Nicki Fiocco was appointed as Director of the Maryland State Service Commission in December 2019. With a decade of service-based career Nicki establishes strategic partnerships and spearheads outreach campaigns that increase the awareness of AmeriCorps and National Service across the state. As director, Nicki has the opportunity to work closely with national service advocacy groups, local and national nonprofit organizations and engages regularly with the global community focused on addressing the planet's most pressing issues through human capital. Nicki serves on the Board of Directors for the Baltimore Community ToolBank, and on the Advocacy Committee for the Service Year Alliance Alumni Committee. Her personal mission statement is, “My superpower is connecting, my purpose is to bring the right people together so we can gain the knowledge and tools to make the world a better place.”

John B. King Jr. is the president and CEO of The Education Trust, a national nonprofit organization that seeks to identify and close opportunity and achievement gaps, from preschool through college. King served in President Barack Obama’s cabinet as the 10th U.S. Secretary of Education. In tapping him to lead the U.S. Department of Education, President Obama called King “an exceptionally talented educator,” citing his commitment to “preparing every child for success” and his lifelong dedication to education as a teacher, principal, and leader of schools and school systems.

Before becoming education secretary, King carried out the duties of the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Education, overseeing all policies and programs related to P-12 education, English learners, special education, and innovation. In this role, King also oversaw the agency’s operations. King joined the department following his tenure as the first African American and Puerto Rican to serve as New York State Education Commissioner.

King began his career in education as a high school social studies teacher in Puerto Rico and Boston, Mass., and as a middle school principal.

King’s life story is an extraordinary testament to the transformative power of education. Both of King’s parents were career New York City public school educators, whose example serves as an enduring inspiration. Both of King’s parents passed away from illness by the time he was 12 years old. He credits New York City public school teachers — particularly educators at P.S. 276 in Canarsie and Mark Twain Junior High School in Coney Island — for saving his life by providing him with rich and engaging educational experiences and by giving him hope for the future.

King holds a Bachelor of Arts in government from Harvard University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, as well as a Master of Arts in the teaching of social studies and a doctorate in education from Teachers College at Columbia University. King serves as Professor of Practice at the University of Maryland’s College of Education and is a member of several boards, including those for The Century Foundation, The Robin Hood Foundation, Teach Plus, MDRC, and the American Museum of Natural History. He was elected to Harvard University’s Board of Overseers and serves on several advisory boards, including Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Reach Higher Initiative, the Rework America Task Force, the GOOD+ Foundation’s Fatherhood Leadership Council, the National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement at the University of California, the National Center for Learning Disabilities, and the National Advisory Council for the Prenatal-to-Three Policy Impact Center at the University of Texas at Austin.

King lives in Silver Spring, Md., with his wife (a former kindergarten and first-grade teacher) and his two daughters, who attend local public schools. You can follow King on Twitter via @JohnBKing.

Jennifer King Rice is dean of the College of Education at the University of Maryland. As a professor of education policy, her research draws on the discipline of economics to explore education policy questions concerning the efficiency and equity of U.S. education systems. Her recent work focuses on teachers as a critical resource in the education process, and examines the policies and resources needed to staff all schools with high-quality educators.

Dr. Rice has published numerous articles and book chapters and has served on the editorial boards of American Educational Research Journal, Education Finance and Policy, and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Her authored and edited books include Performance-Based Pay for Educators: Assessing the Evidence, Fiscal Policy in Urban Education, and Teacher Quality: Understanding the Effectiveness of Teacher Attributes, winner of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education book award.

As a national expert in education finance and policy, Dr. Rice regularly consults with policy organizations and state and federal agencies. She has been a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and a visiting fellow at the Urban Institute. She currently sits on two charter school boards, is a University System of Maryland representative on the Maryland State Teacher Certification Advisory Council, and recently completed a term as co-chair of the Maryland Education Deans and Directors Council. She earned her doctorate from Cornell University, and prior to joining the faculty at Maryland, she was a researcher at Mathematica Policy Research.

Dr. Rice brings her scholarly interests to her role as dean through her efforts to align educational resources with key efforts to advance excellence, equity and social justice in P-12 and higher education. Upon becoming dean, she led the College community through a rigorous and inclusive strategic planning process, which has resulted in new and innovative initiatives to promote the College’s shared values, vision and goals.

Eric Luedtke is the Majority Leader of the Maryland House of Delegates and a career educator. The Delegate has been a leading voice for strong public schools that provide the best possible education for every kid. He has worked to secure more education funding, increase educator pay, reduce overcrowding by investing in school construction, improve the quality of special education services, and provide more opportunities for career and technical education. In addition to education work, Delegate Luedtke serves as the Chair of the Revenues Subcommittee where he works to reevaluate our tax code to ensure that it works for, and not against, Marylanders. Outside of his duties as a legislator, he works as a Clinical Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park’s School of Public of Policy. At their home in Ashton, Delegate Luedtke and his wife, Dawn, raise their four children.

Robert C. Orr serves as UMD School of Public Policy dean, United Nations under secretary-general, and special advisor to the UN secretary-general on climate change. He is also past president and current executive committee member of NASPAA, the global association of public policy, affairs and administration schools.

Prior to joining the University of Maryland, Orr served as the assistant secretary-general for strategic planning in the Executive Office of the United Nations secretary-general from 2004 to 2014, and was the principal advisor to the secretary-general on counter-terrorism, peace building, women’s and children’s health, sustainable energy, food and nutrition, institutional innovation, public-private partnership and climate change.

Orr joined the United Nations from Harvard University where he served as the executive director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government. Prior to this, he served as director of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC.

He has served in senior posts in the government of the United States, including deputy to the United States ambassador to the United Nations and director of global affairs at the National Security Council, where he was responsible for peacekeeping and humanitarian affairs.

Julie serves as Senior Director of Partnerships and Constitutional Scholar in Residence at iCivics. Julie served as Executive Director of The Constitutional Sources Project (ConSource) in Washington, DC, from 2012-2020. She regularly writes and lectures on the United States Constitution and its history, and the importance of civic education to the health of the American republic. Julie has nearly a decade of experience ingrowth projects for non-profit organizations, cultivating partnerships, fundraising, coalition-building, and business development and management. She holds a J.D. from the William & Mary Law School, where she received the National Association of Women Lawyers Award and the Thurgood Marshall Award and served as a Senior Articles Editor on the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal. She graduated Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa from The George Washington University with a B.A. in Political Science. Upon graduation, she was awarded the GW Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Scholar Award, the highest academic award given to a student in the arts and sciences college.

Tasmin Swanson is passionate about supporting local leaders to build a more inclusive democracy. As a lifelong Maryland resident, she is proud to serve as the coordinator for the Maryland Civic Education Coalition. She is also the Director of Programs at Baltimore Votes, where she works to coordinate city-wide GOTV and voter education activities grounded in community, collaboration, and celebration.

Outside of Maryland, she is also a civic designer and the communications lead at the Center for Civic Design where she works with county and state-level elections offices to infuse principles of good design and plain language into all stages of the voting process.

Her lifelong interest in community-centered work has taken her around the world. She served as a Peace Corps volunteer in China, worked in development at two DC theaters, and completed her undergraduate degree at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

She lives in Baltimore, MD.