Friday General Session
Deborah Norville
Two-Time Emmy Award-Winning Television Anchor; Former Anchor of Inside Edition; Host of The Perfect Line; Best-Selling Author, Thank You Power: Making the Science of Gratitude Work for You
Deborah Norville is a fixture on the American media landscape.
In May 2025, the two-time Emmy© winner ended her unprecedented 30-plus year run as anchor of Inside Edition, the country’s top-rated and most honored syndicated newsmagazine. She pivoted to a new role in September 2025, becoming the host of the new game show, The Perfect Line.
Norville is also author of a number of books including the New York Times Best Seller, Thank You Power: Making the SCIENCE of Gratitude Work for YOU, followed by The Power of Respect, detailing the measurable benefits that result from respectful behavior.
Norville has received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Daytime Emmys, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Broadcasters Foundation of America and is an inductee of the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame. of America. She joined Inside Edition from CBS News and is a former co-host of NBC’s Today show and NBC News at Sunrise. Her career includes stops at MSNBC, ABC Radio and WMAQ-TV in Chicago.
Deborah started her television career at WAGA-TV in Atlanta while still a student at the University of Georgia from which she was graduated summa cum laude with a perfect 4.0 GPA. She is married and the mother of three adult children.
Saturday General Session
Brandon P. Fleming
Nationally acclaimed educator, award-winning author of MISEDUCATED, former debate coach at Harvard University, and Founder & CEO of The Veritas School
Over the past decade, Brandon P. Fleming has emerged as a highly sought-after educator, entrepreneur, author, and public speaker. His incredible story of transformation, detailed in his book Miseducated, has gained national acclaim.
Fleming is a former debate coach at Harvard University and Founder & CEO of The Veritas Schools, a nonprofit network of pre-collegiate Saturday schools headquartered in Atlanta, GA, with campuses expanding to Washington, DC, and Los Angeles.
Fleming’s work with an Atlanta middle school debate team caught Harvard University’s attention, and at age 26, he was recruited as an assistant debate coach. At the Ivy League school, Fleming founded the Harvard Debate Council Diversity Project to increase the enrollment of students of color in Harvard’s summer residential debate program. Hundreds of talented young scholars from over 25 countries study and compete in the program’s international academic debate competitions. Over seven years, Fleming raised millions of dollars to enroll more than 250 students in the summer debate residency on full scholarship.
As Fleming shifted his focus to preparing students from under-resourced schools in Atlanta for the rigors of academic debate, he developed a transformative Saturday school curriculum that levels the playing field for success. For eight consecutive years, Veritas scholars have outperformed students from around the world in Harvard's summer debate competitions.
Today, some of the nation’s most influential corporations, including Bank of America, KPMG, and JPMorgan Chase, turn to Fleming to learn the methodology behind his unprecedented track record: identifying hidden potential, building inclusive, psychologically safe environments, strengthening leadership pipelines, and engineering cultures where people thrive.
Fleming holds a master’s degree from the University of Georgia and a bachelor’s degree from Liberty University.
Sunday General Session
Zack Kass
Global AI Advisor and Former Head of Go-To-Market at OpenAI
Zack Kass is an advisor, researcher, keynote speaker, and the former head of Go-To-Market at OpenAI.
At OpenAI, Zack led the teams responsible for sales, partnerships, and customer success, turning the company’s cutting-edge research into real-world business solutions. He has personally advised executives across dozens of industries on deploying AI at scale.
As an executive business advisor, Zack now works with Fortune 1,000 boardrooms and leadership teams — including Coca-Cola, Morgan Stanley, and Amgen — to help leaders navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Zack’s mission is to ensure individuals, businesses, and governments are active participants in the AI-powered future by making the technology both understandable and actionable. He is recognized as one of the foremost thinkers in applied AI, with his insights featured in Fortune, Newsweek, Entrepreneur, Ad Age, and Business Insider.
Beyond his advisory work, Zack also supports AI education and research at the University of Virginia. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and currently resides in Santa Barbara, California.
Rural Education Breakfast
Leslie L. Graves
Founder & CEO
Ballotpedia
Leslie Graves is the founder and Publisher of Ballotpedia, the nation's most trusted nonpartisan source on politics, elections, and policy. Graves's career in digital media and civic activism has spanned several decades, and she has contributed academic scholarship to various publications. She founded Ballotpedia at her kitchen table in rural Wisconsin in 2007 because she couldn't find trustworthy, spin-free information about the elections in her own community — and she knew voters deserved better. She has since built Ballotpedia into the definitive encyclopedia of American politics — with particular depth in school board elections, which Ballotpedia covers more comprehensively than any other organization in the country. Most recently, she led Ballotpedia's first-of-its-kind Virtual School Board Listening Tour, bringing the voices of board members from across the nation into one national conversation. Leslie earned a bachelor's degree from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, and performed graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in philosophy.
Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) Luncheon
Dr. Khalid N. Mumin
Superintendent, Reading School District (PA) & Former Pennsylvania Secretary of Education
With nearly 30 years of experience in education, Dr. Khalid N. Mumin has served in various roles, including teacher, dean of students, principal, central office administrator, and secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Education. He is currently the superintendent of schools for Pennsylvania's Reading School District, a position he previously held from 2014 to 2021.
Dr. Mumin is committed to promoting and sustaining student achievement, equity, and access to educational programming for all students, as well as creating fiscally responsible plans. He maintains a keen focus on fostering collaboration with stakeholders, including students, parents, teachers, administrators, the community, public officials, business partners, and higher education institutions.
Dr. Mumin, who served as Pennsylvania's education chief from 2022 to 2024, has received numerous awards, including the Innovative School Leader Award from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association in 2018. He was named Pennsylvania Superintendent of the Year by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators in 2021. That same year, he was named a finalist for the National Superintendent of the Year Award.
Dr. Mumin earned his doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Pennsylvania, a master's in education from Pennsylvania State University, and a bachelor's in secondary English Education from Shippensburg University. He is the author of Problem Child: Leading Students Living in Poverty Towards Infinite Possibilities of Success.
Joint Councils Luncheon
Gina Stanley, M.Ed.
State Director, School and Community Advocacy
Cook Center for Human Connection
Gina Stanley is the Director of School and Community Advocacy at the Cook Center for Human Connection, where she leads efforts to help school districts across the country improve access to mental health resources and implement proactive suicide prevention strategies. In this role, Gina collaborates closely with educators, administrators, and community leaders to build sustainable systems of support that engage both schools and families. Her work focuses on reducing stigma, expanding access — especially in rural and underserved areas — and equipping school communities with the tools they need to foster student well-being, resilience, and safety.
Prior to joining the Cook Center, Gina worked in the Ed Tech space before spending over 20 years in public education as a teacher, principal, and superintendent, serving students across the central U.S. and within the Bureau of Indian Education. A proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Gina grew up and was educated within the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation reservation and now lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her deep commitment to equity, cultural connection, and student success continues to shape her work today. As a national educational consultant and leadership mentor, she has helped countless districts use data to drive growth, and now focuses her energy on ensuring every student has access to the mental health support they deserve.