Jane Dokko is an assistant vice president in the community development and policy studies division of the Economic Research Department at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. In this role, she leads research and analysis related to the Bank’s community development function. During the Obama Administration, Dokko was the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Financial Economics at the U.S. Treasury Department and a senior economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. She has also worked at the International Monetary Fund, Brookings Institution, and Federal Reserve Board. Dokko is the author of widely cited academic journal articles, policy briefs, and general interest publications, and her work has been frequently covered in the mainstream media. Her expertise spans housing finance, consumer finance, retirement security, and financial regulation.

Micere Keels is an associate professor in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. Her research focuses on understanding how sociodemographic characteristics (race-ethnicity and poverty, in particular) structure the supports and challenges that individuals experience. She is particularly invested in systems-change interventions. Keels is the founding director of the Trauma Responsive Educational Practices (TREP) Project, which is a research-translation and research-practice partnership that aims to connect the brain and behavior research on developmental trauma with the realities of school and classroom management. The project is aimed at developing educator capacity for serving children growing up in areas where poverty, housing instability, crime, and violence rates are unacceptably high. The program is a natural evolution of her years of research on issues of race, poverty, and inequality within the context of neighborhoods, schools, and families.

Shantá R. Robinson is an assistant professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. Her research interests include the role of social identity in marginalized students’ educational experiences, aspirations, and outcomes; empirical investigations of marginalized student achievement and underachievement; inequities in the distribution of educational resources; and the history, culture, and social organization of K-12 educational institutions. Her most recent work focuses on the educational experiences and occupational aspirations of adolescents experiencing homelessness. The purpose of Robinson’s research is to assist school members—teachers, administrators, and community leaders—in living up to the grand potential of public education: to identify, support, and make possible the capabilities and promise of every student, irrespective of the student’s familial background, neighborhood, or other social location. She began her professional career as a high school history teacher in Charlotte, NC.

Maurice Swinney is the chief equity officer for Chicago Public Schools (CPS). He is the district’s first chief equity officer and is responsible for moving CPS closer to achieving educational equity, including by examining CPS policies and programs for inequities and implementing strategies that minimize gaps in resources, staffing, and high-quality academic programming. Prior to this role, Swinney served as the principal of Chicago’s Tilden Community Career Academy, where his focus on college readiness and social-emotional learning was recognized by the University of Chicago’s Consortium on School Research. Prior to joining CPS, Swinney was a teacher and school leader in Louisiana.

Rebecca Vonderlack Navarro is the manager of education policy and research at the Latino Policy Forum. The vision of the Education Department is that Latinos and English Learners from early childhood through 12th grade receive equitable educational opportunities leading to economic prosperity. To accomplish this, Vonderlack Navarro leads a team that concentrates its efforts on promoting quality bilingual education programming, equitable access to early childhood programming that is responsive to language and cultural difference, and quality parent engagement. Her recent work involves leading a research-policy partnership with the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research on a longitudinal study of English Learner achievement. She also recently co-authored the Illinois English Learner Handbook: A Guide for School Board Members, District Administrators, and Principals in collaboration with the Illinois Principals Association, Illinois Association of School Boards, and the Illinois Association of School Administrators. Her advocacy efforts are greatly concentrated on dealing with the vast shortage of qualified bilingual and bicultural educators across Illinois. Vonderlack Navarro is a state-appointed member of the Illinois Advisory Council on Bilingual Education.