CITIZEN JOURNALISM: Duncan builds his dream team

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, former chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools, has assembled a diverse team of Chicago and Washington insiders and foundation and think-tank officials to carry out President Obama’s education- reform plans.

The appointees, their former positions and their new ones, include:

• Russlynn Ali: former vice president of the Education Trust to assistant secretary for civil rights;

• Peter Cunningham: former Chicago-based communications consultant to assistant secretary for communications and outreach;

• Gabriella Gomez: former senior education adviser to the chairman of the House education panel to assistant secretary for legislation and congressional affairs;

• Peter C. Groff: former Colorado state Senate president to director of the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives Center;

• Kevin Jennings: founder and former executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network to assistant deputy secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools;

• Martha Kanter: former chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District in California to undersecretary of education;

• Carmel Martin: former chief education adviser to the chairman of the Senate education panel to assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development;

• Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana: superintendent of schools in Pomona, Calif., to assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education;

• Tony Miller: former director of private investment firm SIlver Lake to deputy secretary of education;

• Margot Rogers: former special assistant to the education director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to chief of staff;

• Robert Shireman: founder of the Institute for College Access & Success and the Project on Student Debt to deputy undersecretary of education;

• Marshall S. “Mike” Smith: former education program director and senior adviser at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in Menlo Park, Calif., and a former undersecretary and acting deputy secretary of education in the Clinton administration to senior adviser to Mr. Duncan;

• Ann Whalen: former special assistant to Mr. Duncan in Chicago to special assistant;

• Judy Wurtzel: former co-director of the Aspen Institute Program on Education and Society to deputy assistant secretary for planning, evaluation and policy development.

Source: U.S. Department of Education