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As President and Chief Executive Officer of UnboundEd, Lacey Robinson sets the organization’s vision for equity-driven national change as she carries the pride and tears of her enslaved ancestors and the native sons and daughters of this sacred land to this work. While continually monitoring the design, delivery, and quality of UnboundEd’s antiracist work, Robinson concurrently maintains the nonprofit’s health, sustainability and future-driven vision for what teaching and learning can be in the 21st century. 

Robinson engaged with industry partners to support standards-aligned, content-focused, equity-driven adult professional learning and development from the organization’s infancy as its Chief of Program and Engagement. She also supported vital design and execution elements for UnboundEd’s signature professional learning opportunity, the illustrious Standards Institute. Robinson’s contributions led to the rapid growth of the organization and positioned UnboundEd as industry leaders. Robinson spearheaded migrating this work into a virtual space during the pandemic to meet the needs of educators.

As a teacher, principal, and staff development specialist, Robinson maintained a focus on literacy, equity, and school leadership for more than two decades. Her life’s work aims to help educators in school systems disrupt systemic racism and all of its legacies in classrooms. Inspired by Langston Hughes, her path is to build temples for tomorrow, as strongly and bravely as she knows how, and to ensure that future generations can stand freely within themselves to be whomever they choose to be. As CEO, Robinson pursues this passion by leading an organization known for the highest integrity in professional development.

Recently retired from her position as the Felton G. Clark Distinguished Professor of Education at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Lisa D. Delpit is the former Executive Director/Eminent Scholar for the Center for Urban Education & Innovation at Florida International University, Miami, Florida. She is also the former holder of the Benjamin E. Mays Chair of Urban Educational Excellence at Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia. Originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she is a nationally and internationally-known speaker and writer whose work has focused on the education of children of color and the perspectives, aspirations, and pedagogy of teachers of color. Delpit's work on school-community relations and cross-cultural communication was cited as a contributor to her receiving a MacArthur “Genius” Award in 1990. Dr. Delpit describes her strongest focus as "...finding ways and means to best educate marginalized students, particularly African-American, and other students of color." She has used her training in ethnographic research to spark dialogues between educators on issues that have impact on students typically least well-served by our educational system. Dr. Delpit is particularly interested in teaching and learning in multicultural societies, having spent time studying these issues in Alaska, Papua New Guinea, Fiji and in various urban and rural sites in the continental United States. She received a B.S. degree from Antioch College and an M.Ed. and Ed.D. from Harvard University. Her background is in elementary education with an emphasis on language and literacy development. 

Dr. Delpit’s recent work has spanned a range of projects and issues, including assisting urban school districts engaged in school restructuring efforts; developing innovative alternative teacher education programs in urban education and teacher leadership; founding the post-Katrina National Coalition for Quality Education in New Orleans; recruiting renowned mathematician and Civil Rights leader, Dr. Robert Moses to South Florida to establish the national Algebra Project; assisting in the creation of  high-standards, innovative schools for low-income, urban children; and developing urban leadership programs for principals and school district central office staff.  She has taught pre-service and in-service teachers and principals in many communities across the United States.    

Her numerous awards include the Harvard University Graduate School of Education 1993 Alumni Award for Outstanding Contribution to Education; the 1994 American Educational Research Association Cattell Award for Outstanding Early Career Achievement; 1998 Sunny Days Award from Sesame Street Productions for her contributions to the lives of children; and the 2001 Kappa Delta Phi Laureate Award for her contribution to the education of teachers.  

Dr. Delpit was also selected as the Antioch College Horace Mann Humanity Award recipient for 2003, which recognizes a contribution by alumni of Antioch College who have "won some victory for humanity." Winning candidates are those persons, or groups of persons, whose personal or professional activities have had a profound effect on the present or future human condition. She was also selected to deliver the prestigious DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Distinguished Lecturer Award at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). The award recognizes the contributions of an educational researcher whose work leads to improved learning for low income, elementary or secondary students.

Her most recent book, published in 2012, “Multiplication is For White People”: Raising Standards for Other People’s Children explores strategies to increase expectations and academic achievement for marginalized children. Library Journal named Multiplication… one of the 20 best-selling education books of 2013, and the American School Board Journal selected it as one of eight “notable books” for 2012. A previous book, Other People’s Children, has sold well over a quarter of a million copies and received the American Educational Studies Association’s “Book Critic Award,” Choice Magazine’s Eighth Annual Outstanding Academic Book Award, and has been named “A Great Book” by Teacher Magazine. Her other books include: The Real Ebonics Debate: Power, Language, and the Education of African-American Children; and The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom. 

Dr. Edward (Eddie) Fergus is Professor of Urban Education in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University – Newark. Prior to joining Rutgers University – Newark, Dr. Edward Fergus was Associate Professor of Urban Education and Policy at Temple University (2017-2022) and Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at New York University (2013-2017), and Deputy Director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education at New York University (2004-2013).  As a former high school social studies teacher, program evaluator, and community school program director, Dr. Fergus is continuously approaching research with an attention to its application within educational settings. Dr. Fergus’ work is on the intersection of educational policy and outcomes with a specific focus on Black and Latino boys’ academic and social engagement outcomes, disproportionality in special education and suspensions, and school climate conditions. He has published more than four dozen articles, book chapters, evaluation reports, and five books including  Skin Color and Identity Formation: Perceptions of Opportunity and Academic Orientation among Mexican and Puerto Rican Youth (Routledge Press, 2004), co-editor of Invisible No More: Disenfranchisement of Latino Men and Boys (Routledge Press, 2011), co-author of Schooling For Resilience: Improving Trajectory of Black and Latino boys (Harvard Education Press, 2014), author of Solving Disproportionality and Achieving Equity (Corwin Press, 2016), co-editor of forthcoming book Boyhood and Masculinity Construction in the US (Routledge Press, forthcoming), and Unpacking the Cultural Shopping Cart: The Cross-Cultural Lives to Challenge School Segregation (Corwin, forthcoming). Fergus has worked with over 120 school districts since 2004 on educational equity and school reform, specifically addressing disproportionality in special education and suspension. Fergus partners with state education departments such as California, Maryland, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Texas and serves on various boards such as NY State Governor’s Juvenile Justice Advisory Group (2010-present), appointed in 2011 to the Yonkers Public Schools Board of Education (2011-2013 and 2019-2021), National Center on Learning Disabilities (2020-present), and is an expert consultant for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division on Educational Opportunities (2014-2016), New York State Attorney General’s Office (2022), and NAACP Legal Defense Fund (2018). 

Dr. Fergus received a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Secondary Education – Broad Field Social Studies from Beloit College and a doctorate in Educational Policy and Social Foundations from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Farshid Safi is an Associate Professor of K-12 Mathematics Education in the School of Teacher Education at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. His professional experiences include serving as a university teacher educator working with K-12 teachers & school districts for the last 20+ years. He is committed to learning with and from students and teachers at the elementary, middle grades, and high schools while also teaching mathematics content and methods courses at universities throughout the U.S and Canada. As a public school teacher of students in mathematics, he has taught courses ranging from algebra to advanced placement calculus courses. 

His research focuses on developing students’ and teachers' understanding of mathematics in coherent, conceptual, and connected ways with an emphasis on equitable teaching practices. He successfully engages with elementary and secondary teachers nationally and internationally in professional development efforts. He focuses on developing prospective teachers’ conceptual understanding of elementary and secondary mathematics, as well as connecting mathematical topics through the intentional integration of technology and dynamic software in mathematical modeling. 

Farshid frequently collaborates with mathematics education doctoral students and colleagues on books, book chapters, and journal articles focused on reasoning and sense-making, equitable teaching practices, and mathematical literacy through a multi-disciplinary approach. He has made presentations for teachers and educators more than 150 times at state, national, and international conferences. He is a longstanding member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and is an active contributor to policy efforts related to equitable teaching practices and the intentional use of technology in engaging students in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Currently, Dr. Safi serves as a Board Member-at-Large for the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE).

Dr. Francesca A. López is the Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Penn State University. She began her career in education as a bilingual (Spanish/English) elementary teacher, and later as a high school counselor, in El Paso, Texas. Her research has been funded by the American Educational Research Association Grants Program, the Division 15 American Psychological Association Early Career Award, the National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Institute of Education Sciences, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Assessment for Good, the National Science Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. She is a co-editor of the National Education Policy Center publications and co-editor of #1 journal in education research, Review of Educational Research.

Pedro Noguera is the Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean of the Rossier School of Education and a Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Southern California. Prior to joining USC, Noguera served as a Distinguished Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Before joining the faculty at UCLA, he served as a tenured professor and holder of endowed chairs at New York University, Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of 15 books. His most recent books are A Search for Common Ground: Conversations About the Toughest Questions in K–12 Education (Teachers College Press winner of the Association of American Publishers 2022 Prose Award) with Rick Hess and City Schools and the American Dream 2: The Enduring Promise of Public Education (Teachers College Press) with Esa Syeed. Dean Noguera is Education Week’s highest ranked, at #1, public influence scholar for 2023.

Pedro earned his BA and MA from Brown University and his PhD from Berkeley. He is the father of five children – the youngest a fifth-grader – and he enjoys being a grandfather, too.