Featured Speakers

Invited: The Honorable Jerome M. Adams, MD, MPH

Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Dr. Adams’ motto as Surgeon General is “better health through better partnerships.” As Surgeon General, Dr. Adams is committed to maintaining strong relationships with the public health community and forging new partnerships with non-traditional partners, including business and law enforcement.

He has pledged to lead with science, facilitate locally led solutions to the nation’s most difficult health problems, and deliver higher quality healthcare at lower cost through patient and community engagement and better prevention.

As Surgeon General, Dr. Adams oversees the operations of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which has approximately 6,500 uniformed health officers who serve in nearly 600 locations around the world to promote, protect and advance the health and safety of our nation and our world.

Tricia Haley

Management and Program Analyst, Office of Child Care, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

Tricia Haley is a Management and Program Analyst for the Office of Child Care (OCC) at the Administration for Children & Families, Department of Health & Human Services. Tricia started with the OCC Technical Assistance Division in 2009 as a Presidential Management Fellow, and she has since worked in a variety of roles, including managing external partnerships for OCC and serving as the lead for OCC communication and outreach efforts. Currently, she is the lead for state- and systems-level child care technical assistance and coordinates national grantee training for OCC, including the annual Child Care and Development Fund State and Territory Administrators Meeting (STAM). A native of Washington State, Tricia has an undergraduate degree from Gonzaga University and a graduate degree in public policy from the University of Maryland.

Robert Schwartz

Senior Fellow, Jobs for the Future

Harvard Graduate School of Education

Robert Schwartz is Professor Emeritus of Practice in Educational Policy and Administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Schwartz has written and spoken widely on topics such as standards-based reform, public-private partnerships, and the transition from high school to adulthood.  

He currently co-leads the Pathways to Prosperity Network, a collaboration among a group of states, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Jobs for the Future designed to ensure that many more young people graduate high school, attain an initial postsecondary degree or credential with value in the labor market, and get launched on a career while leaving open the possibility of further education. He also co-authored the 2017 book, Learning for Careers: The Pathways to Prosperity Network.

Tony Smith, Ph.D.

State Superintendent of Education, Illinois

Dr. Tony Smith was appointed by the State Board of Education effective May 1, 2015. Prior to his arrival at the Illinois State Board of Education, Dr. Smith was the executive director of the W. Clement & Jessie V. Stone Foundation, which annually awards more than $5 million in grants that support children's development and education. Before joining the Stone Foundation, Dr. Smith led the Oakland Unified School District in California, where he helped improve academic outcomes, district finances, family engagement and organizational coherence during his four-year tenure.

Dr. Smith has served in a wide range of leadership roles, primarily in his native state of California. Prior to being superintendent in Oakland, Dr. Smith served as Deputy Superintendent for the San Francisco Unified School District, where he led efforts to close the achievement gap. He also served as Superintendent of the Emery Unified School District. He previously led the Math, Science and Technology Initiative at the Emeryville Citywide Initiative. He oversaw several major programs at the former Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools, now known as the National Equity Project.

Greg Toppo, National K-12 Education Reporter

USA Today

Greg Toppo is the national K-12 education reporter for USA Today. A graduate of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, N.M., he taught in both public and private schools for eight years before moving into journalism. His first job was with the Santa Fe New Mexican, a 50,000-circulation daily. He worked for four years as a wire service reporter with the Associated Press, first in Baltimore and then in Washington, D.C., where he became the AP’s national K-12 education writer. He came to USA Today in 2002 and in 2005 broke the Armstrong Williams “pay for punditry” story that launched a widespread look at government propaganda. Toppo also co-led the USA Today team that in 2011 looked at educator-led cheating on standardized tests. The paper’s series prompted the Washington, D.C., inspector general to investigate high erasure rates in D.C. schools. Toppo was also a 2010 Spencer fellow at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Deborah Lowe Vandell, Ph.D.

Founding Dean, School of Education

University of California, Irvine

Dr. Deborah Vandell is Professor of Education at the University of California, Irvine, where she previously served as the Founding Dean of the School of Education. An author of more than 150 articles and three books, Dr. Vandell’s research focuses on the effects of developmental contexts –  including early child care, K-12 schools, afterschool programs, families – on children’s social, behavioral, and academic functioning. As one of the principal investigators with the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, she has conducted an intensive study of 1300 children from birth through high school. This work is viewed by many social scientists as one of the most comprehensive studies of the short-term and long-term effects of early education programs, schooling, and the family on children’s development.  Other research projects have studied the effects of afterschool programs on academic and social outcomes, which underscored the importance of out-of-school time as a key factor in children’s success at school.