from the Start since 1996.
Commissioner Moore has served on numerous committees dealing with child care issues and has worked on education, child care, and social services initiatives that have statewide impact. Commissioner Moore is a Fellow on the State Early Childhood Policy Leadership Forum sponsored by the ZERO TO THREE Policy Center and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices. She also serves on the National Task Force on Early Childhood Accountability sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts. She received her Bachelor’s degree from West Georgia College and a graduate degree from North Georgia College & State University.
Senator Cynthia Nava, New Mexico
Senator Cynthia Nava is serving her fourth term in the New Mexico Legislature. She is Chair of the Education Committee, Chair of the Legislative Education Study Committee, and is Co-Chair of the Public School Capital Outlay Oversight Task Force. She is also a member of the Corporations, Water/Natural Resources, and Committees’ committees. Senator Nava has over 25 years of experience in the public school system and currently is the Associate Superintendent for Student Services/ Instruction with the Gadsden Independent School District. She is also a Commissioner with the Education Commission of the States. Senator Nava received her B.A. from Western Illinois University, and a M.A. from Eastern Illinois University.
Robert Palaich
Robert Palaich is the Vice President of Augenblick, Palaich and Associates, Inc (APA).
Mr. Palaich joined the firm in 2003, and it is one of the nation’s leading resources in knowing what works to increase student achievement and how to pay for it. The firm is known for the quality of its technical work and its ability to help state and local education policymakers, the courts and interested citizens understand their options and the consequences of the choices they make. Prior to joining APA, Mr. Palaich was the Vice President of the Policy Studies and Programs division at the Education Commission of the States (ECS). The Policy Studies and Programs unit developed and executed projects on state education policy issues of significant interest to ECS constituents. During the past several years, Mr. Palaich has worked with state leaders in Hawaii, Kentucky, Connecticut, Indiana, South Carolina, New Mexico and California to undertake comprehensive reviews of their education systems. He has also worked with state policymakers on questions of comprehensive school at-risk youth, teacher policy and school restructuring issues, and school finance issues. Mr. Palaich has written articles on education reform, at-risk youth, teacher policy, school finance, local district spending patterns, tax and expenditure limitations, state legislatures and state teacher policy.
William T. Pound
William Pound is the Executive Director of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). He has been with the Conference since its founding in 1975, and became the Executive Director in 1987. Born and raised in Colorado, Mr. Pound was educated at the University of Colorado, University of Denver, and University of Wisconsin. Before joining NCSL, he taught political science and public policy at three universities. He has researched and written extensively on legislatures and the legislative process and fiscal and public finance issues.
Mr. Pound has made numerous television and radio appearances and has had many articles published. He speaks to both national and international audiences on topics of state government fiscal condition, education and public policy issues, and on the activities of state legislatures and federalism. He has served as Chairman of the Academy for State and Local Government and the Big Seven state and local organizations in 1997-98 and 2002-03. He currently has oversight responsibilities for the State and Local Legal Center.
State Representative Andrew Romanoff, Colorado
Representative Romanoff is the Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives. He has sponsored legislation that expands the supply of affordable housing, provides treatment for substance abuse and mental illness, and protects the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. When the legislature is not in session, Representative Romanoff teaches political science at the Community College of Aurora. He has also taught at Red Rocks Community College and at the University of Colorado’s Graduate School of Public Affairs. Representative Romanoff earned a Bachelor’s degree at Yale and a Master’s degree in Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
Stephanie B. Rubin
Stephanie Rubin is a State Program Director with Pre-K Now. She works with state advocates and policymakers to develop and implement strategies that will increase prekindergarten quality and availability. Prior to joining the organization, Ms. Rubin worked with Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California, where she led advocacy efforts to increase public investment in early-education, after-school, mental health and child-abuse-prevention services. She led Fight Crime: Invest in Kids California's 2004 election education project, distributing non-partisan background materials on the benefits of prekindergarten to every legislative candidate in the 2004 primary elections and setting up meetings between interested candidates and diverse community leaders. Ms. Rubin received her B.A. in History from Princeton and her law degree from the University of California at Los Angeles.
Tonya Russell
Tonya Russell is the Director at the Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education at the Arkansas Department of Human Services. The Division of Child Care and Early Childhood Education is responsible for administering the following programs: child care licensing, child care vouchers, Special Nutrition, and the Arkansas Better Chance program (the state’s prekindergarten initiative). The Division also works with child care providers to support quality in early childhood education. Previously, Ms. Russell has served as a Head Start Director, Head Start Collaboration Director, and Even Start/HIPPY Coordinator. She holds a B.A. in English/Communications and has presented at conferences nationally, regionally and at the state level.
Thomas Schultz
Thomas Schultz is Director of the Early Childhood Accountability Project at The Pew Charitable Trusts, a new effort to help states build systems to measure and enhance the effectiveness of early childhood programs. He also worked at the Head Start Bureau, managing initiatives to improve early childhood education, child assessment, health services, parent involvement, program evaluation and collaboration with other early care and education programs. He directed the development of the Head Start National Reporting System, the nation’s largest effort to assess preschool children. At the Department of Education and the National Association of State Boards of Education, Mr. Schultz led a variety of projects to expand and strengthen early childhood programs and improve public schools. He is the author of a variety of articles and publications on early childhood issues and was a member of the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Head Start Quality and Expansion and the Editorial Board of the Early Childhood Research Quarterly. Mr. Schultz has an Ed.D. in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Sara D. Watson
Sara Watson is a Program Officer in the Education and Policy Initiatives Division of The Pew Charitable Trusts, where she manages the Trusts’ national initiative to advance high quality early education for all 3 and 4 year olds. Before joining the Trusts, she was a Program Manager and the Director of the Better Results Group for The Finance Project in Washington, D.C., where she managed multi-site initiatives and wrote publications on financing and results-based accountability. She has worked for the Family Policy Council in Olympia, Washington, supporting a state-wide network of community collaboratives. Ms. Watson has published dozens of articles and monographs on family and children’s services reform and disability policy. She has a Bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) from Carleton College, and Master of Public Policy and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Senator Stephen R. Wise
Senator Wise was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1988. In 1996, he was appointed to Chair the Academic Excellence Council, and he served as Chair of the Education Appropriations Committee in 1999 and 2000. In 2001, Senator Wise was elected to the Florida Senate, where he is the Chair of the Criminal Justice Committee. He is also a member of the following committees: Domestic Security, Education, Education Appropriations, Regulated Industries, and the Legislative Auditing Joint Committee.
Mr. Wise has 30 years of experience with the state’s educational system, including 23 years with the Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ). His last position with FCCJ was as Vice President of College Development, and Mr. Wise is credited with coordinating the development of more than 1,500 projects that generated approximately $60 million in external funding to the college. Mr. Wise was recently appointed to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Standing Committee on Legislative Effectiveness & State Government, and is a Steering Committee member with the Education Commission of the States (ECS). He obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Florida Southern College, his Masters’ degree from Middle Tennessee State University, and his Doctorate from the University of Alabama.
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