Chancellor, NC State University

Dr. Randy Woodson, the 14th chancellor of North Carolina State University, is a nationally recognized scholar and academic leader who oversees the largest university in North Carolina. Under his leadership, NC State has enhanced its reputation as a pre-eminent research institution and has undergone many transformative changes, including the opening of the James B. Hunt Jr. Library on Centennial Campus, and the launch of the College of Sciences. Chancellor Woodson has extensive experience as a member of university faculty and administration, and he has gained a reputation for building consensus throughout his 30-year career in higher education. Leading by example to tackle the world’s grand challenges, Chancellor Woodson also chairs the APLU Commission of Global Food Security and serves on the U.S. Council of Competitiveness Executive Committee.

National Teacher of the Year

Rodney Robinson is the 2019 National Teacher of the Year. A 19-year teaching veteran, Robinson became a teacher to honor his mother, who struggled to receive an education after being denied an education as a child due to segregation and poverty in rural Virginia. In 2015, Robinson started teaching at Virgie Binford Education Center, a school inside the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center, in an effort to better understand the school-to-prison pipeline. Robinson uses the whole child approach to education to help the students who are most vulnerable. His classroom is a collaborative partnership between himself and his students and is anchored in him providing a civic-centered education that promotes social-emotional growth. Robinson uses the knowledge he has gained from his students to develop alternative programs to prevent students from entering the school-to-prison pipeline.

Co-Founder and Executive Director, we are

Ronda Taylor Bullock is originally from Goldston, NC. In 2018, she earned her doctorate at UNC-Chapel Hill in the Policy, Leadership, and School Improvement Program. Her research interests are critical race theory, whiteness studies, white children’s racial identity construction, and anti-racism. Prior to entering her doctoral program, Dr. Bullock taught English for almost 10 years at Hillside High School in Durham, NC, where she now resides. Dr. Bullock is the co-founder and executive director of we are, a non-profit that stands for “working to extend anti-racist education” and runs trainings for teachers, parents, and children.

Director, Call Me Mister

Dr. Roy Jones serves as the Executive Director for the Call Me MISTER Program, Director of the South

Carolina Center of Excellence for the Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Educators and Provost Distinguished Professor in the Department of Educational & Organizational Leadership Development in the College of Education at Clemson University. Dr. Jones has been cited nationally as a thought leader on the education and mentoring of African American boys and leads the most recognized collaboration in the nation for recruiting, retaining, developing leadership and producing fully certified, African American male elementary and middle school level teachers. The collaborative currently represents 25 colleges and universities in South Carolina and 10 institutions in nine other states. The Mission of Call Me MISTER (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role-Models) is to increase the pool of available teachers from a broader, more diverse background, particularly among the nation’s lowest performing elementary schools. The purpose of the South Carolina Center of Excellence for the Recruitment and Retention of Diverse Educators (CRe2DE) is to research, design, and implement the best strategies for minority Teacher recruitment and retention, at the preservice and in-service levels, in the State.

Director, Educator Recruitment and Support, NC Department of Public Instruction

Dr. Tom Tomberlin began his career in education as a Latin and Greek instructor at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. He then moved to North Carolina where he taught high school Latin in Guilford County Schools. Tom left the classroom to pursue a doctorate in Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where he focused on issues of teacher quality and instructional improvement, integrating technology into instruction and program evaluation. Dr. Tomberlin has worked for HGSE as a statistical support specialist, and a strategic data fellow in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS). Dr. Tomberlin now works for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction as the Director of Educator Recruitment and Support. He collaborates with state, district, and local leaders on developing measures of educator effectiveness and opportunities for professional growth and development.

Founder, Village of Wisdom

Dr. William P. Jackson is the founder of Village of Wisdom (VOW), an organization dedicated to supporting Black parent leaders with increasing the amount of cultural affirmation Black children experience by forming learning communities where they examine proven strategies and surface collective knowledge. As the organization’s Chief Dreamer, Dr. Jackson leads endeavors related to fundraising, attracting new consulting contracts, and imagining new ways VOW can achieve its ultimate vision of Black parents making American schools equitable learning spaces. Dr. Jackson is a former science teacher in Atlanta public schools and received his doctorate in Educational Psychology, Measurement, and Evaluation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

NC House of Representatives, House District 31

Zack Hawkins represents the 31st district of the North Carolina General Assembly and was elected to the House in 2018. He currently serves as Director of Development, Student Affairs, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Rep. Hawkins received a B.S. in Biology from Elizabeth City State University and a M.S. in Biology from North Carolina Central University. He has served as a teacher in Durham Public Schools and works every day to help remove financial barriers for those that need it most. As a development and advancement professional in nonprofits such as United Way and higher education institutions like East Carolina University, Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill, few causes are closer to his heart.

Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, Durham Public Schools

Arasi Adkins is the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources for Durham Public Schools. Previously, Adkins served as assistant vice chancellor for human resources at North Carolina A&T State University. The vast majority of her HR career has been in K-12 public education, including most recently as senior executive director for human resources at Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools from 2011 to 2016, where she created a support group for teachers and administrators of color. She chaired the HR Council of the Central Carolina Regional Educational Service Agency from 2014 to 2016 and sat on the State Superintendent’s Ethics Advisory Committee in 2015 and 2016. Adkins is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a Master of Arts in teaching.

Fifth-Grade Teacher, Lake Myra Elementary School, Wake County Public School System

Mireya Ruiz is a fifth-grade teacher at Lake Myra Elementary School in Wake County. Ruiz is also a member of the Governor’s Teacher Advisory Committee. She previously taught second and fifth-grade dual immersion at Siler City Elementary in Chatham County.

Assistant Executive Secretary-Treasurer, General Baptist State Convention of North Carolina

Quan K.R. Stewart is the Assistant Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the General Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. In this role, Rev. Stewart is second in command at the Baptist Headquarters and assists in the day-to-day operation of the Convention. A native of Bennettsville, South Carolina, Rev. Stewart served for nine years at Saint John Missionary Baptist Church in Bolivia, North Carolina. In addition to his duties as pastor and vice moderator, Rev. Stewart was previously a high school history teacher with Brunswick County Schools. In 2015, the Wilmington Star News named him one of their “Twelve to Watch.” In making the designation, the newspaper said that he was driven “to teach, to rehabilitate, to minister, to support and to lead.”

School Board Chair, Asheville City Schools

Shaunda Sandford is the chair of the Asheville City School Board and has been a member since 2015. She also serves as the Family Self-Sufficiency and Homeownership Programs coordinator for the Asheville Housing Authority, linking people to services and opportunities, like career training, financial planning and personal development, to increase their earned income while reducing the amount of federal assistance they need. Sandford is a parent of Asheville City School students and an Asheville High graduate. She has also worked as a school social worker, assistant basketball coach, teacher assistant and bus driver for the city system.