Farb founded Grockit in 2007 with the vision to break the old paradigm of one size fits all classes and create a customized learning environment that adapts to the student. It was Farb’s desire to help students prepare for and excel at standardized tests combined with his many years of education sector experience that led him to launch Grockit, which leverages the social web to take learning out of the classroom, make it fun and empower students to learn from each other. Prior to Grockit, Farb spent several years as a manager and teacher in the field of standardized tests, witnessing firsthand the shortcomings and challenges of for-profit, classroom based teaching models optimized for the company rather than the student. During his time in the standardized test industry, Farb served as an academic director at Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions in Southern California. Farb earned his bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Michigan. In his free time, Farb is a singer songwriter and plays the guitar and the piano. His band has played in venues such as the Viper Room in Los Angeles and his songs have been featured in a major motion picture.

Richard Barth joined KIPP in December of 2005. As president and CEO of the KIPP Foundation, Barth has overseen the growth of the network from 45 to 99 schools and secured over $100 million in new, long-term philanthropic commitments as well as $60 million in federal funding.

Timothy Daly is the President of The New Teacher Project. Since his appointment in 2007, he has helped lead the organization’s efforts to end educational inequality by aligning policies and systems to better support teaching effectiveness.

Steve Barr founded Green Dot Public Schools in 1999 with the vision of transforming secondary education in California by creating a number of high-performing charter high schools using available public dollars. Under Steve’s leadership, Green Dot became the leading change agent in the region, starting in fall 2000 by founding one of the first comprehensive public high schools in the Los Angeles area in thirty years.

Sally Blount has served as dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University since July, 2010. She is an expert in the fields of negotiation and behavioral decision-making, and has more than 20 years of experience in higher education. She received her Ph.D. in management and organizations from Kellogg in 1992 after earning a joint bachelor’s degree from Princeton University’s engineering and Woodrow Wilson schools in 1983.

From 1992 to 2001, Dean Blount was on the faculty of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Earlier in her career, she worked as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. In 2001, Dean Blount joined New York University’s Stern School of Business, where from 2004 to 2010 she served as the dean of its undergraduate college and vice dean of the school. At NYU, she was the Abraham L. Gitlow Professor of Management and Organizations and also held an affiliated appointment at the Wagner School of Public Service. In 2007, she was appointed by NYU’s president and provost as their special adviser for global academic integration.

Education Reform,