We also utilize an all-star cast of national faculty for our Leadership Summit and for our other programming, again providing school and district leaders with tools and mindsets that help them improve their schools.
Leader. Visionary. Entrepreneur. Disruptor. Change Maker. Angela Maiers embodies each of these descriptors with passion, commitment and fierce determination. She has been creating and leading change in education and enterprise for 31 years, teaching every level of school from grade school to graduate school and consulting with companies around the world.
Angela founded Choose2Matter to bring the world hope by helping every individual embrace their value and potential contribution. Initially launched to challenge and inspire students to work collaboratively to develop innovative solutions to social problems, Choose2Matter has evolved into a movement that support parents, educators, and employees around the world. Her work in 60,000 classrooms across 100 countries has rallied more than a million children who have banded together to launch 170 social enterprises and pass 17 laws. And organizations across all industries are finding new ways to ignite the genius of their employees, successfully addressing a $15 trillion employee engagement problem
Angela earned a BS in Education with a minor in Neuroscience and Master Degrees in Literacy and Ed Leadership.
She is the author of eight books, including Liberating Genius,The Habitudes and The Passion Driven Classroom. Angela is widely recognized as one of most influential voices on social media today, consistently ranking in the top 1% and a regular contributor to the Huffington Post.
Dr. Rick Hess Resident Scholar and Director of Education Policy Studies, American Enterprise Institute, where he works on K-12 and higher education issues. He is also the author of the popular Education Week blog “Rick Hess Straight Up” and has served as executive editor of Education Next since 2001. Before joining AEI, Dr. Hess was a high school social studies teacher. He has also taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, Rice, and Harvard University. His books include the forthcoming Letters to a Young Education Reformer (Harvard Education Press, 2017), The Cage-Busting Teacher (Harvard Education Press, 2015), Breakthrough Leadership in the Digital Age (Corwin, 2014),_ Cage-Busting Leadership_ (Harvard Education Press, 2013), and The Same Thing Over and Over (Harvard University Press, 2010).
Dr. Jason G. Irizarry is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and faculty associate in El Instituto: Institute for Latina/a, Caribbean and Latin American Studies. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in multicultural education, culturally responsive curriculum development, participatory action research, and urban education. A central focus of his work involves promoting the academic achievement of youth in urban schools by addressing issues associated with educator preparation. His first book, The Latinization of U.S. Schools: Successful Teaching and Learning in Shifting Cultural Contexts, was awarded the Phillip C. Chin Book Award from the National Association for Multicultural Education. He is also the co-editor of Diaspora Studies in Education: Toward a Framework for Understanding the Experiences of Transnational Communities. Irizarry has an Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Dr. Anthony Muhammad Anthony Muhammad is an author and international thought leader. He currently serves as the CEO of New Frontier 21 Consulting, a company dedicated to providing cutting-edge professional development to schools all over the world. He served as a practitioner for nearly twenty years. Dr. Muhammad served as a middle school teacher, assistant principal, middle school principal, and high school principal. His tenure as a practitioner has earned him several awards as both a teacher and a principal.
Dr. Muhammad is recognized as one of the field’s leading experts in the areas of school culture and Professional Learning Communities at Work (PLC). He also serves as an Associate Professor of School Leadership and Culture at Academica University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Dr. Muhammad is a best-selling author. He most recent books include The Way Forward: PLC at Work and the Bright Future of Education (2024), Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work, 4th Edition (2024), Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work, 2nd Edition (2021), Time for Change: The Four Essential Skills of a Transformational School Leader (2019) and Transforming School Culture: How to Overcome Staff Division 2nd Edition (2018). He has published 26 peer reviewed articles in education journals and publications in seven different countries.
Dr. Marguerite Roza Director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University and Senior Research Affiliate at the Center on Reinventing Public Education. Her calculations of dollar implications and cost equivalent tradeoffs have prompted changes in education finance policy at all levels in the education system. She’s led projects including the Finance and Productivity Initiative at CRPE and the Schools in Crisis Rapid response Paper Series. More recently she served as Senior Economic Advisor to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Roza is author of the highly regarded education finance book, Educational Economics: Where Do School Funds Go?
A highly-regarded urban educator in New Jersey for over twenty years, Principal Baruti Kafele distinguished himself as a master teacher and a transformational school leader. As an elementary school teacher in East Orange, NJ, he was selected as the East Orange School District and Essex County Public Schools Teacher of the Year and New Jersey Teacher of the Year finalist.
As a middle and high school principal, Principal Kafele emerged as a turnaround school leader which included the turnaround of “The Mighty” Newark Tech, that went from a low-performing school in need of improvement to national recognition, including U.S. News and World Report Magazine recognizing it three times as one of America’s best high schools and Principal Kafele being awarded the coveted Milken Educator Award.
One of the most sought-after school leadership and classroom equity presenters in America, Principal Kafele is impacting America’s schools! For over 35 years, he has delivered over 3000 conference and program keynotes, professional development workshops, parenting seminars and student assemblies. An expert in the area of “attitude transformation,” Principal Kafele is the leading authority for providing effective classroom and school leadership strategies toward closing what he coined, the “Attitude Gap.”
A prolific writer, Principal Kafele has written extensively on professional development strategies for creating a positive school climate and culture, transforming the attitudes of at-risk students, motivating Black males to excel in the classroom, and school leadership practices for inspiring schoolwide excellence. In addition to writing several professional articles for popular education journals, he has authored thirteen books, including his seven ASCD best sellers – Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School & in Life, Closing the Attitude Gap, Is My School a Better School BECAUSE I Lead It?, The Teacher 50, The Principal 50, The Assistant Principal 50 and The Equity & Social Justice Education 50. Principal Kafele is also the creator and host of the popular AP & New Principals Academy, streamed live every Saturday morning on his AP & New Principals Academy YouTube channel at 10:55 ET.
Principal Kafele is married to his wife Kimberley, and is the father of their three children, Baruti, Jabari and Kibriya. He earned his B.S. degree in Management Science/Marketing from Kean University and his M.A. degree in Educational Administration from New Jersey City University. He is the recipient of over 150 educational, professional and community awards which include the prestigious Milken Educator Award, the National Alliance of Black School Educators Hall of Fame Award, the East Orange, New Jersey Hall of Fame Award, the New Jersey Education Association Award of Excellence, recognition as one of the World’s Top 30 Education Professionals by Global Gurus Top 30 for four consecutive years, and the City of Dickinson, Texas proclaiming February 8, 1998 as Baruti Kafele Day.
How did he go from juvenile detention to two doctorates, with training at Harvard Medical School and Oxford University? Dr. Adam Sáenz will tell you: it was the power of community. Whether you’re searching for a reason to believe or you just need a hope-filled reminder, the bottom line is that you do have tremendous power to make a difference in your world, and Dr. Sáenz’ message will compel you to engage your calling with passion, with purpose, and with vision. Now, as a licensed psychologist and theologian, Dr. Sáenz conducts workshops across the country in the areas of stress management, self-care, and the dynamics of effective relationship and team-building. Dr. Sáenz earned his Ph.D. in School Psychology from Texas A&M University with clinical training at Harvard Medical School. He completed his post doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He also earned a Doctorate of Ministry in Pastoral Counseling from the Graduate Theological Foundation with residency at Christ Church College of Oxford University. Among his publications are the best-selling The Power of a Teacher, Relationships That Work, and his most recent release, The EQ Intervention: Shaping a Self-Aware Generation Through Social and Emotional Learning.
He currently serves as a supervising psychologist for the Texas A&M Medical School and for the Texas A&M Department of Athletics.
Dr. Muhammad Khalifa is a professor of Educational Administration and the Executive Director of Urban and Rural Initiatives at The Ohio State University. His research examines how urban school leaders enact culturally responsive leadership and anti-oppressive schooling practices. He was previously as teacher and administrator in Detroit Public Schools, and he has also contributed to community-informed education projects in Africa, Latin America, and Asia in various capacities.
Dr. Khalifa has written extensively on minoritized student identities in school, how schools can become liberatory spaces for youth, and how schools can begin to recognize and value community and ancestral knowledges in and around schools. He is the author of the top-selling book, Culturally Responsive School Leadership (Harvard Education Press, 2018). He is also coeditor of three other earlier books and has published in the highest ranked education journals, including Review of Educational Research, Teachers College Record, QSE, Urban Review, Educational Administration Quarterly, and Race, Ethnicity, and Education.
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” —Helen Keller
We appreciate and value all of our partners and our alumni network, from school districts to non-profits and other organizations with whom we work and learn.
