main

Spike Bighorn was born on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana.  Mr. Bighorn is of Assiniboine and Sioux descent, and is an enrolled member of the Fort Peck Tribes. He grew up in the small community of Brockton, where he graduated as Class Valedictorian in 1978. After earning a Bachelors of Science Degree in Communications Education at Dickinson State University in Dickinson, ND in 1983, he embarked on a professional career in education and public service.  His professional experience includes four years as the Education Director for the Fort Peck Tribes (1985-1989) in Poplar, MT; eight years as an elected member of the Fort Peck Tribal Executive Board (1989-1987), the governing body of the Fort Peck Tribes; two years (1997-1999) as Tribal Chairman of the Fort Peck Tribes; two years (1999-2001) as an Elementary School Principal in Brockton; and two years (2001-2003) as the Teacher Training Director and Communications Instructor at Fort Peck Community College.

Mr. Bighorn entered federal service as the Agency Superintendent at the Fort Peck Agency in Poplar, MT in 2003.  While serving in this capacity, he earned a Masters in Business Administration from Gonzaga University, in Spokane, WA in May 2005.   After serving three years as Agency Superintendent, Mr. Bighorn returned to the education field, first as the Education Line Officer at the Billings Education Line Office in Billings, MT in 2006, and then as the Chief of Staff for the Bureau of Indian Education in Washington D.C. in October 2007.  In November 2009, he left federal service for his current position as Chief Operating Officer for New West Technologies, a consulting firm with offices in Washington, D.C., Landover, MD, and Greenwood Village, CO.

Leslie M. Anderson is a Managing Director at Policy Studies Associates, a Washington, DC-based consulting firm that conducts research and evaluation studies of education and youth development programs and policies. Ms. Anderson specializes in directing studies of the implementation and impact of education and youth development programs and policies, including state and district implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act and earlier authorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; comprehensive school reform as a district-level strategy for school improvement; and effects of community service programs on civic engagement and political participation among young adults. Most recently, for City Year National, Ms. Anderson directed the City Year Alumni Studies, a set of three interlocking studies designed to assess the extent to which alumni exhibited civic engagement, civic leadership, and social capital following their participation in City Year. Ms. Anderson’s work has also focused on a variety of studies that measured the implementation and impact of education reform strategies on student achievement. Ms. Anderson also has significant expertise in evaluating the implementation of federal education programs.

In addition to IPP, Ms. Anderson has volunteered for a number of worthy organizations including Cultural Tourism
DC (CTDC), BalletNOVA, the Brooksfield School in McLean, VA, and various local and state political campaigns.
She is also the co-director of the children’s choir at Church of the Covenant in Arlington, VA.

Ms. Anderson received her M.P.P. from the University of Chicago, Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies,
and her B.A. from Oberlin College.

Mark A. Moran, Esq. is a partner in the international practice group at Steptoe & Johnson, LLP. Mr. Moran’s international trade practice is primarily litigation-based. He has significant experience litigating antidumping, countervailing duty, and Section 201 and Section 301 trade actions on behalf of clients in the forest products, steel, cement, semiconductor, uranium, large marine products, and agricultural sectors. He has appeared before all of the agencies charged with administering the trade laws, including the International Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), and he has prosecuted appeals from these agencies to the Court of International Trade.

Mr. Moran advises domestic and foreign corporations, trade associations, and foreign governments on a wide range of trade policy issues, and he assists multinational corporations in developing and implementing international trade and investment strategies. Mr. Moran is a member of the Arbitration Committee of the United States Council on International Business. He received his B.S. and J.D. degrees from the University of Michigan.

Beverly Pringle, Ph.D., has been involved in the education of youth since1980. In Adrian, Michigan, she taught English language arts and mathematics to children of migrant farm workers in grades 1-5 and then served as Assistant Director of State & Federal Programs there. Dr. Pringle has designed, coordinated, and provided technical assistance for educators at the local, state, and federal levels, with a focus on effective instruction and program evaluation. She served as the Supervisor of Virginia’s statewide Migrant Education Program, and is a past member of the National Association of State Directors of Migrant Education. Dr. Pringle has served as an officer on the Executive Board of Virginia’s Migrant Head Start Program since 2005.

Currently, Dr. Pringle is Program Chief of Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services Research at the National Institute of Mental Health. Previously, she served as Chief of the Services Research Branch at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Dr. Pringle received her Ph.D. in pediatric clinical psychology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and completed her pre-doctoral internship at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. She has a M.A. in clinical psychology from the University of Maryland Baltimore County and a M.A. in
education psychology from the University of Michigan, Her clinical training includes pediatric psychology; affective and anxiety disorders; traumatic brain injury; parenting, group, and family therapy; domestic violence; and psychodiagnostic and behavioral assessment. Her research has covered a variety of topics including treatment services for adolescent drug abuse; pain, memory,
and distress management in pediatric cancer patients; parent behaviors in pediatric settings; and education policy for underserved and disadvantaged populations.

Karen Panton Walking Eagle, Esq. is the President of IPP. Ms. Walking Eagle is an attorney at the U.S Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in Washington, DC. She investigates discrimination complaints filed against elementary and secondary schools and colleges and universities; mediates and negotiates resolution of those complaints; conducts compliance reviews; and provides technical assistance on disability rights, race and sex discrimination, harassment, and retaliation to educational personnel in schools, colleges, and universities and to other concerned citizens. Prior to this, Ms. Walking Eagle was a Senior Research Associate at Policy Studies Associates, Inc., where she directed evaluations of education programs and youth development initiatives, and conducted research and analysis of public policy issues in education. Ms. Walking Eagle began her career in education as a teacher and has taught high school students in New York City, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Fairfax County, Virginia.

Ms. Walking Eagle is a graduate of Barnard College of Columbia University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology. She continued her studies at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, where she earned a master’s degree in public policy and administration, and at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, where she received a master’s degree in education. Ms. Walking Eagle earned a J.D. degree from the George Mason University School of Law.