Strategic School Funding for Results

Project Advisory Group (PAG) Biographies

Susanna Cooper
Senator Darrell Steinberg’s Office
Susanna Cooper is a Consultant in the Capitol office of Senator Darrell Steinberg (Democrat - SD6). She is Steinberg's top aide on education, and a former Sacramento Bee editorial writer.

 

Stephen Frank
Rethinking School and School System Resources
Stephen Frank specializes in performance management systems, professional development strategy, school- level resource use, per pupil cost and resource allocation in urban school districts. He creates performance management tools and strategic leadership training programs for principals and superintendents and has worked with Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Baltimore, Washington DC, Philadelphia, and other large school districts. He has co-authored The Strategic School: Making the Most of People, Time, and Money with Dr. Karen Hawley-Miles, emphasizing need for more effective resource use at the school level. He was formerly a Management Consultant with Bain & Company and has taught at the Broad Institute, New Leaders for New Schools, Brigham Young University, & Duke University’s Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy.

 

Kenneth Hall
USC Rossier School of Education
Kenneth Hall is Executive in Residence at the Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California. He has served the University for more than three years as the founding Director of the School Business Management Certificate Program, which provides school business leadership training for those who serve in business positions in California public schools. He is also Founder and Chairman Emeritus of School Services of California, Inc, which he led as President and then Chairman for thirty years. He is a member of the University of Redlands Board of Trustees and he serves on the Education Advisory Committee for the Public Policy Institute of California. He also serves on the EdSource Board of Directors. Hall is a past Chief Deputy Director of the Department of Finance for the state of California.
 

Henry Levin
Teachers College, Columbia University
Henry M. Levin is the William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education, a nonpartisan entity. He is also the David Jacks Professor Emeritus of Higher Education and Economics at Stanford University where he served from 1968-99 after working as an economist at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. He is a specialist in the economics of education and human resources and has published 16 books and almost 300 articles on these and related subjects. Levin has been a member and President of the Palo Alto (California) School Board and has been inducted as a Guest Professor at Beijing University. He is also on the Board of Trustees of the Educational Testing Service and the Vice President of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) to become President in 2008. At present, Levin is doing research on educational reform, educational vouchers, cost-effectiveness analysis, financing educational equity, and educational privatization.

From 1986–2000 Levin served as the Director of the Accelerated Schools Project, a national school reform initiative for accelerating the education of at-risk youngsters. His Most recent books are: Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: Methods and Applications (Sage Publications, 2000), Privatizing Education (Westview, 2001), and Privatizing Educational Choice, 2005.
 

Rick Miller
Consultant with Capitol Impact & California Education Partners
Rick Miller, a Principal at Capitol Impact, is also a Senior Partner with California Education Partners, an education organization focused on improving student achievement by fostering school district collaboration, shared learning and long-term improvement. Prior to joining California Education Partners, Miller was the deputy superintendent for the P-16 Policy and Information Branch of the California Department of Education. In this position, he developed policy recommendations on promising ways to improve student achievement throughout California specifically focused on closing the state's achievement gaps from pre-kindergarten to higher education. Prior to that, Miller worked at Microsoft Corp. developing communications strategies for privacy, security and overall corporate image. He also served as a strategic communications advisor to the chancellor of the California State University system. Previously Miller served in the U.S. Department of Education as press secretary to Richard Riley, secretary of education in the Clinton administration. Miller also spent time during those years periodically detailed to the White House Office of Advance where he traveled domestically and internationally on behalf of President Clinton.
 

Warren Simmons
Annenberg Institute for School Reform
Warren Simmons directs the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. The Institute was established in 1993 to generate, share, and act on knowledge that improves conditions and outcomes in American schools, particularly in urban areas and in schools serving disadvantaged students. The Institute pursues its mission through four areas of work: Capacity Building in Districts and Communities, Research and Knowledge Product Development, and Communications, Dissemination and Learning Opportunities . In each of these areas, the Institute conducts applied research, develops tools and products, and offers technical support designed to build capacity of urban schools and school systems.

Prior to joining the Institute in 1998, Dr. Simmons headed the Philadelphia Education Fund, a nonprofit organization that played a key role in helping the School District of Philadelphia fund, develop, and implement new academic standards, content-based professional development, standards-based curriculum resources, and comprehensive school reform as part of the district's Children Achieving reform agenda during David Hornbeck's tenure as the superintendent.

Over his twenty-five year career in education, Dr. Simmons has worked on urban education issues from several vantage points, including as a board member, grantmaker, researcher, and special assistant to the superintendent of schools in Prince George’s County, Maryland.