National Advisory Committee

National Advisory Committee meeting with university and school officials from the demonstration sites, November 2000. (Clockwise from left: Theodore R. Sizer, Ilene Mack, Ted Estess, Michael Clark, Richard C. Levin, Sabatino Sofia, Robert Schwartz, Linda Kaminski, Charles Warner, Reginald Mayo, Verdell M. Roberts, Barbara Lazarus, Olivia Dixon, Gordon M. Ambach, Rogers M. Smith, Director James R. Vivian, Richard Ekman, and Sam Lasseter.)

From 1985 through 2005 a National Advisory Committee, composed of Americans distinguished in the fields of education, private philanthropy, and public policy, assisted the Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute with the dissemination, evaluation, and development of its programs. The Committee provided a variety of perspectives that aided in examining what each constituency for Teachers Institutes would regard as the best evidence of their effectiveness. Subsequently many of the members continued to advise and assist the Institute individually.

As the Teachers Institute played a leading role in the national movement for university-school partnerships, the National Advisory Committee assisted in determining how it might make the most effective contribution to institutions and schools in other communities. The Committee provided seminal advice on the permanent endowment of the Institute, on the results of the National Demonstration Project, and on the goals for the Yale National Initiative to strengthen teaching in public schools. Members were invited to serve, from time to time, by the President of Yale University. All individuals who served on the Committee, and positions they held during their service, are listed below.

List of All Members

  • Gordon M. Ambach, Executive Director, Council of Chief State School Officers
  • Alberta Arthurs, Director for Arts and Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation
  • Carla Asher, Program Officer, DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund
  • Leon Botstein, President, Bard College
  • Ernest L. Boyer, President, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; Former U.S. Commissioner of Education
  • William L. Bradley, President, Edward W. Hazen Foundation
  • Donna V. Dunlop, Program Director, DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund
  • Richard Ekman, President of the Council of Independent Colleges; Former Vice President for Programs, Atlantic Philanthropic Service Company; Former Director, Division of Education Programs, National Endowment for the Humanities
  • Mary Lee Fitzgerald, Program Director, DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund
  • Norman C. Francis, President, Xavier University of Louisiana
  • Thomas Furtado, Corporate Ombudsman, United Technologies
  • Fred M. Hechinger, Senior Advisor, Carnegie Corporation of New York; Former Education Editor of The New York Times
  • I. Michael Heyman, Former Secretary of The Smithsonian Institution; Chancellor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley
  • Bonnie B. Himmelman, President, Sherman Fairchild Foundation
  • Claire List, Vice President, Esther and Joseph Klingenstein Fund
  • Owen M. Lopez, Executive Director, McCune Charitable Foundation
  • Ilene Mack, Senior Program Officer, The William Randolph Hearst Foundations
  • Edward J. Meade, Chief Program Officer, Division of Education and Research, Ford Foundation
  • Fred A. Nelson, Program Officer for Youth, David and Lucile Packard Foundation
  • Jane Quinn, Program Director, DeWitt Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund
  • Robert B. Schwartz, Professor of Practice, Emeritus, and Director of Administration, Planning and Social Policy Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Former Director of Achieve, Inc.; Former Program Director for Education, The Pew Charitable Trusts
  • Theodore R. Sizer, Chair Emeritus, Coalition of Essential Schools, Brown University
  • Donald M. Stewart, President and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust; Former President of The College Board
  • David L. Warren, President, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
  • Glegg L. Watson, Vice President of Public and Urban Affairs, Xerox Corporation