Peter J. Gomes
Peter J. Gomes is Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in The Memorial Church at Harvard University. A member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and of the Faculty of Divinity at Harvard, Professor Gomes is widely regarded as one of America's most distinguished preachers. He has participated in the presidential inaugurations of Ronald Reagan and of George Herbert Walker Bush, and is the former acting director of The W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard and the past president of The Signet Society, Harvard's oldest literary society. Profiled by Robert Boynton in The New Yorker, and interviewed by Morley Safer on 60 Minutes, Professor Gomes was included in the summer 1999 premiere issue of Talk magazine as part of its feature article, “The Best Talkers in America: Fifty Big Mouths We Hope Will Never Shut Up.” He is author of The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart and The Good Life: Truths That Last in Times of Need, as well as numerous articles and papers.
Thursday, November 3rd, 6:00 - 7:30pm, Marriott Grand Ballroom

Peter Senge
Systems Citizens and the Freedom to Learn: Education for the Twenty-first Century
Peter Senge is a senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founding chair of the Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) Council. He is the author of The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization , co-author of the three related fieldbooks and most recently Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future . Peter lectures throughout the world about decentralizing the role of leadership in organizations to enhance the capacity of all people to work toward healthier human systems.
Friday, November 4th, 8:00 - 9:45am, Marriott Salon E

Ted and Nancy Sizer
A Conversation with Ted and Nancy Sizer
Ted Sizer is the founder of the Coalition of Essential Schools and the author of the three Horace books that describe CES’s rationale and early years. He is professor emeritus at Brown University, where he served as chair of the education department from 1984-1989, and is currently a visiting professor at Harvard and Brandeis Universities. Nancy Sizer spent twenty-five years as a classroom teacher in public and private secondary schools and, since the school opened in 1995, has supervised Harvard interns at the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School in Massachusetts, where the Sizers most recently served as acting co-principals. They are co-authors, along with Deborah Meier, of Keeping School: Letters to Families from Principals of Two Small Schools.
Friday 10:15 am-12:00 pm, Marriott Salon E

Monty Neill
Monty Neill is currently the co-executive director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest). He has directed FairTest's work on testing in the public schools since 1987. He has led several national coalitions, bringing together dozens of national education and civil rights organizations to work toward fundamental change in student assessment. He is co-author of Implementing Performance Assessments: A Guide to Classroom School and System Reform, among many other publications. He also led the National Forum on Assessment in writing Principles and Indicators for Student Assessment Systems, which has been signed by over 80 national and regional education and civil rights organizations. Most recently, he co-authored "Failing Our Children," a report on the No Child Left Behind Act. He has taught and been an administrator in pre-school, high school and college.

Joel Packer
Joel Packer currently serves as manager for the Elementary and Secondary Education (renamed "No Child Left Behind") Act policy for the National Education Association. NEA represents 2.7 million public school teachers, educational support professionals, and higher education faculty. Mr. Packer is responsible for developing and implementing strategies to obtain legislative improvements in and increased funding for ESEA/NCLB as well as assisting NEA affiliates with implementation. In his 21 years at NEA, he has handled class size reduction, school modernization, higher education, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Brady bill, school prayer, civil rights, judicial nominations, health care, pension and tax issues, environmental hazards in schools, and regulatory reform. He has testified numerous times before congressional committees.
Friday, November 4th, 1:30 - 3:15pm, Marriott Salon E

Rob Fried
The Game of School vs. Authentic Learning: Why We All Play the Game and How to Change It
Rob Fried is associate professor of education at Northeastern University. Fried worked with Ted Sizer and the CES staff at Brown University in the late 80's as coordinator of the network of new schools wishing to join CES. He is the author of The Passionate Teacher (1995), The Passionate Learner (2001), and, most recently, The Game of School (2005). Fried has also served as liaison between his university and Mission Hill School, where Deborah Meier served as founding principal. He has spoken widely, both in this country and abroad, on issues including how to restore authentic learning to schools plagued by "game of school" practices.
Friday, November 4th, 3:45 - 5:30pm, Marriott Salon E

Pedro Noguera
Pedro Noguera is a professor in the Steinhardt School of Education at New York University and the director of the Center for Research on Urban Schools and Globalization. An urban sociologist, Noguera’s scholarship and research focus on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions in the urban environment. Noguera has advised and engaged in collaborative research with several large urban school districts throughout the United States. He has also researched issues related to education and economic and social development in the Caribbean, Latin America, and several other countries. He is the author of City Schools and the American Dream , published by Teachers College Press in 2003.

Eileen de los Reyes
Eileen de los Reyes is a faculty member in the Education Department at Goddard College. In addition, she teaches in the Boston Teacher Residency Program, Boston Plan for Excellence. Before joining Goddard, de los Reyes was Senior Program Director at the Office of Language Learning and Support Services in the Boston Public Schools (BPS). De los Reyes is the mother of a BPS graduate and worked for the Latino Parent Organization, Inquilinos Boricuas en Accion, as well as the Hispanic Drop-Out Prevention Program in BPS. Prior to working with BPS, de los Reyes was assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her book, Pockets of Hope: How Students and Teachers Change the World , focuses on creating democratic classrooms where students are educated in the practice of social and political change.

Rachel Tompkins
Rachel Tompkins is president of the Rural School and Community Trust. She previously served as Extension Professor for Community, Economic, and Workforce Development in the West Virginia University Extension Service. She has also served as adviser to West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton; executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund; and executive director of the Citizen’s Council for Ohio Schools. She has written and spoken extensively about issues of rural development, community schools, and youth policy, including a chapter in the book Letters to the Next President from Teachers College Press. Rachel currently serves on the board of What Kids Can Do, was founding chair of the West Virginia Commission for National and Community Service, and served as the vice chair of the Annenberg Rural Challenge Board of Trustees.
Saturday, November 5th, 8:00 - 9:45am, Marriott Salon E

David Hall
David Hall returned to the faculty at Northeastern School of Law after a distinguished career as an administrator in the law school and the University. His top priority as dean of the law school was improving legal education and the ethical standards of the profession. Stressing the School of Law’s hallmarks – academic excellence, experiential learning, ethical responsibility, and social justice – Hall called upon all law schools to be places "where the values and spiritual foundations of future lawyers are nurtured, challenged, and systematically emphasized." Hall conducts workshops on diversity and the legal professions for law firms, governmental organizations, and legal collectives like the Boston Lawyers Group. He writes and lectures nationally on matters of social justice equality, ethics, and social and spiritual values, and is presently writing a book on the intersection of law and spirituality, entitled The Spiritual Revitalization of the Legal Profession: A Search for Sacred Rivers , to be published by The Edwin Mellen Press.
Saturday, November 5th, 3:45 - 4:30pm, Marriott Grand Ballroom