Diane Demée-Benoit is director of the Innovations in Education project at The Commonwealth Club of California. Demee-Benoit has more than 20 years experience in education program development, community outreach, business development, and strategic planning. She has also been a principal investigator on a National Science Foundation-funded project, an educational films judge, a content expert for a children's software product, a case writer for teacher professional development, and the education director at the San Francisco Zoo. She has spent the last 10 years at The George Lucas Educational Foundation, documenting best practices in K-12 public schools and sharing the work of innovative educators with groups throughout the United States.
Tyler Smith is project assistant for the Innovations in Education Project. Smith formerly served as Director of Education Policy and Initiatives for New York City Councilmember Gale Brewer. Prior to that, he taught intermediate Spanish at East Brunswick High School in New Jersey. Smith holds a B.A. in political science with a minor in Spanish from The California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo.
Kathleen Holliday is a strategist and senior advisor to arts and cultural institutions. She is supporting The Commonwealth Club in the planning, production and marketing of the Innovations in Education Project. She has enjoyed more than 20 years working in the world of design, filmmaking, museums, and with a variety of non-profit organizations. Holliday has served as a creative director, speechwriter, public relations and marketing leader, and on executive committees and corporate management councils. She has worked with film-related partners, agency creatives, marketing leaders, and directors and curators of major museums throughout the world. Holliday's clients have included the Newspaper Association of America, Lucasfilm Ltd., Pixar Animation Studios, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Women Beyond Borders, and Bloomingdale's.
Douglas Cruickshank is a writer and editor. He is managing the content of print and online communications for the Innovations in Education Project. Cruickshank is the former editor of Edutopia.org, the Web site of The George Lucas Educational Foundation, and a former book development editor. He was a senior editor/writer at Salon.com, and his writing has appeared in several anthologies and numerous magazines and newspapers. Cruickshank's corporate clients have included Adobe, Microsoft, Adaptec, Novell, Silicon Graphics, and numerous other technology companies. He has also been a magazine publisher, a documentary filmmaker, and a public television series producer. Cruickshank recently completed the screenplay for a feature-length documentary film that is now in production.
Alan Briskin, Ph.D. has spent nearly twenty-five years helping businesses, health care facilities and non-profit organizations to navigate change and find common purpose. Before he began his consulting practice, he worked as director of education in a residential home for delinquent youth. In recognition of his contributions, the governor of Vermont named Briskin to a state commission whose task was to oversee the closing of reform schools and the creation of model programs for displaced youth. His most recent book, Daily Miracles: Stories and Practices of Humanity and Excellence in Health Care, was chosen as the Book of the Year in the category of Public Interest by the American Journal of Nursing.
Thomas Hurley is a strategist and senior advisor for leaders exploring new organizational forms. He has worked for more than twenty-five years with innovators, thought leaders and executives on multi-sector initiatives. Hurley is currently guiding the global evolution of the World Café, a worldwide network of change leaders and leading-edge organizations using innovative conversational practices for knowledge development and strategic inquiry.
David Sibbet is president and founder of The Grove Consultants International. His explorations in graphic facilitation, strategic visioning, and collaborative process design have revolutionized the field of organization development. For eight years, in the 1970's, he was executive director and director of training for the Coro Foundation, a leadership development institute known for its pioneering work in experience-based education. He regularly designs and leads strategy, visioning, future forces, and large-scale system change processes for clients throughout the world. He is a former Chicago Tribune journalist and the author of several books.
Diane Curtis is an award-winning education and political journalist. She covered the Reagan presidential campaign, and was later a White House correspondent for United Press International. Curtis won the Best in the West editorial writing award for a hard look at Proposition 187, aimed at eliminating state services and education for illegal immigrants, and she has received several awards for education reporting. She is currently the public information officer at The State Bar of California
Joseph Fink has been president of Dominican University of California since 1988. He is on the board of directors of The Commonwealth Club of California, and formerly served on the boards of the Council of Independent Colleges, and the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities.
Milton Goldberg is a consultant on education issues for corporations and education organizations. From 1977-1995, he held various leadership positions in the U.S. Department of Education. In 1981, he was named the executive director of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, which issued the landmark report, "A Nation at Risk" - a report generally credited with starting the nationwide education reform movement. In 1994, he was appointed the executive director of the Congressionally-created National Commission on Time and Learning, which released the report "Prisoners of Time." As an education practitioner, Goldberg was a teacher and administrator with the Philadelphia Public Schools.
Larry Leverett recently retired as a school district superintendent to become executive director of the Panasonic Foundation. His career in education has included urban and suburban experiences as a classroom teacher, an elementary school principal, an assistant superintendent, a school board member, and assistant state commissioner and director of urban education in the New Jersey Department of Education, where he was responsible for implementing the Quality Education Act of 1991.
Nancy Lippe directs two youth programs for the Los Altos Community Foundation, including a need-based college scholarship and mentoring program and a youth philanthropy program. For the past ten years, Lippe has worked primarily in community leadership positions to help found a charter school, direct elementary school conflict-resolution programs, host community forums on education policy, and co-chair the Los Altos-Mountain View League of Women Voters Education Committee.
Colleen Wilcox is a veteran educator and the former county superintendent of schools for Santa Clara County. Her 30 years of experience in education include teaching, speech and language pathology, and administration. She has also worked in educational administration in the Chicago metropolitan area , Tucson, Arizona, and Los Angeles, California. Wilcox has served in the Peace Corps in Guatemala, written numerous professional articles, and authored and illustrated two children's books.
