IDEA's advisors offer us valuable input on strategy and operations.
Advisors
Chris Balme
Chris Balme is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Spark, a nationally-recognized dropout prevention program (www.sparkprogram.org). Chris holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School of Business, and has taught with the Breakthrough Collaborative and in the Philadelphia public schools. In recognition of his accomplishments at Spark, Chris was honored with the Bay Area's Jefferson Award for Public Service, the New Leaders Council “Top 40 under 40” Leaders Award, the Draper Richards Fellowship, and the Ashoka Fellowship, a global award that recognizes the most innovative non-profits in the world.
Jonah Canner
Jonah Canner is a co-founder of IDEA. He is the Founder/Educational Director of the Fertile Grounds Project, a non-profit organization that provides New York City youth with educational programming that reaches beyond the classroom. Jonah was a founding teacher at the Community School for Social Justice in the Bronx and received his Masters in Education from the New School University in New York.
Adam Fletcher
A lifelong advocate for youth engagement, Adam Fletcher has been working with schools, district and state education-serving organizations and student-serving nonprofits for more than fifteen years. He founded The Free Child Project, which connects young people and adults to the tools, training, and technical assistance they need to change the world, and Sound Out, which facilitates training for students, professional development, consulting, and other services for K-12 schools and organizations. In addition to blogging, Fletcher has written more than two dozen publications on topics related to youth voice.
Connie Krosney
Connie Krosney was a founding Core Faculty member of the Vermont College of Norwich University Master of Education Program, which is now the Vermont M.Ed. of Union Institute & University (1999-2010). Previously, she was graduate faculty and Coordinator of Graduate Teacher Licensure at Saint Michael's College in Colchester, VT(1992-1999). She received her Doctor of Education from the University of Vermont, focusing on Social Foundations of Education and Applied Ethics. She is a passionate advocate for public schools, teachers, and students, as part of her commitment to work towards a more just and compassionate world. She continues to teach part-time in Social Foundations of Education at the University of Vermont, and is an educational consultant to public schools and teachers.
Patricia Langer
Patricia Langer is the Executive Vice President of Human Resources at NBCUniversal. She is responsible for human resources globally for the company, including compensation, staffing, benefits, labor relations, organizational development and learning. Previously, she served on the Lifetime executive team as an HR and legal advisor to senior leaders. She has also held positions at Pan American World Airways; Webster & Sheffield; and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Patricia volunteers with the Taproot Foundation as a pro-bono HR consultant and is a National Advisory Committee Member for the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows Program. She lives in Greater New York City, NY.
Greg Smith
Greg Smith is a professor of Education at Lewis and Clark College and author of Place-Based Education in the Global Age: Local Diversity and many other compelling works. He is a friend to Grace Lee Boggs, Parker Palmer, and others. Beyond the campus, he serves on the board of the Rural School and Community Trust, a national organization that has been an active sponsor of place-based educational reforms throughout the United States. He is also a member of the National Education Policy Center based at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Lauren Veasey
Lauren Veasey is National Network Coordinator for Quality Education as a Constitutional Right (QECR). QECR seeks to get a conversation moving among and across stakeholder groups in today’s educational landscape, prioritizing the voices of students, parents and teachers in helping to initiate a national dialogue about high quality education as a fundamental right, protected by the constitution, for all of America’s children.
Khalif Williams
Khalif Williams, Director of The Bay School in Maine, is passionate about building the social movement toward just and sustainable societies through education. He has been working in the arena of social change and education for over 15 years and has served as a consultant on a variety of educational and non-profit projects. Prior to his role at The Bay School, Khalif served as the Executive Director of the Institute for Humane Education. Khalif and his wife raise 2 young sons, both unschoolers, and try their best to protect their inherent freedom and joy.