Patrick R. Riccards is a nationally recognized strategist, writer, and speaker on school improvement and education issues. He is also the voice behind the award-winning Eduflack blog.


Phyllis Blaunstein is a national leader in education policy and public engagement. She worked extensively with state boards of education to develop state policies to ensure an effective education for all children as the former executive director of the National Association of State Boards of Education, was an education policy fellow with the Institute for Education Leadership, and was a member of the regulations writing team for the first law that guaranteed the right to an education for children with disabilities, P.L. 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act.

Reid Lyon is the chief executive officer of Synergistic Education Solutions. He was a research psychologist and chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch within the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health. In that capacity, he was responsible for the direction and management of research programs in developmental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, behavioral pediatrics, reading and human learning, and learning disorders. He was also responsible for translating NIH scientific discoveries relevant to the development and education of children to Congress and other government agencies.