Advisory Circle

Advisory Circle Members

• Maisha Moses

  Co-Chair of Advisory Circle, Mathematics Educator and Executive Director of the Young People’s Project; born in Tanzania and grew up in Cambridge, MA. Maisha used her extensive experience in site development, teacher training and trainer training, gained from her time with the Algebra Project, to help the Young People’s Project (YPP) develop its near-peer math literacy training programs and is now shepherding a credentialing program for high school math literacy workers. Former Director of YPP’s Professional Development; background in Psychology and Mathematics. PI for numerous NSF grants, local grants, and a Gates grant. Co-creator of YPP curriculum and pedagogy. Coordinated YPP’s work in 10 U.S. cities and in Ireland. Over the past 25 years, YPP has worked with over 12,000 elementary and middle school students and 4,000 high school and college students.

• Dr. Michael Nettles

  Co-Chair of Advisory Circle, Senior Vice President of Policy Evaluation & Research at the Education Testing Service (ETS), serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) and has also served on the National Assessment Governing Board, on the College Board of Trustees and as professor and in senior leadership roles at the University of Tennessee and University of Michigan. As the founding Executive Director of the Fredrick D. Patterson Research Institute of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) he published the African American Education Data Book series and Two Decades of Progress, seminal reference books on the African American educational experience.

• Dr. Joan T. Wynne

  Co-Founder of the Bob Moses Research Center, and FIU retired professor, has operated, with Exec. Dir. Dr. Lisa Delpit, two university Centers, at Georgia State University & FIU; Professor & Director of the Benjamin E. Mays Teacher/ Scholar Program at Morehouse College; Received Urban Affairs Association (UAA) SAGE Activist/Scholar Award and the GSU-MLK, Jr. award for her “dismantling racism” work; Has researched & published books, book chapters & journal articles about urban education, transformative leadership, and dismantling injustice in public schools.

• David Lawrence, Jr.

  Co-Founder of Bob Moses Research Center at FIU; Chair of the Board of the Children’s Movement of Florida, is the former publisher of the Miami Herald and Detroit Free Press; and has a lifetime of philanthropic activism for positively impacting early childhood development for all youth. He has received numerous awards for his accomplishments as a journalist, early childhood advocate, promoter of culture, and significant contributions to greater Miami and the State of Florida. Trustee for Barry University and former Trustee for Florida A&M University; holds 13 honorary doctorates.

• Dr. Kamau Bobb

  Founding Senior Director of the Constellations Center for Equity in Computing at Georgia Tech; Former Program Officer at the National Science Foundation (NSF); Worked with the Office and Science and Technology Policy in the Obama Administration to set the national strategy for STEM education at both post-secondary and secondary school levels; Member of President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper STEM + Entrepreneurship Taskforce; Director of the STEM Initiative for the University System of Georgia; Advisor to numerous leading tech sector companies, universities, and k-12 schools; Writing on STEM education and culture has been featured in The Atlantic, Black Enterprise, The Root, Edutopia and on the Obama White House Blog.

• Dr. Frank Davis

  Former President & Senior Researcher at TERC, a non-profit founded to improve the teaching and learning of math and science; Principal Consultant for research and assistance in STEM; Former Professor & Director of PhD Program in Educational Studies & Senior Research Associate at Lesley University. Researcher for Algebra Project. A long list of NSF and other grant awards.

• Dr. Lisa Delpit

  MacArthur Fellow; Former Endowed Chair at Southern University; Eminent Scholar at Florida International University; Benjamin E. Mays Endowed Chair at Georgia State University; Executive Director of two Urban Education Centers at FIU & GSU; National Award winning writer of Other People’s Children; Teaching When the World is on Fire; Multiplication is for White People; Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children; The Skin that We Speak; The Real Ebonics Debate; Multiple National Awards as Educational Leader, including Harvard University’s 100th Centennial “Visionary and Reformer” Award, “for shedding light on what education owes to other people’s children, Lisa fought stereotype, created new standards of inclusion, and gave rise to new pedagogy the impact of which continues.”

• Danny Glover

  Actor & Activist; Winner of Oscar’s Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award 2022; Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award (UN) 2013; NAACP Image Awards in 2014; Black Entertainment Television (BET) Humanitarian Award 2004; Received the NAACP President’s Award in 2018; NAACP Chairman Award in 2003. Co-founded Louverture Films in New York City; Former Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program, focusing on issues of poverty, disease and economic development in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean; Currently serves as UNICEF Ambassador; Serves on Algebra Project, Inc. Board of Directors (20 years).

• Daniel Gohl

  Former Chief Academic Officer for Broward County Public Schools; has thirty years of experience in education from teacher to principal to chief academic officer. He has implemented numerous research and innovation efforts while serving in district level leadership in Texas, New Jersey, Washington (DC), and Florida. He has successfully collaborated with institutions of higher education, philanthropic organizations, and private sector partners to produce sustained partnerships with educators and students that benefit local communities.

• Dr. Divina Grossman

  Former President of the University of Saint Augustine in CA; Former Chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and a tenured Professor in the College of Nursing. Previously, Dr. Grossman was the Founding Vice President for Engagement at Florida International University, where she had also served as Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences and Dean of the School of Nursing. She also completed the Harvard University New Presidents Program in 2012.

• Benjamin (Ben) Moynihan, Ed.M.

  Interim Executive Director of The Algebra Project, Inc.; AP Director of Operations for 21 years; Co-Developer of The Algebra Project’s African Drums & Ratio Curriculum (1991- 2000). Facilitated the development of eight NSF awarded research grants, national & local grants, and large donor grants. Facilitates on-going development of the National “We the People-Math Literacy for All” Alliance. Facilitates AP’s national work with Quality Education as a Constitutional Right; AP’s work in local outreach programs; AP’s work with national mathematicians around curriculum development and praxis; AP’s work with Congressional representatives, SNCC Legacy Project; NAACP; MSRI representatives; and Collaborating with a team to develop archives of 40-year history of AP.

• Dr. Charles Payne

  Henry Rutgers Distinguished Professor of African American Studies and Director of the Joseph Cornwall Center for Metropolitan Research. His research and teaching interests include urban education and school reform, social inequality, social change and modern African American history, particularly the Black Freedom Struggle. His many books include So Much Reform, So Little Change and I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement.

• Imani Perry

  Attorney and Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and a faculty associate with the Programs in Law and Public Affairs, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Jazz Studies; the author of 6 books; has received the Pen Bograd-Weld Award for Biography; The Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award for outstanding work in literary scholarship; the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Nonfiction and the Shilts-Grahn Award for nonfiction from the Publishing Triangle; winner of the 2019 American Studies Association John Hope Franklin Book Award for the best book in American Studies; the Hurston Wright Award for Nonfiction, and finalist for an NAACP Image Award in Nonfiction; a finalist for the 2020 Chautauqua Prize; and a finalist for the NAACP Image Award for Excellence in Nonfiction.

• Dr. Theresa Perry

  Professor Emerita at Simmons University; Director of the Simmons University/Beacon Press, Education and Democracy Lecture and Book Series; work & writing focuses on theories of practice for African American achievement and an analysis of educational environments that normalize high achievement for African American students; has consulted with school districts and schools (public & private) on the development of policies and practices that support academic achievement among African American students; member of the advisory committee for the Chicago/Woodlawn Children’s Promise Zone; the Boston Public Schools’ Achievement Gap Initiative; the Boston School Committee’s English Language Learners Task Force; conceptualized and is a coordinator of Boston’s citywide Race, Culture, Identity and Achievement Seminar Series, begun in 2004.

• Dr. Mark B. Rosenberg

  Served as the fifth president of FIU from August 2009 to January 2022. A political scientist specializing in Latin America, he is the first FIU faculty member to ascend to the university’s presidency. From 2005 to 2008, Dr. Rosenberg served as the Founding Chancellor for the Board of Governors of the State University System of Florida, which includes all of Florida’s public universities. As Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs from 1998 to 2005, he spearheaded the establishment of a law school in 2002 and a medical school in 2006. In 1979, he founded the FIU Latin American and Caribbean Center and subsequently served as the Founding Dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs and Vice Provost for International Studies. He has been a Visiting Distinguished Research Professor at The Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, and a Visiting Professor at the Instituto Tecnologico de Monterrey (ITESM) in Mexico. Dr. Rosenberg was an appointee to the National Academy of Science’s (NAS) study commission focusing on Barriers and Opportunities in Completing Twoand Four-Year STEM Degrees; has Co-Chaired the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) STEM Task Force; sat on the board for National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), and served on the Board of Directors of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (USU) where he was Co-Chair of the Student Performance Strand and then served as Chair for the entire Coalition. He served as the Chair of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce (GMCC), and chaired the Academic Leaders Council (ALC) for the Beacon Council, Miami-Dade County’s official economic development organization. Dr. Rosenberg has been active in a variety of other civic organizations, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Miami and United Way.

• Dr. Nkume Sobe Jr

  Founder and CEO of Sobe Innovative Rehabilitation, a multidisciplinary therapy practice tailored to maximizing the functional independence of senior citizens and decreasing overall healthcare spending. Multi-award-winning entrepreneur and venture capitalist; received his Doctorate in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitative Sciences at the University at Buffalo School of Public Health and Health Professions; recognized as a visionary leader of one of the fastest growing businesses owned by a UB alumni from around the world; mentor for UB students, guiding them in their educational and professional development; resides in Miami, Florida where he became a community volunteer with the Algebra Project.

• Isiah Thomas

  Chairman and CEO of Isiah International LLC and founder of the Mary’s Court Foundation, has an extensive history of business success and philanthropic leadership. He has demonstrated the intensity and teamwork skills that characterized his Hall of Fame career in the National Basketball Association to his efforts in the business community, his time in coaching basketball, and his current role as analyst and commentator for NBATV and NBA.com.

• Dr. Uri Treisman

  Distinguished Teaching Professor, professor of mathematics, and professor of public affairs at The University of Texas at Austin; Founder and executive director of the Charles A. Dana Center and organized research unit of the College of Natural Sciences. Founder of the governing board of Transforming Post-Secondary Education in Mathematics; senior advisor to the Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences Research Advisory Group; and member of the Roundtable of Data Science PostSecondary Education within the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.

• Dr. Robin Wilson

  Professor of Mathematics at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; UC Presidents’ Postdoctoral Scholar in Mathematics at UC Santa Barbara; Project NExT Fellow in 2007; Visiting Professor, Georgetown University, 2014; Mentor of historically underrepresented groups in sciences for National Alliance for Doctoral Studies in Mathematical Sciences and the Pacific Math Alliance; Researcher; Editor for Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI) Designer/Convener of the 2021 MSRI Conference on Math and Racial Justice; Board member of the National Association of Mathematicians; Member of the Diversity Committee for the Park City Mathematics Institute; Editorial Board for the College Mathematics Journal since 2014; Mentored by Bob Moses.