Speaker biographies

Ben Adler is a staff writer at Politico, where he primarily covers youth politics. Previously, Mr. Adler was editor of CampusProgress.org, a daily online political and cultural youth magazine at the Center for American Progress, and a regular contributor to The American Prospect Online. He previously worked at The New Republic, Mamm, The Nation, and The American Laywer. He has written about higher education for Newsweek and the Washington Monthly. His writing has also appeared in The American Prospect, In These Times, The Next American City, the Washington Examiner, and the Guardian, among other publications.

Michael Dannenberg directs the Education Policy Program at the New America Foundation and is the editor of its policy blog, Higher Ed Watch. Previously, Mr. Dannenberg served as the senior education counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), for whom he played a significant role in drafting the No Child Left Behind Act, the Education Finance Incentive Grant program, and the Taxpayer-Teacher Protection Act. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and Fortune magazine, and he has been featured on CNN, CNBC, NPR, and CBS’s 60 Minutes. In 2005, National Journal named him to "The Hill 100" list of Congress’s most influential aides.

Paul Fain is a staff reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education, where he has covered university leaders since 2004. Mr. Fain writes about many of the hot-button issues in higher education through the eyes of presidents and trustees, with coverage that includes college costs, federal tax policy, presidential searches, and regular podcast interviews. As the primary author of The Chronicle’s annual executive compensation survey, Mr. Fain is a widely-quoted source on presidential salaries and the job market for college leaders. He has won national and state awards during his reporting career, including a 2006 Education Writers Association award for beat reporting. Prior to joining The Chronicle, Mr. Fain wrote for C-Ville Weekly, a newsweekly in Charlottesville, Va. He has also been a regular contributor to the Philadelphia City Paper and the Washington City Paper.

Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at AEI. His many books include No Remedy Left Behind (AEI Press, 2007), No Child Left Behind: A Primer (Peter Lang, 2006), Educational Entrepreneurship (Harvard Education Press, 2006), Common Sense School Reform (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Revolution at the Margins (Brookings Institution, 2002), and Spinning Wheels (Brookings Institution, 1998). His work has appeared in outlets including Harvard Educational Review, Urban Affairs Review, Social Science Quarterly, American Politics Quarterly, Teachers College Record, Education Week, Phi Delta Kappan, Education Next, Educational Leadership, Washington Post, Boston Globe, and National Review. Mr. Hess currently serves on the review board for the Broad Prize in Urban Education, as executive editor of Education Next, and as a member of the research advisory board for the National Center on Educational Accountability. He is a former high school social studies teacher and a former professor of education and government at the University of Virginia.

Benjamin M. Lawsky was appointed deputy counselor and special assistant to the New York attorney general in January 2007. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Lawsky served from late 2001 to 2007 as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he prosecuted securities fraud, organized crime, and terrorism cases. From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Lawsky served as chief counsel to Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), where he served as staff director of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Courts Subcommittee. From 1997 to 1999, he was a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. Mr. Lawsky also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Dennis Jacobs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Honorable Carol B. Amon of the Eastern District of New York.

Richard Legon has been president of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) since January 2006. His experience working with boards in higher education and in other areas of the nonprofit world spans more than thirty-six years, much of it focused on the board’s responsibilities in the area of fundraising and finance. Mr. Legon coordinated the development of AGB’s handbook for foundation boards and is the editor of the association’s follow-up handbook for foundation boards, Margin of Excellence: The New Work of Higher Education Foundations (AGB, 2006). His early initiatives at AGB have included a year-long strategic planning process; a project to look at the state of the academic presidency, marking the tenth anniversary of AGB’s Commission on the Presidency; a major project on the relationship of institution costs to governance and institution and strategic policy; and development of a major statement on board accountability. He is a member of the board of visitors of Virginia State University and is a former trustee of the University of Charleston, West Virginia.

Anne D. Neal is the president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), an education nonprofit dedicated to empowering alumni and trustees on behalf of academic excellence, academic freedom, and accountability. As a practicing attorney, Ms. Neal specialized in First Amendment law. In the early 1990s, she was general counsel and congressional liaison for the National Endowment for the Humanities. She was a founder of ACTA and served as vice president and general counsel from 1995 to 2003. Over the last twenty years, she has served on the boards of numerous nonprofit organizations, including All Hallows Guild, the Washington National Cathedral, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, the Alexander Hamilton Institute, and the Founders’ Washington Committee for Historic Mount Vernon. She also serves on the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity.

Nancy B. Rapoport is the Gordon & Silver, Ltd. Professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Previously, Ms. Rapoport served as professor of law from 2000 to 2007 and as dean from 2000 to 2006 at the University of Houston and as dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law from 1998 to 2000. She is admitted to the bars of the states of California, Ohio, Nebraska, Texas, and Nevada and of the U.S. Supreme Court. She is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and of the American College of Bankruptcy. Ms. Rapoport practiced law with Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco from 1986 to 1991 and taught at the Ohio State University College of Law from 1991 to 1998. She is the coeditor of Enron: Corporate Fiascos and Their Implications (Foundation Press, 2004) and has also appeared as herself in the Academy Award^®–nominated movie Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Magnolia Pictures, 2005).

Arthur J. Rothkopf is senior vice president and counselor to the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where his responsibilities include supervision of the chamber’s Education and Workforce Initiative and the activities of the Business Civic Leadership Center. Prior to joining the chamber staff in July 2005, Mr. Rothkopf served for twelve years as president of Lafayette College. He served as a member of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education established by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. He also served as deputy secretary of transportation in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. Mr. Rothkopf is a trustee of American University and president of the Pennsylvania Society. He is past board chair of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania.

Stephen F. Smith is a professor of law and the John V. Ray Research Professor at the University of Virginia (UVA) and sits on the board of trustees at Dartmouth College. His teaching and scholarship focus on criminal law (federal and state), criminal procedure, and appellate courts. His articles have appeared in a variety of major law reviews, including the Virginia Law Review and the Texas Law Review. Prior to joining the law faculty at UVA in 2000, Mr. Smith served for five years in the U.S. Supreme Court as a clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas and worked in the private practice of Sidley & Austin in Washington, D.C. Mr. Smith has also been an adjunct professor of law at George Mason University and serves on the boards of several charities, including the Charlottesville-area United Way, the Blue Ridge Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the YMCA.

Jane B. Tatibouet is the president of Hawaii Hotel Consultants, LLC, and was appointed as a trustee of the University of Hawaii in 2003. As trustee, Ms. Tatibouet chaired the finance and facilities committees. Previously, as a regular lecturer at the University of Hawaii College of Business, she founded an alumni organization, and, as institute coordinator of the East-West Center, she trained Asian hotel managers. Ms. Tatibouet was elected a trustee of Cornell University in 1992 and served on the university council, the President’s Council of Cornell Women, and the governing council of the College of Human Ecology. She also served as president of the Hawaii Cornell Society of Hotelmen. In 1990, Ms. Tatibouet was elected to the Hawaii House of Representatives, where she served on the Higher Education Committee, and was Hawaii public sector cochair of the American Legislative Exchange Council.

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