MODERATOR

John Gomperts
Executive Fellow
Campaign for Grade-Level Reading
@JohnGomperts

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 in including FoodCorps (Chair), Points of Light, Presidio Institute, News Literacy Project, and others.

PRESENTER

Wes Moore
Governor
State of Maryland
@iamwesmoore

Wes Moore is the 63rd Governor of the state of Maryland. He is Maryland’s first Black Governor in the state’s 246-year history, and is just the third African American elected Governor in the history of the United States.

Born in Takoma Park, Maryland, on Oct. 15, 1978, to Joy and Westley Moore, Moore’s life took a tragic turn when his father died of a rare, but treatable virus when he was just three years old. After his father’s death, his family moved to the Bronx to live with Moore’s grandparents before returning to Maryland at age 14.

Moore is a proud graduate of Valley Forge Military Academy and College, where he received an Associate’s degree in 1998, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Afterward, he went on to earn his Bachelor’s in international relations and economics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.

While at Johns Hopkins, Moore interned in the office of former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke. Moore was the first Black Rhodes Scholar in the history of Johns Hopkins University. As A Rhodes Scholar, he earned a Master’s in international relations from Wolfson College at Oxford.

In 2005, Moore deployed to Afghanistan as a captain with the 82nd Airborne Division, leading soldiers in combat. Immediately upon returning home, Moore served as a White House Fellow, advising on issues of national security and international relations.

In 2010, Moore wrote “The Other Wes Moore,” a story about the fragile nature of opportunity in America, which became a perennial New York Times bestseller. He went on to write other best-selling books that reflect on issues of race, equity, and opportunity, including his latest book “Five Days,” which tells the story of Baltimore in the days that followed the death of Freddie Gray in 2015.

Moore built and launched a Baltimore-based business called BridgeEdU, which reinvented freshman year of college for underserved students to increase their likelihood of long-term success. BridgeEdu was acquired by the Brooklyn-based student financial success platform, Edquity, in 2018.

It was Moore’s commitment to taking on our toughest challenges that brought him to the Robin Hood foundation, where he served for four years as CEO. During his tenure, the Robin Hood foundation distributed over $600 million toward lifting families out of poverty, including here in Maryland. While the Robin Hood foundation is headquartered in New York City, Wes and his family never moved from their home in Baltimore.

Moore has also worked in finance with Deutsche Bank in London and with Citigroup in New York. Moore and his wife Dawn Flythe Moore have two children – Mia, 12; and James, 9.

Denise Forte
President and CEO
The Education Trust
@EdTrust | LinkedIn

Denise Forte (pronounced “fort”) is the President and CEO at The Education Trust. With more than two decades of experience in the federal legislative and executive branches advancing progressive education and family policy, Denise brings strategic leadership to the organization’s efforts to engage policymakers and diverse coalitions of advocates in demanding and securing equity-advancing policy change at the national and state levels. She also leads Ed Trust’s legislative efforts and, as a member of the Senior Leadership Team, coordinates an organization-wide advocacy agenda and strategy.

Prior to Ed Trust, Denise was a senior fellow and director of public affairs for The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank. She also spent 20 years in progressively senior congressional staff roles, most recently as the staff director for the House Committee on Education and the Workforce (Minority), providing strategic advice and counsel to the Ranking Member, Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), managing and directing the legislative and policy agenda for Committee Democrats and as Education Policy Director for Chairman George Miller. Denise also served in the Obama administration at the U.S. Department of Education, where she held the positions of Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Acting Assistant Secretary in the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, providing direction and management of the office that oversees policy and budget development for the agency. Forte also has worked in the nonprofit leadership development space as the vice president for policy leadership at Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE), an organization supporting current and former teachers in public leadership.

Denise has a B.S. in Computer Science from Duke University, and a M.A. in Women’s Studies from the George Washington University. She resides in Washington, D.C. with her family.

Seth Gerson
Program Director for K-12 Education
National Governors Association
@SethPGerson | LinkedIn

Seth Gerson, Program Director for K-12 Education of the National Governors Association (NGA), leads the team supporting Governors and their key policy staff in developing and implementing K-12 education policies and priorities in their states. Prior to joining NGA, Gerson was director of government relations for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. In that role, he advised policymakers on ways in which federal and state policy can support and strengthen the teaching profession. Previously, Gerson served as a senior policy advisor to U.S. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island during his time as a senior member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. In that capacity, he advised Senator Reed on all legislation related to early childhood care and education, K-12 education, career and technical education, college access and affordability, and national service. He was also a presidential management fellow in Senator Reed’s office and at the U.S. Department of Labor.

Gerson is a graduate of the University of Maryland College Park and earned his J.D. from Seton Hall Law School. He is admitted to practice law in Maryland and New Jersey.

Lucy Berrier Matheson
Deputy Director, K-12
The Hunt Institute
@LucyABerrier | @Hunt_Institute | @thehuntinstitute | LinkedIn

Lucy Berrier Matheson is the Deputy Director on the K-12 team at The Hunt Institute. In this role, she collaborates with state policymakers, education leaders, and other stakeholders to strengthen equitable education policy and practice through research and data analysis. She also leads technical assistance projects that provide direct support for state initiatives to improve education systems. Through nonprofit and consulting roles, she has spent her career working directly with education practitioners to identify their needs, finding solutions through programs and resources, and creating strategic partnerships to ensure educators are prepared to reach all students. She has held positions with PDK International, the National School Boards Association, FourPoint Education Partners, and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. She has a B.A. in Public Policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a M.A.Ed. in Education Policy from George Washington University.

Martin R. West
Academic Dean and Professor of Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
@ProfMartyWest

Martin R. West is academic dean and the Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and deputy director of Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance. He is also editor-in-chief of Education Next, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a member of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the National Assessment Governing Board. West studies the politics of K-12 education in the United States and how education policy choices affect student learning and social-emotional development. From 2013 to 2014, he served as senior education policy advisor to the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

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