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Confirmed Speakers

28 February 2021

AARS - Urgency of Now 'Addressing Inequities in Education'

Speakers

  • Raymond Burse

    Raymond is a Former President of Kentucky State University. He has served as Vice President & General Counsel, GE – Appliances & Lighting, as General Counsel, GE Consumer Products and as General Counsel for GE Appliances. Burse joined GE in 1995 as Senior Counsel – Commercial Law. Before joining GE, Burse was a partner in the law firm of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, Louisville, Kentucky, from July 1989 to August 1995, and President of Kentucky State University from 1982 to 1989. Following his retirement from GE, Burse served as President of Kentucky State university for a second term from July 2014 until May 2016.

  • Robert Fisher

    Robert is a public policy professional committed to serving children, youth, and families in Tennessee. He currently serves as Deputy Chief of Staff to Nashville Mayor John Cooper. In this role, he drives implementation of Mayor Cooper’s policy agenda and strategic initiatives. He also manages the administration’s education portfolio—acting as chief liaison to Metro Nashville Public Schools, local higher education institutions, and other public, private, and nonprofit entities focused on improving outcomes for young people. Just before joining the Mayor's Office, he was a Director for Strategy & Innovation at Shelby County Schools in Memphis, TN, where he advised the Deputy Superintendent for Finance & Operations and managed a portfolio of district-wide change initiatives. Robert earned both an MS in Education and MPP from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and he received his undergraduate degree in Political Science at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

  • Anea Moore

    Anea is currently, working towards a Master of Public Policy and having completed a MSc in Comparative Social Policy, Anea is Co-convenor for the Black Association of Rhodes Scholars, Rhodes Women and Gender Minorities, and is a valued member of the AARS’s Urgency of Now Racial Justice Task Force. Her engagement in education issues first began when she was 15-years-old and helped to organize a 1,500 student walkout in protest of Philadelphia education budget cuts. During her time at the University of Pennsylvania, she founded and helped to create a number of university programs that now serve 1,000+ low-income students each year. Off-campus, she served as an assistant choir teacher and assistant community engagement coordinator at a local school. She has also conducted research for the U.S. Under Secretary of Education, local government offices, non-profits, and research centers. She also serves on the board of Philadelphia Youth Volunteer Corps.

  • Rachel Pfeifer

    Rachel is the executive director for the Office of College and Career Readiness at Baltimore City Public Schools. She returned to Baltimore in 2017 after having spent 5 years as president of Collegiate Directions, Inc. (CDI), a community-based organization that supports first-generation students from low-income families from tenth grade through college graduation. At CDI, Rachel oversaw the expansion of the program to provide coaching and consulting to help schools strengthen their college advising. Prior to her work at CDI, Rachel was the special assistant to Dr. Sonja Santelises (now CEO, then chief academic officer for Baltimore City Public Schools) and started her career as a 4th grade teacher. Rachel holds degrees from the University of Oxford, where she researched school choice among African Caribbean families, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she proudly serves as a trustee for the Morehead-Cain Foundation. Rachel lives in Maryland with her husband and daughter.

  • Dacia Toll (Maryland/DC & Mansfield 1994)

    Dacia is the co-founder and CEO of Achievement First, a non-profit charter management organization which operates 37 public charter schools in Connecticut, New York, and Rhode Island. Prior to co-founding Achievement First in 2003, Dacia led the founding team of Amistad Academy in New Haven, CT., and served as the school's first Principal from 1999 to 2005. Dacia is a participant in the Aspen Urban Superintendents Network and a graduate of The Broad Superintendents Academy. Dacia serves on the board of directors for 50CAN, Relay Graduate School of Education, and Together Education. After graduating from the University of North Carolina, where she was a Morehead Scholar, Dacia received a master's degree from Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. She received her teaching certificate and J.D. from Yale University shortly before founding Amistad Academy.

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