Pedro Noguera, PhD, is a professor in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. He is also the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education and the co-Director of the Institute for the study of Globalization and Education in Metropolitan Settings. An urban sociologist, Noguera’s scholarship and research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions in the urban environment.

Noguera has served as an advisor and engaged in collaborative research with several large urban school districts throughout the United States. He has also done research on issues related to education and economic and social development in the Caribbean, Latin America and several other countries throughout the world.

Michelle A. Rhee is the chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools system. In 1997 she founded The New Teacher Project, which in ten years has recruited 10,000 teachers in twenty states.

Chancellor Rhee currently serves on the Advisory Boards for the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ); the National Center for Alternative Certification (NCAC); Project REACH of the University of Phoenix’s School of Education. Chancellor Rhee is an Ex-Officio Member of the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees.

Chancellor Rhee appeared on the cover of the December 8, 2009 issue of Time Magazine.