Stephen R. Aiello Chair

Before joining Hill & Knowlton in 2003, Mr. Aiello was Chairman of Cohn & Wolfe. He formerly served as President and CEO. He brings more than 30 years of extensive national, state and local political and government affairs work as well as corporate public relations experience to Hill & Knowlton. Previously, he was executive vice president and director of public affairs for Burson-Marsteller, Worldwide.

Steve served in the White House as special assistant to President Carter on ethnic/urban affairs. He also held the office of president of the New York City Board of Education for three years where his expertise included government education and labor issues. Formerly, he was president of the New York Educational Construction Fund and has taught at the university level and in secondary schools.

Steve has been chairman of the New York City Youth Board, the New York City Urban Coalition and the NYU Creative Arts Team, a member of the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs and the National Dropout Prevention Fund. He is also a director of the National Italian American Foundation, Kappa Delta Pi, a former trustee of the NYS Democratic Committee and chairman of the Community Services Society of New York. Steve served as an advisor and counselor to the National Quincentennary Commission in Washington, D.C., as well as a member of the advisory committee of the arts (JFK Center for the Performing Arts). He has received numerous honors from educational, community, government and business organizations and has been honored by the governments of Italy and Ireland for his work in promoting greater understanding and cooperation between their countries and the United States. Steve holds a doctorate in urban studies from Union Graduate School/Columbia University, an M.A. in history from Columbia University, a B.A. in history from New York University and a Professional Certificate in educational administration from New York University.

Lilliam Barrios-Paoli Co-Chair

Before joining Safe Space as President and CEO in 2004, Ms. Barrios-Paoli was the Senior Vice President and Chief Executive for Agency Services of the United Way of New York City (UWNYC) where she was instrumental in the establishment of the September 11th Fund. Prior to her tenure at United Way, Ms. Barrios-Paoli served as Commissioner of several NYC public agencies in both the Giuliani and Koch administrations, including the Department of Employment, the City Personnel Department, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and the Human Resources Administration. She also served as the Executive Director of Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, a teaching and tertiary medical center serving the South Bronx.

Ms. Barrios-Paoli was recently appointed to the Mayor's Commission for Economic Opportunity. As a member of the anti-poverty task force, she hopes to be influential in restructuring NYC's welfare system in order to reduce the number of working poor.

David R. Jones Co-Chair

David R. Jones has been President and Chief Executive Officer of the Community Service Society of New York since 1986. Prior to joining CSS, Mr. Jones served as Executive Director of the New York City Youth Bureau and, from 1979 to 1983, as Special Advisor to Mayor Koch. Mr. Jones was a member of the transition committee of New York's mayor-elect Michael Bloomberg. He served for five years as Chairman of the Board of Carver Federal Savings Bank, the largest African-American-managed bank in the nation. He is currently Chair of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy. While receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University, Mr. Jones interned for the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy in Washington, D.C. He received a Juris Doctor degree from the Yale Law School, afterwards clerking for Judge Constance Baker Motley of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Prior to his nonprofit and public service careers, he specialized in corporate antitrust cases and contract litigation at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Vivian Cassaberry-Furby Commissioner

Vivian Cassaberry-Furby was born in East New York Brooklyn; attended elementary, junior high and high school in the South Bronx and graduated college in Long Island. She now resides in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn with her husband of 21 years and 16 year old son. Vivian is currently employed at ABN Amro Bank where she is a Director and Compliance Liaison for the Regional Due Diligence Management Group. Her responsibilities are global and she manages a staff of professionals to assist in the day to day operations.

Vivian is involved in many community and civic activities through her membership in Bridge Street AME Church, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and Jack and Jill of America, Inc. for which she currently serves as President of the Brooklyn Chapter. She is also a proud contributor and supporter of the Brooklyn Public Library, New York Cares, Boy Scouts of America and the YWCA.

Clara Hemphill Commissioner

Clara Hemphill is an acclaimed author, editor and social entrepreneur. The New York Times called her three books "the most definitive guides" to New York City public schools. New York magazine named her one of the 200 most influential New Yorkers for her work "empowering parents" as founding editor of the Insideschools.org website. As a reporter and editorial writer for New York Newsday, she shared the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. New York magazine called her writing on the homeless "worthy of Dickens." A foreign correspondent for The Associated Press and a producer for CBS News based in Rome in the 1980s, she covered the war in Lebanon, the attempted assassination of the pope and numerous Mafia murders. She lives in Manhattan with her husband, Robert Snyder, and two children, who attend public school.

Joan McKeever-Thomas Commissioner

Joan McKeever-Thomas has been involved in PTA/parent leadership since 1991 and has been the PTA President in two different schools. She has served as Chair of the High School President Council in District 31. She has also served as President of the Staten Island Federation of PTAs President from 2001-2003. Mckeever-Thomas was a member of the District Leadership Team from D31. McKeever-Thomas served as the Staten Island representative on the Panel for Education Policy from 2002-2004. She has also severed on various commissions including two City Council commissions-one on how to spend the Campaign for Fiscal Equity funds and another on middle improvement. Ms. McKeever-Thomas is currently the United Federation of Teachers Parent Liaison for Staten Island.

Jeany Persaud Commissioner

Jeany Persaud first got involved with volunteering and parent advocacy at Head Start in 1991 and still sits on the Board of Directors of that organization. Persaud was a recent Chair of Chancellor Parent Advisory Council where she served for two terms. Persaud's tireless advocacy has her currently serving as District Leadership Team for District 29 in Queens, the Board of Trustees for Peninsula Preparatory Academy, the D29 President Council Executive Board and is the Co- President of PS 132 and Aviation High School's School Leadership Teams. Persaud is also the current Co-Chair of the PS /IS 270 School Leadership Team. In addition to the many school related positions she holds Persaud is involved in many charitable and community oriented organizations such as the Queens Library Advisory Board (Laurelton), New Americans Democratic Organization of New York, the New York TSUNAMI Relief Fund, and the Ronald Edmonds Education Advisory Committee, which is sponsored by State Senator Malcolm A. Smith.

Bertrand B. Pogrebin Commissioner

Bertrand B. Pogrebin, Esq. advises public and private sector employers throughout the country on labor relations issues such as compliance with the National Labor Relations Act, union negotiations, labor arbitration and long-term workforce strategies including plant moves, consolidations, mergers and acquisitions. In addition to representing many Fortune 500 private sector employers, Mr. Pogrebin served as chief labor negotiator for the NYC Board of Education for fifteen years. He has counted the Village Voice, Inner City Broadcasting, Fashion Institute of Technology, and IBM among his clients.

Mr. Pogrebin sits on the Board of Editors for the New York Law Journal. He has been Adjunct Professor of Law at Hofstra University Law School where he has taught courses on employment discrimination law and on individual rights in the workplace. He has been Adjunct Professor of Labor Law at New York University Law School. He was a visiting lecturer at Yale University Law School and is co-author with Professor Jack Getman, formerly of Yale and now at the University of Texas Law School, of "Labor Relations: The Basic Processes, Law and Practice," a labor law treatise for lawyers and law students that is now in its second edition. Mr. Pogrebin has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America, for more than 10 years.

Mr. Pogrebin received A.B. from Rutgers University and J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Kim Sweet Commissioner

Kim Sweet is the Executive Director of Advocates for Children of New York, Inc., a non-profit organization long regarded as the leading education advocacy organization focusing on at-risk students in the New York City public schools. Ms. Sweet came to AFC from New York Lawyers for the Public Interest (NYLPI), where she most recently served as Associate General Counsel. During her ten successful years at NYLPI, Ms. Sweet spearheaded the office's special education advocacy work, oversaw and ran the special education pro bono project, served as one of NYLPI's senior managers, conducted litigation on disability rights issues, and led a number of policy initiatives. Ms. Sweet also has served as an adjunct professor at the Urban Law Clinic of New York Law School. After graduating law school, Ms. Sweet clerked for the Honorable Robert P. Patterson, Jr., District Court Judge of the Southern District of New York and spent three years as a litigation associate at the firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler, LLP. Ms. Sweet holds a B.A. from Brown University and a J.D from Columbia Law School.

Jacqueline Wayans Commissioner

Jacqueline Wayans is a co-author of the books New York City's Best Public High Schools and New York City's Best Public Middle Schools. Ms. Wayans has ten years of experience leading workshops for parents and has visited approximately 150 schools, predominantly in the Bronx and in Upper Manhattan, as a school reviewer for Insideschools.org. Wayans is a keen observer of the New York City Public school system and was cited by Michael Winerip of the New York Times as an "Ace Reporter". She currently works as an independent consultant, assisting parents in navigating the educational system. Ms. Wayans is a passionate advocate for parents and cut her teeth as PTA President and SLT Chair in her children's public school. It was during this time that she spearheaded the campaign for the Talented & Gifted School for Young Scholars to move from a program to school status, proving that parents can have a powerful voice for change.

Joseph P. Viteritti Executive Director

Joseph P. Viteritti is the Blanche D. Blank Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Graduate Program in Urban Affairs at Hunter College, CUNY. He specializes in education policy, state and local governance, and public law. His most recent of nine books is The Last Freedom: Religion from the Public School to the Public Square (Princeton University Press, 2007). He is also the author of Across the River: Politics and Education in the City (Holmes & Meier, 1983) in which he outlined one of the earliest proposals for mayoral control of the schools in New York City. Professor Viteritti has previously served as special assistant to the Chancellor of Schools in New York, as senior advisor to the school superintendents in Boston and San Francisco, and as either Executive Director or member of diverse blue ribbon panels at the state and local levels of government. He has previously taught at Princeton, NYU, and Harvard.