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Forum 2007 New York City

In addition to over one hundred sessions and workshops on pressing educational issues, Forum attendees were treated to exciting speeches and special events. 
 

On Friday, October 26, the evening event was held at the historic New York Public Library and featured dinner and live entertainment.

 

Susan Hockfield

President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Forum 2007 Keynote Speaker and Honorary Chair
Education Driving Innovation
Thursday, October 25 at 11:45 a.m.

A noted neuroscientist whose research focuses on the development of the brain, Susan Hockfield has served as the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since December 2004.  She is the first life scientist to lead MIT, where she holds a faculty appointment as a professor of neuroscience.

Under Hockfield’s leadership, MIT has launched a major initiative in energy research and education.  The institute has continued to expand its activities at the intersection of the life sciences and engineering, with a focus on cancer research.  As part of a sustained effort to strengthen support for student life and learning, MIT has embarked on a renewal of the undergraduate curriculum and a $750-million construction and renovation project for the campus.  Hockfield has also worked to uphold the university’s tradition of international engagement through initiatives in education and scholarships with partners around the world.

Before becoming president of MIT, Hockfield was the William Edward Gilbert professor of neurobiology and a provost at Yale University.  She earned her B.A. in biology from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. from the Georgetown University School of Medicine. 

Hockfield is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a director of the General Electric Company, a trustee of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and a member of Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Board of Overseers.  She holds honorary degrees from Brown University, Tsinghua University (in Beijing), and the Watson School of Biological Sciences at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

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Erskine Bowles

President of the University of North Carolina system

Forum 2007 Keynote Speaker and Honorary Chair
Keeping America Competitive in the Global Marketplace: The University’s Role
Friday, October 26 at 12:30 p.m.

A native North Carolinian, Erskine Bowles has served his state and his country as a businessman, public servant, philanthropist, and educator.  Born and raised in Greensboro, he earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Bowles began his business career in New York City with Morgan Stanley’s corporate finance group.  In that position, he provided financial expertise to America’s middle-market companies. He soon returned home to North Carolina, where over several years he founded an investment banking firm, a venture capital company, and a private equity company.

In 1993, President Clinton appointed Bowles to serve as director of the Small Business Administration.  Bowles became the deputy White House chief of staff in 1994 and then chief of staff in 1996.  In that position, he helped negotiate the first balanced budget in a generation.  He also helped guide domestic and foreign policy as a member of the National Economic Council and the National Security Council.

Bowles has shown a lifelong commitment to public service in North Carolina and around the world.  He founded several companies and organizations designed to bring economic development to rural North Carolinians, helped create an ALS center in Charlotte, and served as the international president of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.  In 2005, he was appointed to be the United Nations’ deputy special envoy to 13 countries in Southeast Asia that were affected by the tsunami.

On January 1, 2006, Bowles returned to his alma mater as president of the 16-campus University of North Carolina system.

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Joel Klein

Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education

Forum 2007 Keynote Speaker and Honorary Chair
Successfully Serving Our Urban Students
Friday, October 26 at 8:30 a.m.

A native of New York, Joel Klein became New York City schools chancellor in July 2002 after serving in the highest levels of government and business.  He oversees the nation’s largest public school district, which has more than 1,450 schools and over 1.1 million students.  The city’s school system was recently awarded the prestigious Broad Prize for Urban Education.  Mayor Michael Bloomberg has called Chancellor Klein “a true leader who never shies away from the tough and sometimes controversial decisions that are necessary to implement change.”

Klein’s comprehensive reform program, Children First, has transformed the New York City public school system.  Student performance has risen; schools have become safer; and educators have received additional autonomy.  Highlights of the first four years of the Children First education reforms include: the creation of a wide array of academic supports for struggling students; the establishment of new supports for parents, including parent coordinators in every school and a Translation and Interpretation Unit; the launch of the Impact Schools initiative to improve school safety; and the expansion of small schools and charter schools to provide additional educational options for students.

Before Klein became chancellor, he was chairman and chief executive officer of Bertelsmann, Inc., one of the world’s largest media companies.  From 1997 to 2001, he was assistant attorney general in charge of the U.S. Department of Justice’s antitrust division.  His appointment to the Justice Department came after Klein served as deputy counsel to President Clinton.

Klein was born in New York City where he attended the city’s public schools and graduated from William Cullen Bryant High School in Queens.  He received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School, both magna cum laude.

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Bob Costas

World-renowned sportscaster and best-selling author

Forum 2007 Featured Speaker
The Bob Costas Grants for the Teaching of Writing
Thursday, October 25 at 11:45 a.m.

One of television’s most accomplished broadcasters, Bob Costas is an Emmy winner and a best-selling author, as well as an advocate for education.  He has donated his time and effort to public service on behalf of the National Commission on Writing.

In honor of Costas’ work, the College Board created the Bob Costas Grants for the Teaching of Writing.  This program has emerged as one of our organization’s key teacher-recognition initiatives.  The grantees have been able to expand their projects, helping even more students become stronger writers and thinkers.

A New York native, Costas was born in Queens and grew up in Commack on Long Island.   Before beginning his professional career at the age of 22 at KMOX Radio in St. Louis, he attended Syracuse University where he studied journalism at the Newhouse School of Public Communications.

In the course of his career, Costas has anchored coverage of nearly every major sport, although he is most commonly associated with baseball and the Olympics.  His intelligence, humor, and presence have led to longstanding relationships with NBC and HBO.  Costas has been named National Sportscaster of the Year eight times, more than any other broadcaster, and he has won 19 Emmys.

In 2000, Costas’ book Fair Ball: A Fan’s Case for Baseball spent several weeks on the New York Times best-seller list.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson

Director of the Hayden Planetarium and host of "NOVA scienceNOW" on PBS

Inspiration Awards Ceremony Guest Speaker
Saturday, October 27 at 8:00 a.m.

Neil deGrasse Tyson’s interest in the cosmos began at the young age of nine while gazing at the stars from the roof of his apartment building in New York City.  Now, the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History shares his passion for understanding the universe through books and lectures as well as on television.

Tyson’s professional research interests include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of the Milky Way.  Along with his research and his directorship of the planetarium, he writes a monthly column for Natural History magazine and hosts the popular PBS science program, “NOVA Science NOW.”  Tyson has published eight books including: One Universe: At Home in the Cosmos, Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution and his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist.  His most recent book, a New York Times best-seller, is a collection of essays for Natural History, Death by Black Hole: and Other Cosmic Quandaries.

In 2004, President Bush appointed Tyson to serve on a nine-member commission on the implementation of United States space exploration policy, which was dubbed the “Moon, Mars, and Beyond” commission.  Among his other distinctions, asteroid “13123 Tyson” has been named in his honor by the International Astronomical Union for his service to the public’s appreciation of the universe; and in 2000, Tyson was voted the “Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive” by People magazine.

Tyson was born and raised in New York City and graduated from the Bronx High School of Science.  He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and his doctorate in astrophysics from Columbia University.

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Gerald McElvy

President of the ExxonMobil Foundation

Forum 2007 Featured Speaker
Public and Private Sector Initiatives in Education
Thursday, October 25 at 4:45 p.m.

A native of Ft. Worth, Texas, Gerald McElvy serves as both the Deputy Manager for Public Affairs for the Exxon Mobil Corporation and as President of the ExxonMobil Foundation.  The Corporation recently announced its support for the National Math and Science Initiative with a commitment of $125 million.  The initiative is a non-profit entity, overseen by a board of eminent persons in the field of math and science education, created to raise funds to facilitate the national scale-up of programs that have demonstrated improvement in math and science education in the United States.

McElvy has worked at Exxon Mobil for more than 30 years and has extensive financial management experience.  He has served as the European Downstream Planning Manager for Exxon Company International, Finance Director for Esso Australia, Controller of Exxon Company, U.S.A., and as General Auditor of the Exxon Mobil Corporation.

A board member of the Texas Business and Education Coalition, McElvy serves on the Executive Advisory Council at the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business as well.  He is also a Board Member of Reasoning Mind, an innovative, web-based middle school math education program.  McElvy has previously served as a board member of several community service organizations including the Kappa Alpha Psi Foundation, the United Way of Texas Gulf Coast, and Odyssey House, an adolescent chemical dependency recovery program in Houston.

McElvy earned a bachelor of business administration degree from the University of Houston and completed an MBA in finance from the University of California, Los Angeles.

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Matthew Goldstein

Chancellor of the City University of New York

Forum 2007 Featured Speaker
Successfully Serving Our Urban Students
Friday, October 26 at 8:30 a.m.

A widely published mathematician and statistician, Matthew Goldstein became chancellor of The City University of New York (CUNY), in the fall of 1999.  He is the first CUNY graduate to lead the nation’s largest urban public university.  Goldstein has served in senior academic and administrative positions for over 30 years, including as president of Baruch College, president of the CUNY Research Foundation, and acting vice chancellor for academic affairs of CUNY.  Prior to being named chancellor, he was president of Adelphi University in Long Island, New York.

Currently, Goldstein serves as a member of the board of trustees of the JP Morgan Funds, the Albert Einstein School of Medicine, and of the Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center.  He is a director of the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education, ex officio, the United Way of New York City, and a member of the Business Advisory Council for Columbia Management, and of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges’ Commission on The Science and Mathematics Teacher Imperative.

Goldstein is also a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences and a 2006 fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  Among his honors are the 2007 Carnegie Corporation of New York’s $500,000 Academic Leadership Award, the 2005 John H. Finley Award, the 2005 Medal of Honor “Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class,” and the 2004 New York Foundation for Architecture President’s Award.

The chancellor earned his doctorate from the University of Connecticut in mathematical statistics, and a bachelor’s degree in statistics and mathematics from CUNY’s City College.

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