Gerald Samuel Lesser (August 22, 1926 – September 23, 2010) was an American psychologist who served on the faculty of Harvard University and was one of the chief advisers to the Children's Television Workshop (later known as the Sesame Workshop) in the development and content of the educational programming included in Sesame Street, with the goal of making the material both interesting and instructive to the young children who were the program's target audience.

Lesser was born on August 22, 1926, in Queens, New York City. Raised in Jamaica, Queens, he graduated from Jamaica High School. After two years at Columbia University, he served in the United States Navy during World War II and returned after completing his military service to finish his undergraduate degree and earn a master's in psychology at Columbia. He was awarded his Ph.D. from Yale University in child development and psychology in 1952. Lesser was on the faculty of Adelphi University and Hunter College, and was hired by the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1963, where he served as a professor until his retirement in 1986, after which he was a professor emeritus until his death. At Harvard, Lesser chaired the Human Development Program, which aimed to gain a greater understanding of how children are raised in different cultures.

Wendy Sue Kopp (born June 29, 1967) is the CEO and Founder of Teach For America (TFA), the national teaching corps and the CEO of Teach For All.

Kopp attended Highland Park High School in Dallas, Texas and later was an undergraduate in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton in 1989 and was a member of Princeton's Business Today.

Shortly after graduation from Princeton, Kopp founded Teach For America.

In 1989, Wendy Kopp proposed the creation of Teach For America in her undergraduate thesis at Princeton University. She was advised in her thesis by senior sociology professor Marvin Bressler. She was convinced that many in her generation were searching for a way to assume a significant responsibility that would make a real difference in the world and that top college students would choose teaching over more lucrative opportunities if a prominent teacher corps existed.

In 2007 Wendy founded Teach For All, an organization that seeks to apply the methods of Teach For America to countries around the world.

Marian Wright Edelman (born June 6, 1939) is an American activist for the rights of children. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.

Marian Wright was born June 6, 1939 in Bennettsville S.C.. In 1953, her father died when she was 14, urging in his last words, "Don't let anything get in the way of your education."

She attended Marlboro Training High School in Bennettsville, and went on to Spelman College and traveled the world on a Merrill scholarship and studied in the Soviet Union as a Lisle fellow. She also became involved in the Civil Rights Movement, and after being arrested for her activism, she decided to study law and enrolled at Yale Law School where she earned a Juris Doctor in 1963.

Edelman was the first African American woman admitted to the Mississippi Bar. She began practicing law with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.'s Mississippi office, working on racial justice issues connected with the civil rights movement and representing activists during the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. She also helped establish a Head Start program in her community.

John Merrow (born June 14, 1941) is a broadcast journalist who has reported on education issues for more than three decades. He serves as the education correspondent for the PBS NewsHour program. These features - often under the umbrella heading of "The Merrow Report" - have become a staple of education reporting on public broadcasting. Additionally, he is currently the executive producer, host and president of Learning Matters, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation that creates television, radio and online segments and documentaries, focusing primarily on education.

Merrow earned an A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1964, and received an M.A. degree in American Studies from Indiana University in 1968. In 1973, Merrow graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, with a doctorate in Education and Social Policy. He began his career as an education reporter in 1974, when National Public Radio began airing his first investigative reports on the nation's schools. Merrow quickly developed a devoted following with his program "Options In Education," which aired for eight years. The weekly radio broadcast received the prestigious George Polk Award in 1981.

Tom Kane (born April 15, 1959) is a prominent American voice actor with over 25 years of experience. He is most widely known for his animation work. Notable roles are Jedi Master Yoda and Admiral Yularen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars feature film and TV Series; The Chancellor in Tim Burton's 9, Magneto in Wolverine and the X-Men and Marvel vs Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds; Iron Man and Ultron in Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow; Mr. Herriman, the House Manager in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends; Lord Monkey Fist on Kim Possible; Professor Utonium and Him in The Powerpuff Girls; and Darwin, Eliza's chimpanzee sidekick in The Wild Thornberrys. He is also a prominent video game voice actor, appearing on numerous titles - from bit parts, to major roles such as Gandalf and Professor Xavier, and lead characters in almost every Star Wars game ever made. In the video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed he was "on-camera" as Imperial Captain Ozzik Sturn, Lobot, and also Kento Marek, the father of the protagonist: Galen Marek (Sam Witwer) - thanks to ILM's motion capture technology. In Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops, he provides the voice of Takeo Masaki, a Japanese WWII soldier in the Zombies game mode. In the arena of non-animation voiceover work, he records Movie Trailers, TV promos and commercials daily. In addition, he has been the announcer for the AFI Life Achievement Award show twice, as well as the 78th, 80th, 83rd, and 84th Academy Awards. His most recent performance was as Odin, Thor and Loki's father in the video game adaption of Thor, replacing Anthony Hopkins from the film.