OUR BOARD (USA)
DR. ASKIA DAVIS
Co-Founder & Interim Treasurer
Dr. Askia Davis is a graduate of Columbia University with a Doctor of Education degree focusing on Leadership and Organization Development. He is a longstanding social entrepreneur renowned for having founded in 1985 the Center for Educational Leadership (CEL). CEL was New York City’s first large scale and most transformational non-profit institution dedicated to educational innovation.
Askia would later become Senior Assistant to three consecutive Chancellors of the New York City Public Schools, where he was responsible for leading the conceptualization and implementation of their primary educational initiatives. Three key elements of educational innovation he conceived were later adapted in 2001 into the foundation of national law for improving schools throughout the USA.
Dr. Davis designed and led the development and implementation of the first-ever Comprehensive Strategic Plan of the New York City Public Schools in 1995. That Strategic Plan was designed to more effectively align the activities of a staff of more than 100,000 professionals, and the annual budget of US $12 billion, to the goals and objectives of the organization. That success was followed by exceptional service as the Superintendent of schools in Harlem and as Regional Deputy Superintendent supervising 120 schools with a population of 99,000 students in the Bronx section of New York City.
Since 2011 Dr. Davis has been collaborating with Litesol Consultancy Ltd of Nigeria in presenting executive leadership courses for a number of Nigerian institutions including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, the Department of Petroleum Resources, and the National Petroleum Investment Management Services.
In 2017 as he led one of those leadership courses in Accra, Ghana, after visiting the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, he decided to shift his focus and passion to becoming an executive volunteer on a mission of promoting the enhancement of social development enterprises and institutions in Nigeria. Since then, as an African American with family and ancestral roots in Nigeria, he has spent many months in Lagos planning and meeting with leading Nigerians who share the vision of advancing Nigeria as a Giant of Social Development in Africa and globally.
Dr. Davis is an accomplished researcher and program/organization developer with his scholarly work reflected in numerous publications. His memoir which was co-authored by his teenage son, Coming of Age in the Hip Hop Generation: Warrior of the Void, has been highly acclaimed by educational leaders and studied in classes at numerous schools and universities.
DR. YVETTE JACKSON
Interim President
Dr. Yvette Jackson holds a Doctor of Education degree in Education Administration from Columbia University and is internationally recognized for her work in assessing the learning potential of disenfranchised urban students. Changing this reality for these students to one in which their intellectual potential is believed in, valued, and optimized has been Yvette’s calling for her entire career. She has applied her research in neuroscience, gifted education, literacy, and the Cognitive Mediation Theory of Dr. Reuven Feuerstein to develop integrated processes that engage and elicit High Intellectual Performance from underachievers.
Dr. Jackson designed the New York City Public School’s Gifted Programs Framework while serving as Director of Gifted Programs. As New York City’s Executive Director of Instruction and Professional Development, she led the creation and implementation of the Comprehensive Education Plan, which maximizes the delivery of all core curriculum and support services in the New York City Public Schools.
Yvette is an adjunct professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Senior Scholar of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education, founded at the College Board and Teachers College, Columbia University. She has served as the Visiting Scholar for both the Panasonic Foundation and the Brazilian Department of Education. She has also been a visiting lecturer at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, Columbia University, and Stanford University, and has served as a member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development’s Differentiated Instruction Cadre. She is a keynote presenter at national and international conferences including the Feuerstein Institute, Israel, Portugal Department of Education and Thinking Schools International, United Kingdom. She is a past member and featured presenter of the National Association of Black School Educators.
Yvette has been published in numerous educational journals. Her most recent books Aim High, Achieve More: How to Transform Urban Schools Through Fearless Leadership; and Identifying Student Potential (ASCD) follow her previous national bestseller: The Pedagogy of Confidence: Inspiring High Intellectual Performance in Urban Schools, published by Teachers College Press. For The Pedagogy of Confidence she received the 2012 ForeWord Reviews’ Silver Book Award.
On September 15, 2012, the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences Educators Voice Awards honored Dr. Jackson for “Education Policy/Researcher of the Year.”
DR. ERIC COOPER
Interim Secretary
Dr. Eric Cooper graduated from Columbia University with a Doctor of Education degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. He is the Founder and President of the National Urban Alliance for Effective Education (NUA). He served in a similar position as Executive Director for the NUA at Columbia University’s Teachers College and as Adjunct Associate Professor for seven years. Dr. Cooper is widely regarded among educational and civic leaders across America as one of the most eloquent and passionate spokespersons for conceptualizing and establishing transformative educational experiences for urban youth. For nearly three decades NUA has been a trailblazer in enabling large urban districts to develop educational models that more effectively engage students in the teaching- learning relationship and that have led to significantly higher levels of student achievement and High Intellectual Performance.
Early in Eric’s career he was the recipient of the MacArthur Foundation’s “genius” award which granted to him the financial resources to produce a television series of prime-time documentaries and training programs reflecting his vanguard ideas and research on improving the literacy skills of students. He has served as Vice President for In-service Training & Telecommunications for Simon & Schuster, one of the top book publishers in the USA; and as Associate Director of Program Development for the College Board, one of the most influential developers of standardized tests and curricula in the USA. He has been a teacher; a counselor; an educational administrator; and a distinguished presenter at the prestigious Aspen Institute’s Ideas Festival.
As a member of the Select Committee on Educating Black Children Eric has been a passionate advocate for shaping policies that nurture the High Intellectual Potential of African American children. His passionate advocacy began in his own early educational experiences when his intellectual potential as an African American male was not fully recognized and nurtured.
His widely disseminated publications include: “From ‘Just a Teacher’ to Justice in Teaching—Working in the Service of Education, the New Civil Right;” “Realities & Responsibilities in the Education Village;” “Teaching All the Children: Strategies for Developing Literacy in an Urban Setting;” “Educating Black Children: America’s Challenge;” “It Begins with Belief: Social Demography is Not Destiny;” and “Managing the Change Process for Teaching Thinking.”