Professor Linda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University and founding president of the Learning Policy Institute, created to provide high-quality research for policies that enable equitable and empowering education for each and every child. She is past president of the American Educational Research Association and author of more than 30 books and 600 other publications on educational quality and equity, including the award-winning book: The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity will Determine our Future. In 2006, she was named one of the nation’s ten most influential people affecting educational policy and in 2008, she directed the education policy transition team for President Obama. She was appointed President of the California State Board of Education in 2019.