Too Small Leadership & Advisory Council

One of the pioneers of cloud computing, Benioff founded the company in 1999 with a vision to create an on-demand, information management service to replace traditional enterprise software technology. Under his leadership, salesforce.com has grown from a groundbreaking idea into the fastest growing top ten software company in the world and the largest customer relationship management (CRM) company. Salesforce.com’s mobile, social and connected cloud technologies help companies create deeper, more meaningful connections with their customers. For its revolutionary approach, salesforce.com has been named the World’s Most Innovative Company four years in a row by Forbes Magazine. Fortune Magazine named salesforce.com as the World’s Most Admired Company in the software industry two years in a row, and ranked the company #7 among the World’s Best Places to Work. Throughout his career, Benioff has evangelized a new model of integrated corporate philanthropy. In 2000, he launched the Salesforce.com Foundation and established the “1-1-1 model,” whereby the company contributes one percent of product, one percent of equity, and one percent of employee hours back to the communities it serves globally. Today, the Foundation has inspired other leading corporations to adopt the 1-1-1 model.

Gregg Behr, executive director of The Grable Foundation since 2006, is a father and children’s advocate. For two decades, he has led Remake Learning—a network of educators, technologists, designers, and makers he founded in 2007—to international renown. Among the foremost examples of learning ecosystems, Remake Learning has turned heads everywhere from The White House to the World Economic Forum for its efforts to ignite children’s curiosity; encourage creativity; and foster joy and belonging in schools, libraries, museums, and other sites of learning. In 2023, HundrED named Mr. Behr as its Global Champion of the Year for inspiring learning innovation across continents. He’s an advisor to the Brookings Institution, PBS Kids, and the Fred Rogers Institute, and has been honored by the White House, the Disruptor Foundation, ISTE, and AASA with national awards as an innovator and thought leader in education and policy leadership. Gregg holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame and Duke University, as well as honorary degrees from Saint Vincent College and Carlow University. He is the co-author of the nationally best-selling book, When You Wonder, You’re Learning: Mister Rogers’ Enduring Lessons for Raising Creative, Curious, Caring Kids.

The Sherwood Foundation focuses on improving public education, alleviating poverty, and strengthening community in Omaha and across Nebraska. The Buffett Early Childhood Fund focuses on improving early childhood education, from birth to age five for children growing up in low-income families in Nebraska and nationally. The Fund supports the Educare Learning Network, the Alliance for Early Success (aimed at improving policies in states), and the First Five Years Fund (aimed at improving early childhood policies on the federal level) as well as the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska, the Harvard Center on the Developing Child and Dr. James Heckman at the University of Chicago.

David Coleman became the ninth president of the College Board – the not-for-profit education membership organization – in October 2012. Prior joining the College Board, Coleman was CEO of Student Achievement Partners, the nonprofit he co-founded and which played a leading role the development of the Common Core State Standards in math and literacy. Coleman also co-founded the Grow Network – an organization committed to making assessment results truly useful for educators and families – which was acquired by McGraw-Hill Education in 2005. A native of New York City, Coleman is a Rhodes Scholar and a graduate of Yale, Oxford and Cambridge Universities. He was recognized as one of Time magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” for 2013.

Kara is a long-time champion for children and families. She has experience in the fields of early childhood development, K-12 education and mental health; conducted direct practice, public policy and research; and worked at the local, state and national levels. Prior to joining Tipping Point, Kara was the director of Too Small to Fail, a national public awareness initiative of the Clinton Foundation that supports parents and caregivers to understand the critical role they play in their child’s early brain development. She also served as Associate Director of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University, supporting localities to use data to drive decision-making and system improvements. Earlier in her career, Kara was Chair of the First 5 San Francisco Commission, Associate Director of early care and education at Children Now and a psychiatric social worker for San Francisco City and County. She received her B.A. from Brown University and an MSW from UC Berkeley.

Ronald F. Ferguson, is the director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University, a Research Fellow at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, and a faculty member at Harvard since 1983. His research and writing for more than thirty years have focused on economic and educational development with a special focus on understanding and reducing racial and socio-economic disparities, beginning from birth. He is the creator of the Tripod Project for School Improvement and a co-founder of Tripod Education Partners, Inc. His books include Toward Excellence with Equity: An emerging vision for closing the achievement gap, published by Harvard Education Press. His June 2014 report Creating Pathways to Prosperity: a Blueprint for Action concerns making sure all of America’s youth have viable school-to-career options. Ferguson earned an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and PhD from MIT, both in economics. He is the father of two and very happily married for thirty-six years to Helen Mont-Ferguson.

Sandra Gutierrez is the Founder and National Director of Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors. Ms. Gutierrez led the development of Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors-the nation’s first evidence-based, comprehensive training program for Latino parents with children 0 to 5. Prior to her work with Abriendo Puertas / Opening Doors, Gutierrez developed a series of training programs to support children and families involved in the child welfare system for Parents Action for Children. She brings over forty years of experience with legal, children’s advocacy and community service organizations. Gutierrez graduated from UCLA with Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and in Latina American Studies. Her multi-faceted career has included founding the first service organization to assist Central American Refugees, developing health education programs for the United Farm Workers of America and leading campaigns to promote the benefits of preschool to the Latino community. In addition, for seven years, she served as a founding member and State Commissioner for First 5 California where she established the Advisory Committee on Equity. Gutierrez serves as an Advisory Board member for the Too Small To Fail Initiative. In March 2014, Gutierrez was named by the White House as a César E. Chávez Champion of Change.

George C. Halvorson served as chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente since from 2002. Halvorson is currently the chair of the Institute for InterGroup Understanding. The Institute works on issues of racism, disparities, and InterGroup conflict. Halvorson was recently appointed as new chair of the First 5 California Commission by Governor Jerry Brown. Prior to joining Kaiser Permanente, Halvorson was president and chief executive officer of HealthPartners, headquartered in Minneapolis, for nearly 18 years. With more than 30 years of healthcare management experience, he has also held several senior management positions with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, and Health Accord International.

Matt James is a nonprofit leader whose 30-year career has woven together public policy, communications, advocacy, and movement building. He is a nationally known expert on communications and public education, with broad expertise in the environment, climate change, child well being, and public health. James is currently a Visiting Scholar at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, where his work is focused on climate change and health. He is also a founding partner of a strategic communications firm, Vrge Strategies, where he is developing a practice in strategic philanthropy and communications. In 2011, James launched Next Generation, a start-up communications, research and policy non-profit that created major projects and programs in the areas of climate and sustainability, and investment in children and families. Prior to his time at Next Generation, James held leadership positions with the Kaiser Family Foundation, where he helped develop and launch Kaiser Health News, helped design and oversee the building of the Barbara Jordan Conference Center, developed a series of journalism fellowship programs, and created media partnerships with for-profit and non-profit media companies. James is on the board of the CDC Foundation and has served on the boards of the Udall Foundation, Grantmakers in Health, and the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health. Earlier in his career he served as a senior advisor to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Senator Dale Bumpers and Congressman Morris K. Udall.

Joan Lombardi, Ph.D. is Senior Fellow at the Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues, Georgetown University and a Visiting Scholar, Graduate School of Education, Stanford Center on Early Childhood, Stanford University.

Over the past 50 years, Joan has made significant contributions in the areas of child and family policy as an innovative leader and policy advisor to national and international organizations and foundations and as a public servant. She serves on the Executive Leadership Council of the global Early Childhood Development Action Network and Chairs their Global Policy and Advocacy Advisory group and Co-Chairs the Research Forum for Early Childhood in Emergencies, in collaboration with the Moving Minds Alliance. Joan served as the first Deputy Assistant Secretary for Early Childhood during the Obama Administration and the first Director of the Child Care Bureau during the Clinton Administration.

Dr. Meera Mani is the Vice President of Families and Communities. She joined the Foundation in February 2009.

As a leader Meera is known for bringing together diverse perspectives and building consensus to co-create solutions for complex social challenges. As a manager she has assembled high functioning teams, created inclusive organizational culture, and worked collaboratively with Trustees, staff, and external stakeholders to achieve success.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Meera served as the president of The Clayton Foundation in Denver, Colorado. Under her direction, the foundation focused on operating high-quality programs for children from birth to five-years-old and providing education and professional development opportunities for the early childhood education workforce. Between 1999-2001, Meera co-founded and led Qualistar Early Learning, a statewide initiative dedicated to improving children’s early learning experiences through the implementation of a quality rating and improvement system.

As former President and CEO of Sesame Workshop, H. Melvin Ming led the nonprofit educational organization in its mission to create innovative, engaging content that maximized the educational power of media to help children reach their highest potential. He directed the Workshop’s efforts around Sesame Street’s global presence as well as initiatives that addressed a wide range of issues for children and families including literacy, health, and military deployment. He was appointed President and CEO in October 2011. Previously, Ming served as Chief Operating Officer for 11 years and oversaw the content, product licensing, distribution, research, communications and business strategies of all of the Workshop’s properties. He also managed Sesame Workshop’s human resources, facilities, information services, and technical operations. Prior to joining the Workshop, Ming was the Chief Financial Officer of the Museum of Television and Radio in New York, Chief Operating Officer at WQED Pittsburgh, and Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer at Thirteen/WNET New York. Ming also served as Vice President, Finance and Administration at National Public Radio and worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers (formerly Coopers and Lybrand) early in his career. He serves on the Board of Directors of First Children’s Finance, Public Prep, and ChildObesity180. Ming, a certified public accountant, received a B.S. degree from Temple University.

Ann O’Leary just completed her service as the co-Executive Director of the Clinton-Kaine Transition and as a Senior Policy Advisor to Hillary Clinton. In both 2015 and 2016, Politico Magazine named O’Leary to its list of top fifty “thinkers, doers, and visionaries” who are transforming American politics.

Prior to joining Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, O’Leary was a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, where she wrote extensively about labor protections for working families; and, she served as the Senior Vice President of Next Generation and Director of Too Small to Fail, a public action campaign jointly launched by the Clinton Foundation and Next Generation to provide parents the information and tools they need to boost their young children’s vocabulary development and close the “word gap.”

O’Leary previously served as a lecturer in health law and social policy at UC Berkeley School of Law, executive director of the Berkeley Law Center on Health, Economic & Family Security, a deputy city attorney in San Francisco, legislative director to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and she led the children and family policy team on the White House Domestic Policy Council under President William J. Clinton. She also served as a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team.

O’Leary currently serves on the Boards of KQED, the San Francisco Bay Area’s NPR and PBS affiliate; the East Bay Community Law Center, UC Berkeley Law’s poverty law clinic; and The Opportunity Institute, a non-profit think tank that she co-founded, which promotes social mobility and equity.

O’Leary earned a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College, a Master’s in Education Policy from Stanford University and a J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

Kris is Executive Director of Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development, an independent, 501c3 organization helping children lead healthy lives in a digital world. The Institute addresses today’s most compelling questions about media’s impact on child development through interdisciplinary dialogue, objective, scientific research, and information sharing.

Prior to her tenure at Children and Screens, Kris served as Senior Advisor to Governor Gavin Newsom of California and Deputy Secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency where she led the development of the California Master Plan for Early Learning and Care and the expansion of access to high-quality early childhood programs. She led systems change efforts at the local, state and national levels in her roles as executive director of First 5 San Mateo, First 5 California and of the First Five Years Fund. In 2024, Kris was inducted into the California Social Workers Hall of Distinction for outstanding service.

Through it all, Perry has fought to protect children, improve and expand early learning programs, and increase investments in low-income children. Lastly, Perry was instrumental in returning marriage equality to California after the landmark 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling Hollingsworth v. Perry, which she wrote about in her book Love on Trial (Roaring Forties Press, 2017).

Delia Pompa is Senior Fellow for Education Policy at MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy where her work focuses on research and policy analysis related to improving educational services for immigrant students and English Language Learners (ELLs). Ms. Pompa came to MPI from the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), where she was Senior Vice President for Programs, overseeing its education, health, housing, workforce development, and immigrant integration work, and where she previously served as Vice President of Education. Throughout her career Pompa’s work has focused on creating new responses to the needs of Hispanic families and children within leading local, state and federal agencies and national and international organizations. As an educator, Pompa has been especially instrumental in helping academic institutions understand and respond to the needs of underserved children and their teachers. She is the former Director of the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs in the U.S. Department of Education and the former Executive Director of the National Association for Bilingual Education. Pompa began her career as a kindergarten teacher in San Antonio. She went on to serve as a district administrator in Houston and as Assistant Commissioner of the Texas Education Agency. Pompa is also the former Director of Education, Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, and Youth Development for the Children’s Defense Fund. She serves on a number of national boards and committees for a wide range of institutions that address the needs of children. Pompa’s expertise makes her a frequently requested guest speaker and commentator on current education reform issues.

Lisa Stone Pritzker is founder and chair of the LSP Family Foundation, and an advocate for health, equity, and prosperity for all. She started the Foundation to advance systems-changing organizations that address children’s, maternal, and mental health, as well as organizations that support the arts, civic life, and Jewish engagement in humanitarian efforts. Lisa is an impact multiplier, connecting trailblazers with national resources and each other. She has served as Chair of Challenge Success, a program of Stanford University, and on the Leadership Council of Peer Health Exchange, the National Advisory Council of Futures Without Violence, the First Five Commission, and on the University of California San Francisco Board of Directors, where she was instrumental in the creation of the UCSF Department of Psychiatry’s Child, Teen, and Family Center. Lisa’s research for UCSF’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Services at San Francisco General Hospital on financial barriers for victims of crimes led to beneficial new legislation. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Project Healthy Minds, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, All Chicago Making Homelessness History, The Jewish Funders Network, and on the advisory board for the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. Lisa earned a Master’s degree in nonprofit management from University of San Francisco, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She lives in the Bay Area.   

Sterling Speirn is the immediate past President and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation where he served for eight years from 2006 to 2013. Speirn also served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Peninsula Community Foundation from 1992 to 2005. In his first 15 years at Peninsula Foundation, Speirn launched the Center for Venture Philanthropy in 1999, co-founded Peninsula Partnership for Children, Youth and Families. He serves as Chairman of the statewide League of California Community Foundations. Speirn served as Chairman of Northern California Grantmakers. He has been a Director of Kellogg Company since March 1, 2007 and serves as a Trustee of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Trust since January 2007. He serves on Board of Advisors of Silicon Valley Community Ventures and the Entrepreneurs’ Foundation, and serves on the Board of Directors of the American Leadership Forum of Silicon Valley and the Northern California Grantmakers. Speirn is Co-Creator and served as Board Member of the Raising A Reader take-home book bag program, which earned a Fast Company Social Entrepreneurship Award for 2006.

Jim Steyer has been a national leader in children’s policy and media for more than 20 years and has developed some of the nation’s most innovative and effective nonprofits, including the East Palo Alto Community Law Project, Children Now, JP Kids, and Common Sense Media, which helps guide families through the mass of media their children consume. As a Stanford University professor, Jim teaches courses on civil rights, civil liberties and children’s issues. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford and received his JD from Stanford Law School. He is a frequent contributor to the national discussion on children’s issues and is the author of “The Other Parent: The Inside Story of the Media’s Effect on Our Children.

Deborah Stipek is the Dean of the Stanford Graduate School of Education and Professor of Education at Stanford University. Her scholarship concerns instructional effects on children’s achievement motivation, early childhood education, elementary education and school reform. Currently she is completing a longitudinal study which follows children from kindergarten through fifth grade in three low-income communities in three different states.

Dana Suskind is Professor of Surgery at the University of Chicago, Director of the Pediatric Cochlear Implant Program and Founder and Director of the Thirty Million Words Initiative. Based on scientific research that shows the critical importance of early language exposure on the developing child, Thirty Million Words helps parents enhance their home language environment in order to optimize their child’s brain development and, therefore, his or her ability to learn. An evidence-based intervention, Thirty Million Words is supported by a broad coalition of public and private partnerships and is an extension of Suskind’s Project ASPIRE, which she created to assure that her patients from disadvantaged backgrounds reached their full listening and spoken language potentials. Suskind’s ultimate goal, and that of her dedicated team, is to help all children reach their full potentials and to close the ever-widening achievement gap.

Sara Martinez Tucker is the CEO of the National Math + Science Initiative. NMSI’s mission is to improve student performance in the critical subjects of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Its programs transform teaching, transform schools and are transforming education in the U.S. She serves on the Boards of Directors of American Electric Power, Sprint, and Xerox, Wal-Mart’s External Advisory Council, the University of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees and Teach for America’s Board of Directors. She most recently served as the undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Education, the nation’s top higher education official. Confirmed by the senate on December 9, 2006, she oversaw all policies, programs and activities related to postsecondary education, vocational and adult education, and federal student aid. Previously, Tucker worked for nine years as the CEO and president of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), where she raised $280 million for scholarships, and to launch community outreach programs to double the rate of Hispanics earning college degrees. Prior to this, she spent 16 years at AT&T where she became the first Latina to reach its executive level.

Fred R. Volkmar, M.D., is the director of the Yale Child Study Center and the Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology at Yale University. Four years after completing his residency at Stanford, Volkmar received a Fellowship in Child Psychiatry at the Yale University’s School of Medicine and has been there ever since. He has dedicated his career to understanding and treating children with developmental disorders and is a leader in the field of autism research. He has served as a teacher and mentor to others who are now leaders in the field. Volkmar’s grants and publications run just short of 100 pages in his CV. He is editor of the Journal of Autism and a gifted clinician and teacher and his contributions have greatly improved the lives of children suffering from developmental disorders and their families.

Jane Waldfogel is the Compton Foundation Centennial Professor at Columbia University School of Social Work and a visiting professor at the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics. Waldfogel received her Ph.D. in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She is currently completing a book on inequality in child outcomes in the US, UK, Australia, and Canada. Her other current research includes studies of child care, family leave, and other work-family policies, fragile families and child well-being, and improving the measurement of poverty. Her previous books include Britain’s War on Poverty (Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2010), What Children Need (Harvard University Press, 2006), The Future of Child Protection (Harvard University Press, 1998), and Securing the Future: Investing in Children from Birth to Adulthood (Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2000). She is also the author of over 100 articles, in leading academic journals including the American Economic Review, American Educational Research Journal, American Sociological Review, Child Development, Demography, Economic Journal, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Labor Economics, Journal of Population Economics, Monthly Labor Review, and Pediatrics.

Since 2004 Jim Wunderman has served as President and CEO of the Bay Area Council, a CEO-led public policy organization focused on making the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley the most globally competitive and economically productive region in the world. Jim has honed the Bay Area Council’s regionalist approach to advocacy in the key areas that impact the Bay Area’s economy and competitiveness, including: Business Climate, Education, Transportation, Sustainability, Housing and Land Use, Water, and Cyber security. Jim has worked to support education improvement at all levels, with a particular focus on the use of data systems to inform decision making, as well as the early educational needs of young children. In 2006 Jim was appointed by California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols to the committee that developed the implementation standards that were adopted and now govern the regional “Sustainable Community Strategies.” During his career, Jim has served on numerous boards and commissions. Key among them, he served as Chairman of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, Treasurer of the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network, and as a member of the California Pacific Medical Center Board. He currently serves as Chair of the California Preschool Business Advisory Council and is on the University of California’s Business Executive Council. He is on the boards of the East Bay Zoological Society (Oakland Zoo), Bridge Housing Corporation, Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics, Sierra Energy, and TMG Partners. Jim is a graduate of San Francisco State University, majoring in political science, and received an Associate’s Degree in Business Administration from Kingsborough College, City University of New York. Jim resides in Contra Costa County with his wife, Kristina. He has four children.