DR. JEFFERY M. JOHNSON, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP FOR COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP (NPCL), WASHINGTON, DC
Dr. Jeffery M. Johnson is President and CEO of the National Partnership for Community Leadership (NPCL). As a national nonprofit intermediary organization, the mission of NPCL is to strengthen the service capacity of nonprofit and community-based agencies to empower men, youth and families.
Dr. Johnson was also the visionary and national planning committee chair for the 100 year anniversary of Father’s Day Rally held at the Lincoln Memorial on June 19, 2009 with the involvement and support of President Barack Obama.
Dr. Johnson is a nationally recognized authority in the areas of leadership, employment and training, urban poverty and youth employment. A particular focus of Dr. Johnson’s work has been on the plight of African-American men and families. He is regularly invited to testify before the United States Congress on matters pertaining to fathers and strengthening families. He played a principal role in passage of the first national fatherhood legislation in Congress, The Fathers Count Bill. Dr. Johnson is also the author of several publications including Fatherhood Development: A Curriculum for Young Fathers.
Dr. Johnson has been quoted in many of the country’s leading newspapers including The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, and The Afro-American newspapers. Dr. Johnson has also appeared on The Tavis Smiley Show, The Michael Baisden Show, The Steve Harvey Show, CNN, C-Span, and Fox Morning News.
PAUL FERGUSON, FORMER ARLINGTON COUNTY BOARD MEMBER, ARLINGTON, VA (CONFIRMED)
Paul Ferguson was elected to serve as Clerk of the Circuit Court of Arlington County and the City of Falls Church beginning January 1, 2008.
He is a 1992 graduate of George Mason Law School. In 2006, Mr. Ferguson was awarded the President’s Award by the Arlington County Bar Association for Outstanding effort, participation, and involvement in the Association.
As Clerk of the Circuit Court, Mr. Ferguson is striving to continue the high level of service that his predecessor, David Bell provided. New initiatives have focused on technology improvements and to the juror process.
Mr. Ferguson served as a Member of the Arlington County Board from 1996-2007, serving as Chairman in 1999, 2003 and 2007. During his 12 years on the Board, Ferguson worked to ensure full funding for education and public safety. In addition, he worked to improve pedestrian safety and neighborhood conservation. Mr. Ferguson is known as a leader on environmental issues.
He is continuing to provide leadership on issues he worked on as a County Board Member. In 2008 he served on the Governor’s Commission on Climate Change. He is the Board Chairman for EarthCraft Virginia, a non-profit organization providing consulting and certification for energy efficient homes. He recently served as Arlington’s representative on the Washington Metropolitan Council of Government’s Task Force on Climate Change. He was appointed by the Arlington County Board to serve on the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority Board of Directors.
Mr. Ferguson is the former Chairman of the National Association of Counties' (NACo) Green Government Committee and is a member of NACo’s Environment, Energy and Land Use Steering Committee.
He served as Chairman of the Virginia Municipal League Environmental Committee and represented Arlington on the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Air Quality Committee. In 2000, he served as Chairman of Clean Air Partners.
Mr. Ferguson has served as First Vice President of the Virginia Association of Counties. He is a former civic association president, a past member of the Virginia Board of Dentistry and former Chairman of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission.
DAVID HANSELL, ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY, ADMINISTRATION FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES, WASHINGTON, DC (CONFIRMED)
David Hansell is the Acting Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, within the Department of Health and Human Services.
Mr. Hansell most recently served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary at ACF from June 2009 to July 2010. From 2007-2009 he served as Commissioner of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA), the state agency charged with oversight of support programs and economic assistance for low-income New Yorkers. From 2002-2006, Mr. Hansell served as Chief of Staff of the New York City Human Resources Administration (HRA). From 1997-2001, he was the Associate Commissioner for HIV Services at the New York City Department of Health, and subsequently served as Associate Commissioner for Planning and Program Implementation.
Prior to his government experience, Mr. Hansell served in a range of positions at Gay Men’s Health Crisis, including Director of Legal Services and Deputy Director for Government and Public Affairs. From 2000-2006, he was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the New York University Wagner School of Public Service. He has also been a consultant on health policy and social services issues to a wide range of governmental and non-profit organizations.
Mr. Hansell is a graduate of Haverford College and Yale Law School. Among other honors, he is a recipient of an Outstanding Public Service Award from the New York County Lawyers’ Association, and a State Leadership Award from the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.
RON HASKINS, SENIOR FELLOW, CO-DIRECTOR, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION, WASHINGTON, DC (Confirmed)
Ron Haskins, Ph.D., is a senior fellow in the Economic Studies Program and co-director of the Center on Children and Families at the Brookings Institution and senior consultant at the Annie E. Casey Foundation in Baltimore, MD. Dr. Ron Haskins holds a bachelor’s degree in history, a master’s in education, and a doctorate in developmental psychology, from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C..
Haskins has served as the Senior Advisor to the President for Welfare Policy at the White House, Majority Staff Director for the Subcommittee on Human Resources, Committee on Ways and Means in the U.S. House of Representatives and Welfare Counsel for the Republican Staff of the Subcommittee on Human Resources, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives.
He has been a research professor at the UNC, Chapel Hill, a lecturer in history and education at the UNC, Charlotte, N.C., and a high school social studies teacher. Haskins has published books and articles on a number of education-related topics, including intellectual development, day-care policy, federal expenditures on social programs and federal budget and tax policy, including Creating an Opportunity Society, a book that he co-authored with Isabel Sawhill. Haskins is a senior editor of The Future of Children, a journal on policy issues that affect children and families. His areas of expertise include welfare reform, child care, child support enforcement, family composition and marriage, and child protection.
DR. RONALD MINCY, MAURICE V. RUSSELL PROFESSOR, SOCIAL POLICY AND SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK, NY
Dr. Ronald Mincy teaches Introduction to Social Welfare Policy; Program Evaluation; Economics for Policy Analysis; and Advanced Methods in Policy Analysis, and directs theCenter for Research on Fathers, Children and Family Well-Being.
Dr. Mincy is also a co-principal investigator of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, and a faculty member of the Columbia Population Research Center (CPRC).
He came to the University, in 2001, from the Ford Foundation where he served as a senior program officer and worked on such issues as improving U.S. social welfare policies for low-income fathers, especially child support, and workforce development policies; he also served on the Clinton Administration's Welfare Reform Task Force.
He is an advisory board member for the National Poverty Center, University of Michigan; Technical Work Group for the Office of Policy Research and Evaluation (OPRE); Transition to Fatherhood, Cornell University; the National Fatherhood Leaders Group; the Longitudinal Evaluation of the Harlem Children's Zone; and The Economic Mobility Project, Pew Charitable Trusts.
Dr. Mincy is also a former member of the Council, National Institute of Child and Human Development and the Policy Council, Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, co-chair of the Grantmakers Income Security Taskforce, and a board member of the Grantmakers for Children, Youth, and Families.
RITA DeMARIA, Ph.D., DIRECTOR OF RELATIONSHIPS EDUCATION, COUNCIL FOR RELATIONSHIPS, PHILADELPHIA, PA (CONFIRMED)
Rita DeMaria, Ph.D., served as Project Director of the Philadelphia Healthy Marriage Project (2007 – 2010) funded by HHS, ACF, Office of Community Services. During this project she worked closely with the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office of Community Service’s Fatherhood Initiative Program. She conducted an evaluation of the Fatherhood Initiative and developed the Healthy Relationships, Healthy Children, ‘Reversing the Ripple Effect’ curriculum which has both responsible fatherhood and couples editions.
She is with Council for Relationships (CFR) in Philadelphia, a non-profit organization providing training, research, clinical services, and public education to help people strengthen their relationships. There she serves as the Director of Relationship Education Programs and the Center for Advancement of Relationship Education (CARE), and has an active clinical practice as a senior staff therapist. She is also on the faculty member for the Post Graduate Program in Couple and Family Therapy at CFR.
Dr. DeMaria is comprehensively involved in social service policy and program development for strengthening families through relationship education programming. Her career began with a Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention project grant in 1977
Dr. DeMaria has a Ph.D. in Social Work and Social Research from Bryn Mawr College. Dr. DeMaria is a member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and an Approved Supervisor and licensed to practice in Pennsylvania.
DIEDRA HENRY-SPIRES, SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE, PROFESSIONAL STAFF MEMBER FOR CHAIRMAN MAX BAUCUS, WASHINGTON, DC (CONFIRMED)
Ms. Henry-Spires is the Professional Staff Member for Human Services and Income Security for Max Baucus Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance.
Her portfolio includes TANF and related programs, Child Support Enforcement, Child Welfare, Maternal and Child Health, Social Services, Unemployment Insurance, and Women’s Issues.
Ms. Henry-Spires began her tenure at the Finance Committee in 2006 as a Brookings Institute LEGIS Fellow. Prior to coming to the Finance Committee she served for ten years at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In her last position at the Department she served as the principal Public Health Advisor on Violence Against Women for the Office on Women’s Health and as such developed national policies in Violence Against Women, HIV/AIDS and Young Women’s Health. She also developed and administered contracts and grants to address policy objectives related to women’s issues. She received her degree in Health Policy and Administration from the Pennsylvania State University.
DALTON SHERMAN, STUDENT, DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, DALLAS, TX (CONFIRMED)
Dalton Ridge Sherman is a twelve year old 7th grade student at the Dallas Environmental Science Academy (DESA) in the Dallas Independent School District. Dalton is on the “A” Honor Roll and aspires to someday be a television anchor.
In February of 2008, Dalton was awarded the Scholarship Award for Extraordinary Achievement by the 21st Century Group, LLC. This was a $500 scholarship awarded to young people who display outstanding promise in the community. On August 19, 2008, Dalton was the keynote speaker at the Dallas ISD Teacher Convocation held in the American Airlines Center. Dalton spoke to over 17,000 teachers and district employees about the importance of educators believing in their students. As a result of his inspiring presentation, Dalton has been featured in the Dallas Morning News, The Dallas Examiner, The Dallas Weekly, The Urban Educator, and the Epitome and JET magazines. Due to the popularity of Dalton’s you - Tube video, he was invited to be a guest on The Ellen Degeneres Show and was selected to be featured on Oprah’s Talented & Gifted Kids Show. He was also featured on The Dallas School Zone, an Emmy award winning program produced by the DISD and its students. On September 18, 2009, Dalton was spotlighted on the NBC, "Today Show". He was interviewed by Jena Bush-Hager in her first appearance as the show's new educational correspondent.
Currently, Dalton is a spokesperson for three non-profit organizations, including: The Success Foundation, which focuses on helping teenagers succeed in goal-planning for life, Angel 34, whose mission is to bring more awareness to childhood cancer and Operation Hope which focuses on eliminating financial illiteracy in the urban community.
DAVE BROWN, DIRECTOR AND PASTOR-AT-LARGE, WASHINGTON AREA COALITION OF MEN'S MINISTRIES, KENSINGTON, MD (CONFIRMED)
Dave Brown is the Director of WACMM and Pastor-at-Large. He received his seminary education from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and was Men's Pastor at McLean Bible Church. He served 30 years in the Federal Government's Senior Executive Service (SES), including eight years as a President Ronald Reagan appointee. He's been a leadership consultant, university administrator, board member of the C. S. Lewis Institute and is a contributor to New Man Magazine.
JOE JONES, PRESIDENT & CEO, CENTER FOR URBAN FAMILIES, BALTIMORE, MD (CONFIRMED)
Joe Jones is founder of The Center for Urban Families. Prior to founding CFUF Joe developed and directed the Men’s Services program for the federally funded Baltimore Healthy Start initiative and replicated the Baltimore affiliate of the nationally recognized STRIVE employment services program. His ability to engage and provide hands-on services to fathers garnered him the reputation of trailblazer in the field.
Joe Jones is now a national leader in workforce development, fatherhood, and family services programming, and through his professional and civic involvement influences policy direction nationwide. Joe has received numerous awards and honors for his leadership and programming, including the Johns Hopkins University Leadership Development Program’s Distinguished Leadership Award. He has also served on President Bill Clinton’s Work Group on Welfare Reform, was an advisor on fatherhood issues to Vice President Al Gore, and contributed to First Lady Laura Bush’s Helping America’s Youth initiative. He is a Weinberg Fellow and serves as a board member of Open Society Institute-Baltimore, the Development Training Institute, and several other professional, governmental, and civic organizations.
.jpg)
