Gaston Caperton is a former two-term governor of West Virginia and a lifelong advocate for excellence in education. He has served as president of the College Board since 1999 and will step down in June 2012. Over the past decade, Caperton has transformed the College Board from an assessment company into a mission-driven, values-based organization and a leading voice in the national dialogue on education. His work on behalf of students, teachers andschools has been recognized with numerous awards, including 10 honorary doctoral degrees.Richard Whitmire, a veteran newspaper reporter and former editorial writer at
USA Today, is the author of
The Bee Eater: Michelle Rhee Takes on the Nation’s Worst School District (Jossey-Bass, 2011). He is also the author of
Why Boys Fail: Saving Our Sons from an Educational System That’s Leaving Them Behind (Amacom, 2010). Whitmire’s commentaries appear frequently in publications including
The Washington Post,
The Wall Street Journal and
USA Today. Whitmire is a former president of the National Education Writers Association. In 2009, he was the Project Journalist for the Broad Prize for Urban Education.