Plenary Address 2009

Tony Wagner
Author, The Global Achievement Gap
Charles W. Eliot Award Recipient 2009

Tony Wagner, Co-Director of Harvard’s Change Leadership Group since its inception in 2000 and prolific author on education and society, including The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need—And What We Can Do About It, will deliver the keynote address. Wagner consults widely to public and independent schools, as well as national and international foundations. He has served as Senior Advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the past eight years; writes for Education Week; and has appeared on The Today Show, National Public Radio, and the McNeil/Lehrer News Hour. Dr. Wagner has been a leader in the field of school improvement for over 35 years serving both as a high school teacher and a principal. He earned his Master of Arts in Teaching and Doctorate in Education at Harvard.

Wagner’s other publications include numerous articles and three books: Change Leadership: A Practical Guide to Transforming Our Schools; Making the Grade: Reinventing America's Schools; and How Schools Change: Lessons from Three Communities Revisited.