Board of Directors

Barbara O'Brien, Chair
The Hon. Barbara O'Brien is president at Get Smart Schools. Previously a Senior Fellow at the Piton Foundation, O'Brien is the former Lt. Governor of Colorado. She is a long-time advocate for young children and teens, and has a history of innovative policy initiatives. O'Brien spent 16 years as president of the Colorado Children's Campaign, a statewide public policy and advocacy nonprofit organization. Her leadership has produced major statewide policy initiatives that increased funding for schools, created charter schools, expanded early childhood education, increased access to health care for uninsured children, reduced teen smoking and expanded after-school programs.
Stacey Boyd
Stacey Boyd is the founder and CEO of The Savvy Source for Parents, which provides education and technology consulting services to non-profits, corporations and government entities, with clients that include the World Economic Forum, the US Department of State and US Agency for International Development. In the spring of 2003, Ms. Boyd concluded a four-year tenure as the President and CEO of Project Achieve, Inc., a company she founded to provide a comprehensive information management system to primary and secondary schools throughout the United States. Prior to launching Project Achieve, Ms. Boyd was the Founding Director and Principal of an inner-city charter school that has consistently been the top performing public middle school in the Boston area since its founding. Ms. Boyd earned both an MBA and Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University and her BA from Hamilton College.
Chester E. Finn, Jr.
Chester E. Finn, Jr. is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and Thomas B. Fordham Institute and senior editor of EducationNext. Dr. Finn is also a Senior Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, and an Adjunct Fellow at the Hudson Institute, where he worked from 1995 through 1998. In his distinguished career, Dr. Finn has also served as John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, founding partner and senior scholar with the Edison Project, Professor of Education and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University, and Assistant Secretary for Research and Improvement at the U.S. Department of Education. He is the author of sixteen books and hundreds of articles.
Ira Fishman
Ira Fishman is the Managing Director of the NFL Players Association, and formerly a partner and Chief Operating Officer at Patton Boggs LLP. He previously served as special counsel and director of the Task Force on Education at the Federal Communications Commission and was named the founding CEO of the Schools and Libraries Corporation, a non-profit that provides $2.25 billion annually to K-12 schools and public libraries. In his distinguished career, Mr. Fishman has also served as deputy assistant to the president for legislative affairs at the White House during the Clinton Administration, vice president for congressional and external affairs at the Export-Import Bank of the United States, and founding CEO of HiFusion, an innovative education and consumer media company. Mr. Fishman is currently on the Board of Education Sector.
Marti Watson Garlett
Dr. Garlett is the former Vice President, Academic Programs & Professional Licensure at Laureate Education, and was appointed as Kaplan University's first Academic Dean for its School of Education, as well as the first Dean of the School of Education at Chicago's Kendall College, which has a notable Early Childhood Education program. She served as the Founding Dean of the Teachers College at Western Governors University, where she established national programs in initial educator licensure that were approved by multiple states. Dr. Garlett's career emphasis has been centered on inventing new paradigms in teacher preparation for non-traditional candidates wishing to become P-12 teachers, especially through distance learning and online alternatives. Dr. Garlett has written three books and numerous articles and is an in-demand speaker at national conferences. In addition, she has taught on five continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, and South America).
Henry L. Johnson
Henry L. Johnson served as U.S. assistant secretary of education for elementary and secondary education from 2005-2008. He is currently a senior advisor for B&D Consulting in Washington, D.C.

Before joining the U.S. Education Department, Mr. Johnson was state superintendent for education for the state of Mississippi. He also served as the associate state superintendent for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Earlier, he was the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for both the Johnston County Schools in North Carolina and the Pleasantville School System in New Jersey.

His experience also includes seven years as a science and math classroom teacher, three years as a principal and two years as the director of middle school programs for the Wake County School system in North Carolina. Johnson served for five years as the director of public policy development and research for the North Carolina School Boards Association.

Born in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Johnson was educated in the public schools of North Carolina. He earned his undergraduate degree in biology at Livingston College in Salisbury, North Carolina and a master's degree in science education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1990 Johnson received a doctorate in school administration at North Carolina State University.

Clara M. Lovett, Treasurer
Born in Trieste, Italy, Lovett came to the United States in 1962 and earned her master's and doctoral degrees in history at the University of Texas, Austin. Dr. Lovett taught at Baruch College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where she made her mark as a teacher and scholar in the field of Modern European History. During her years in the Washington, D.C. area, Dr. Lovett held national leadership roles as chief of the European Division of the Library of Congress, dean of arts and sciences at The George Washington University, and provost at George Mason University. She lectured at the Foreign Service Institute of the Department of State, wrote for The Chronicle of Higher Education and Change magazine, and participated in national projects for higher education reform. In 1989, she was on Washingtonian magazine's list of most influential women in Washington; in 1992, the Virginia Federation of Business and Professional Women named her Educator of the Year. In October 1993, Dr. Lovett was named president of Northern Arizona University. In 2005 Dr. Lovett was recognized by the American College Personnel Association for lifelong contributions to higher education. Most recently, Dr. Lovett served as president of the American Association for Higher Education from 2003 to 2005.
F. Mike Miles
Mike Miles has served the public interest as a soldier, statesman, and educator. A former officer in the Army Ranger Battalion, Miles' military experience includes leading counter terrorism training operations. Miles later served in the U.S. State Department as a Soviet analyst and member of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. He then served as a Diplomat to Poland and Russia at the end of the Cold War, finishing his State Department work as the Special Assistant to the Ambassador to Russia. Miles continued his commitment to public service as a teacher and principal. He currently serves as the Superintendent of Schools in one of the most challenging public school districts in the state, the Harrison School District in Colorado Springs. As an instructional leader and professional developer, he has also helped teachers and administrators statewide and in school districts nationally to improve instruction and raise student achievement. Miles holds degrees from the United States Military Academy at West Point, the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University.
Paul G. Pastorek
Paul G. Pastorek has served as Chief Counsel and Corporate Secretary to the North American Division of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company since May 2011. He also serves as Secretary to the company's Board of Directors. Mr. Pastorek was associated with the law firm of Adams and Reese for over 27 years and was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2002 to serve as General Counsel of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In 2007, he was selected by then-Governor Kathleen B. Blanco (D) to serve as Louisiana's Superintendent of Education, a role he continued in 2008 after being selected by Governor Bobby Jindal (R). He served in that capacity for more than four years and was the co-founder of Chiefs for Change. He was recognized by Secretary Arne Duncan as one of the most reform-minded state chiefs in the United States. He also led the dramatic turnaround of public schools in the City of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Previously, from 1996 to 2004, Mr. Pastorek served as an appointed member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) and was elected to three consecutive terms as Board President from 2001 to 2004.
Carol G. Peck
Carol G. Peck is currently the President and CEO of the Rodel Charitable Foundation of Arizona. The foundation is working diligently to improve Arizona's education system so that it is widely recognized as one of the best in the country by 2020. They are successfully implementing three statewide initiatives to improve student acheivement. She was selected as National Superintendent of the Year during her 16 years as Superintendent in Alhambra School District in Arizona. During her tenure Dr. Peck created, developed, and implemented a variety of winning programs that significantly raised student achievement in a large urban district. Her business partnership program brought in $1.3 million each year for programs to help ensure the success of Alhambra students. As a business leader, Dr. Peck collaborates with key government, business, and education officials to encourage, support, and facilitate systemic educational changes statewide. As a noted co-author, she stresses the importance of "high, yet realistic goals" in her book, The Best Kept Secret to Achieving Successful School Management. Additionally, Dr. Peck has authored many journal articles and presented on "Raising Student Achievement by Raising Expectations" throughout the United States, China, Australia, and South Africa. She also writes a regular column for the Arizona Republic, highlighting successful education programs throughout the state.
John L. Winn, Vice-Chair
An educator for 35 years, he began his career as an elementary and middle school teacher. He joined the Florida Department of Education in 1984 and was appointed to Commissioner of Education in August 2004. During his tenure as Commissioner student achievement in Reading and Mathematics reached an all time high. In February 2007 he retired from Commissioner of Education. He has joined the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) in March 2007 as the Chief Program Officer of Advanced Placement Training and Incentive Program and the UTeach program. NMSI is a nonprofit corporation founded to advance math and science education in the United States by expanding programs with proven results on a national scale in order to have a positive impact on America's 50 million student public school system. Throughout his career, has built a solid reputation as an authority in statewide implementation of innovative education improvements and on policy issues facing public education at every level and demonstrated commitment and compassion in improving education quality for all students.
Kate Walsh
President
Kate Walsh has served as the president of the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) since 2002. Before coming to NCTQ, she worked for The Abell Foundation in Baltimore, the Baltimore City Public Schools, and the Core Knowledge Foundation. Her work has tackled a broad spectrum of educational issues, with a primary focus on the needs of children who are disadvantaged by poverty and race. Among her accomplishments, she started and ran a boarding school in Kenya, East Africa to educate at-risk boys from Baltimore and also developed one of the nation's premier programs in mathematics and science for middle and secondary public school students, a program that has yielded numerous Intel Talent Search winners. She also started the first alternative certification program for teachers in Maryland, a project which led to her strong interest in teacher quality. Walsh has since authored many papers on teacher quality, with a particular interest in the impact of the policies and practices of institutions, including states, unions, districts and teacher preparation programs, on the teaching profession. A long-time resident of Baltimore, Ms. Walsh also serves on the Maryland State Board of Education.