MODERATOR

John Gomperts
Executive Fellow
Campaign for Grade-Level Reading

John Gomperts is a long-time leader in non-profits and government organizations devoted to civic engagement and to creating greater opportunity for children and youth. From 2012 – 2020, John served as President & CEO of America’s Promise Alliance. Prior to that, John served as the Director of AmeriCorps in the Obama Administration. Earlier in his career, John worked in the US Senate (Sens. Wofford, Kerry, Daschle), practiced law and served as a judicial clerk. John earned his JD from Georgetown University Law Center and his AB in History from University of California, Berkeley. John has served on a wide range of boards, including FoodCorps (Chair), Points of Light, Presidio Institute, News Literacy Project, and others.

PRESENTERS

Katherine Begley
Director of Technical Support, Education and Adolescent Empowerment Team
CARE USA

Katherine Begley is the Director of Technical Support for the Education and Adolescent Empowerment Team at CARE USA where she has worked since 2015. Her responsibilities include providing technical support to CARE country offices, local partners, and ministries of education on designing, implementing, and monitoring evidence-based education and empowerment interventions for adolescents, particularly girls. Notable achievements have been collaborating with the Federal Government of Somalia’s Ministry of Education, Culture, and Higher Education in developing the country’s new Education Sector Strategic Plan and adult education curriculum and policy framework and working with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education in Zimbabwe to integrate life skills (including leadership and financial literacy) into its national secondary education curriculum. Ms. Begley brings over 25 years of experience working on formal/non-formal education initiatives domestically and internationally. She has served as a classroom teacher, school administrator, and consultant for two ministries of education in Latin America on adult literacy initiatives and meaningful EdTech integration.

Brij Kothari
Founder, PlanetRead
Co-Lead, Billion Readers (BIRD)

Brij Kothari innovated Same Language Subtitling (SLS) on mainstream entertainment content on TV for mass literacy in 1996, as a student at Cornell University. He has pursued SLS ever since, as an academic, social, and policy entrepreneur. His work on SLS led to the founding of PlanetRead.org, BookBox.com and the Billion Readers (BIRD) initiative that are championing evidence-based solutions for the subconscious acquisition of reading literacy and language(s) at nation scale. Bill Clinton called SLS, “A small thing that has a staggering impact on people’s lives.” Following nearly three decades of research, pilots, and advocacy, SLS became India’s national broadcast policy in 2019. Currently Brij and his BIRD team, supported by Co-Impact, are catalyzing an entertainment systemwide implementation of SLS with a stated focus on impacting girls and women’s reading literacy. BIRD is building partnerships across the central and state governments, private sector, academia, and civil society organizations to deliver guaranteed daily and lifelong reading practice to one billion+ TV viewers. Brij is the recipient of the International Literacy Prize from the Library of Congress. He is an Ashoka Fellow and Schwab Social Entrepreneur and has served on the faculty of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (1996-2023).

Bob Wise
Former Governor, West Virginia
Coordinator, Global Science of Learning Education Network

Former West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise has spent his career advancing education opportunities for our nation’s students. He recently completed 14 years as president of the Alliance for Excellent Education (All4Ed), a Washington, DC–based national nonprofit that has become a national leader in advocating the policies and practices necessary for secondary school students to be ready for postsecondary education and careers. While leading All4Ed, he was named one of the ten most influential people in education technology by Tech & Learning and named to the NonProfit Times’s “Power & Influence Top 50,” an annual listing of the fifty most influential executives in the nonprofit sector. After serving a combined twenty-four years as governor, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and state legislator, Gov. Wise has become a prominent speaker and advisor on education issues and trends. He has frequently been an advisor to the U.S. Department of Education, White House, and key state and federal policymakers.

COMMENTATOR

Munro Richardson
Executive Director
Read Charlotte

Munro Richardson is Executive Director of Read Charlotte, a community initiative that unites families, educators and community partners to double the percentage of third graders reading on grade level in Mecklenburg County from 39% in 2015 to 80% by 2025. In this role he is responsible for using research, data and strategic funding to coordinate, integrate and align the efforts of dozens of organizations across Charlotte- Mecklenburg to improve children’s language and literacy development from birth through third grade. Munro has received local recognition for his efforts. In 2015 the Charlotte Hornets named Munro a Rising Star at their annual My Hero Gala. In 2016 Leadership Charlotte named Munro Newcomer of the Year at its annual Legacy Awards; the Black Women’s Caucus of Charlotte-Mecklenburg named him Citizen of the Year; and, Playing for Others recognized him as one of 10 change-makers in the community. In 2018, Munro was recognized as a Walmart Community Playmaker by the Charlotte Hornets. Munro devoted much of the past 20 years working in philanthropy. He spent ten years at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City where he held progressively demanding leadership roles, ultimately serving as Vice President of Education. More recently he was co-founder of two education technology startup companies. Munro holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas, master’s degrees from both Harvard University and Oxford University (where he was a Rhodes Scholar), and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. Munro is married to his high school sweetheart, Teresa, and has three daughters who attend UNC Charlotte and Charlotte- Mecklenburg Schools. Munro is co-author of Read With Me: Engaging Your Young Child in Active Reading, published by Rowan & Littlefield in January 2019.

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