Past Laureates

2023 Laureate Sal Khan Founder of Khan Academy Sal Khan is the founder of Khan Academy, a nonprofit organization with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone anywhere. Khan Academy's content and mastery learning platform has more than 145 million registered users from around the world and has been translated into more [...]

2022 Laureate Dr. Sugata Mitra Computer Scientist and Educational Theorist Sugata Mitra is probably best known in the education community for developing the concept of self-organized learning environments (SOLEs) following his “Hole in the Wall” experiments in 1999, where he placed a computer in the wall of an Indian slum and observed that given the [...]

2021 Laureate Dr. Sanjeev Arora Director and Founder of Project ECHO® Sanjeev Arora is the director and founder of Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Health Outcomes). He is a distinguished professor in internal medicine at the University of New Mexico and the recipient of the Heinz Award for Public Policy, Rosenthal Award, and American Telemedicine [...]

2020 Laureate Dr. Tarajean Yazzie-Mintz (Diné) Founder and Principal Consultant at First Light Education Project Dr. Tarajean Yazzie-Mintz (Diné) is the founder and principal consultant at First Light Education Project and previously served as vice president for program initiatives at the American Indian College Fund in Denver, Colorado. In this role, she oversaw Wakanyeja, “Sacred [...]

2019 Laureate Associate Professor, Founder of The Roses in Concrete Community School (RIC) Jeff Duncan-Andrade is an associate professor of raza studies in the department of Education Administration and Interdisciplinary Studies at San Francisco State University. Jeff also teaches high school in East Oakland, where for the past 18 years he has practiced and studied [...]

2018 Laureate Founder of Hand in Hand: Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel Lee Gordon initiated the founding of Hand in Hand: Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel, an Israeli non-profit organization that has created a network of integrated public schools serving Arab and Jewish children. Starting with just 50 students in 1998, Hand in [...]

2017 Laureate Founding President, Olin College of Engineering, Needham, MA Richard (Rick) K. Miller may be the most significant contributor to the reinvention of undergraduate engineering education in the 21st Century. A gentle but forceful voice for change, Miller gave up a deanship and tenure to be the first employee and founding president of the Olin College [...]

2016 Laureate Professor, Universidad Iberoamericana León, Ciudad de León, Mexico Cecilia Fierro is a professor and researcher who has worked alongside teachers and school leaders to develop practices that address needs of marginalized children, and build democratic schools in rural and impoverished neighborhoods.  Her books have reached over 130,000 teachers in every corner of Mexico. She confronted [...]

2015 Laureate John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education Dr. Howard E. Gardner is an American developmental psychologist best known for his theory of multiple intelligences, as outlined in his book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983).  Gardner's theory has perhaps had the [...]

2014 Laureate Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the New Teacher Center (NTC) Ellen Moir is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the New Teacher Center (NTC), a national organization dedicated to improving student learning by accelerating the effectiveness of new teachers and school leaders. She is recognized as a passionate advocate for our nation’s [...]

2013 Laureates Cofounders of the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin are cofounders of the Knowledge Is Power Program, or KIPP. KIPP is a national network of free, open-enrollment, college-preparatory public charter schools with a track record of preparing students in underserved communities for success in college and in life. There [...]

2012 Laureate Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education and Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings is the Kellner Family Professor of Urban Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the author of three critically acclaimed books,The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers [...]

2011 Laureate Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University; Co Director Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, and Co-Director School Redesign Network Darling-Hammond holds a B.A. from Yale University and a Ed.D in Urban Education from Temple University. Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond has dedicated her life’s work to the pursuit of excellence and equity [...]

2010 Laureate President and Chief Executive Officer, Harlem Children’s Zone, Inc., New York, New York Geoffrey Canada’s life and career have intertwined to bring new insights and possibilities surrounding effective education in areas of urban poverty in America. As an educator, he has identified way to compensate for the barriers that torpedo student success. As [...]

2009 Laureate Chief Executive Officer, National Education Consultant Effective Schools Productions, Ltd., Okemos, Michigan Lawrence Lezotte, Ph.D., has devoted his career to helping schools educate all students. He is the chief executive officer and national education consultant for Effective School Products, Ltd. Lezotte is known as the preeminent spokesperson for continuous school improvement based on [...]

2008 Laureate Chief Executive Officer, National Education Consultant Effective Schools Productions, Ltd. Okemos, Michigan Over his 35 years in education, Dr. Robert Marzano has worked in every U.S. state.  The central theme of his work has been translating research and theory into practical programs and tools for K-12 teachers and administrators.  He is a Senior [...]

2007 Laureates Chief Executive Officer, National Education Consultant Effective Schools Productions, Ltd. Okemos, Michigan Roger and David Johnson are brothers and co-directors of the Cooperative Learning Center at the University of Minnesota. Since the mid-1960s, they have worked to implement cooperative learning and constructive conflict resolution procedures in all levels of schooling (preschool through graduate [...]

2006 Laureate Chairman and Founder, Center for Performance Assessment, Salem, Massachusetts Dr. Douglas Reeves is chairman and founder of the Center for Performance Assessment, an international organization dedicated to improving student achievement and educational equity. Through its long-term relationships with school systems, the center helps educators and school leaders improve student achievement through practical and [...]

2005 Laureate President, Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia Tatum is recognized as the foremost authority on racial identity development theory. This theory, a positive sense of one's self as a member of one's groups as vital to psychological well-being, is proclaimed as a vital means to resolve multicultural issues in education and society. Her critically acclaimed [...]

2004 Laureate Lee Jacks Professor of Education and Professor of Art, Stanford University, Stanford, California Eisner works in three fields: arts in education, curriculum studies, and qualitative research methods. He has been especially interested in advancing the role of the arts in American education and in using the arts as models for improving educational practice [...]

2003 Laureate Director, Education Policy Report Project, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona Berliner is a noted authority on the phenomenon of teaching and related educational policies throughout his career. His model of how one develops from novice to expert has influenced teacher education programs worldwide. Work in school settings led him to believe that [...]

2002 Laureate President, Institute for Educational Inquiry and Founder, Center for Educational Renewal, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington For much of his career, Goodlad has been involved in an array of educational reform programs and projects and has engaged in large-scale studies of educational change, schooling, and teacher education. Most recently, he has inquired into [...]