Susan Sclafani

Former Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education at US ED and Member of the FWE Academic Committee

Former U.S. Department of Education Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education and a current member of the FWE Steering Committee. Among her prior positions are vice president for program management at Pearson Education Services, director of state services at the National Center on Education and the Economy, and U.S. representative to both the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

Prior to entering the Federal government, Dr. Sclafani served as chief academic officer of the Houston Independent School District in Texas, one of the nation’s largest urban school districts. She earned a PhD in educational administration at the University of Texas, Austin.

Bob Schwartz

Senior Advisor, Harvard Project on Workforce, Harvard Kennedy School

Senior Advisor to the Harvard Project on Workforce at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy and Professor Emeritus of Practice in Educational Policy and Administration. Previously, he held a wide variety of leadership positions in education and government before joining the HGSE faculty in 1996. From 1997 to 2002, Schwartz also served as president of Achieve, Inc., an independent, bipartisan, nonprofit organization created by governors and corporate leaders to help states improve their schools. From 1990 to 1996, Schwartz directed the education grantmaking program of The Pew Charitable Trusts, one of the nation’s largest private philanthropies. In addition to his work at HGSE, Achieve, and The Pew Charitable Trusts, Schwartz has been a high school English teacher and principal; an education adviser to the mayor of Boston and the governor of Massachusetts; an assistant director of the National Institute of Education; a special assistant to the president of the University of Massachusetts; and executive director of The Boston Compact, a public-private partnership designed to improve access to higher education and employment for urban high school graduates. Schwartz has written and spoken widely on topics such as standards-based reform, public-private partnerships, and the transition from high school to adulthood. In recent years Schwartz has contributed to three volumes published by Harvard Education Press: Teaching Talent(2010), Surpassing Shanghai(2011), and The Futures of School Reform (2012). He currently co-leads the Pathways to Prosperity Network, a collaboration among a group of states, HGSE, and Jobs for the Future designed to ensure that many more young people graduate high school, attain an initial postsecondary degree or credential with value in the labor market, and get launched on a career while leaving open the possibility of further education.

Maria Cormier

Senior Research Associate, Community College Research Center, Teachers College

Senior Research Associate, Community College Research Center at Teachers College. Maria S. Cormier conducts qualitative research on workforce development, developmental education reform, teaching and learning, and student experiences at community colleges. She is the director of two CCRC projects: Exploring the Implications of Rapid Technological Change on Community College Workforce Training and Aligning Community College Credit and Noncredit Workforce Education Programs: An Examination of Emerging Practices. She has previously contributed to CCRC projects including Scaling Innovation in the Community College, Analysis of Statewide Developmental Education Reform, CUNY Start Evaluation, Scaling CUNY’s ASAP Program at Bronx Community College, and Postsecondary Language and Literacy Learning (PL3). Cormier also co-wrote an op-ed for Inside Higher Ed with CCRC’s Jim Jacobs titled, “Workforce Development and an Opportunity for Change” in May 2020.

Cormier holds a PhD in educational policy studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her dissertation examined the relationship between institutional and cultural understandings of education and community-based learning. She has worked as a consultant for the Web Alignment Tool, a program designed to evaluate the degree of alignment between state educational standards and state assessment tools across the country. She has also worked with the National Academy for Excellent Teaching (NAfET), where she conducted research on a professional development program for small high schools in New York City.

Wallace Lim

Director for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Temasek Polytechnic (TP) Institute

Deputy Director for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Department, overseeing the Temasek Launchpad and incubation programmes and other I&E related training for all TP students and beyond. Dr. Lim is a Chemical Engineer by training, specializing in pharmaceutics and nanomaterials. He set up Temasek Polytechnic Nanotechnology Research Facilities and obtained more than $1.7million through at least 4 research funding boards for projects. He has also set up the Temasek Polytechnic Institution Review Board for all Clinical trials and Human Biomedical Research. He has developed a combinatory drug product which includes pre-clinical and clinical trials, advised, and supervised over 60 projects and consultancies with pharmaceutical companies on various materials research and Quality Assurance such as pilot plant studies and process validation. Wallace is also a LEAN Six Sigma Black Belt holder.

During his stint in the Ministry of Education, Wallace developed the nation-wide strategic 2030 Continuing Education and Training (CET) planning and manpower sizing for the institutes of higher learning IHLs. He has also developed the work study programme adopted by IHLs with close involvement with the various industries.

Anne Kress

President of Northern Virginia Community College

Anne M. Kress is the sixth president of Northern Virginia Community College. She has more than 25 years of experience in higher education, having served as a tenured English professor, department chair, associate vice president, provost, and president at community colleges in Florida, New York and now, Virginia.  Kress focuses on the role NOVA plays in providing meaningful access to equity in educational and economic opportunity for the full diversity of our region.

Kress recently co-chaired the Virginia Community College System’s new six-year Opportunity 2027 Strategic Plan Task Force and serves on the boards of numerous organizations, including the American Association of Community Colleges, the Taskforce on Higher Education and Opportunity; Jobs for the Future’s Policy Trust and Community College Workforce Consortium and the Aspen Institute’s Ascend Postsecondary Leadership Circle.  She is a member of Excelencia in Education’s Presidents for Latino Student Success and on the boards of the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the Northern Virginia Technology Council, the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metro Area, and Generation Hope. Kress is a graduate of Leadership Greater Washington and has been named to the Virginia Business Journal Virginia 500.

Kress earned two bachelor’s degrees, in finance and English; a master’s degree in English; and a doctorate in Higher Education Administration, all from the University of Florida. She has been honored by her alma mater and organizations including Phi Theta Kappa, the New York State Senate, YWCA, the American Association of University Women, and the Rochester Women’s Council. She has been recognized by both the Washington Business Journal and Rochester Business Journal

Related Initiatives and Resources

AIR Equity Initiative

AIR Equity Initiative Roundtable – Bridges Toward Equity: Making Workforce Development Work for All