Advisory Board
Mark Lunsford
Chairman
Joanna Acocella
Vice President of Federal Relations at Apollo Group, Inc.
Meryl Chertoff
Legislative relations professional, attorney and community volunteer
Viet Dinh
Georgetown University Professor of Law and former Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy at U.S. Department of Justice
Brian Jones
Senior Counsel at Dow Lohnes
Roderick R. Paige, Ed.D.
Former U.S. Secretary of Education
(2001-2005)
Mark Lunsford
Chairman
Mark Lunsford is an activist for the passage of legislation to protect children from convicted child molesters. Lunsford has been instrumental in securing Jessica's Law, named for his daughter, Jessica Marie Lunsford, in states across the country.
Lunsford has worked with legislators and community groups to raise awareness of the issue of sexual predators and has been an active supporter of legislation with the ability to protect children from offenders through minimum sentencing and enhanced registration requirements.
He has also made it his goal to help locate absconder pedophiles.
Lunsford is currently working with various nonprofit organizations to secure passage of Jessica's Law in all 50 states including Stop Child Predators, California Organization of Police and Sheriffs, and the Jessica Marie Lunsford Foundation.
Joanna Acocella
Joanna Acocella is Vice President of Federal Relations at Apollo Group, Inc., an S&P 500 corporation that provides higher education to working adults through its subsidiaries that include University of Phoenix, College for Financial Planning, Insight Schools, Inc., Institute for Professional Development and Western International University.
Apollo Group, Inc. was founded in 1973 in response to a gradual shift in higher education demographics from a student population dominated by youth to one in which approximately half the students are adults and over 80 percent of whom work full-time. Apollo Group has enjoyed continual growth in student enrollments as well as building a strong financial record by having more than doubled its total enrollments and revenues between 2001 and 2005.
Acocella is a former Principal at MarshallMorgan, LLC, a firm comprised of financial and legal experts who are highly experienced in all aspects of business and retail acquisitions and divestitures. She is also the former Executive Vice President of Government Relations for College Loan Corporation and former President of the CLC Charitable Foundation. Acocella also worked for the Education Finance Council, an industry trade association, where she directed Government Relations. Before joining EFC, Acocella spent nearly a decade at Sallie Mae, where she handled virtually every aspect of the student loan business, including operations, product development, sales, marketing and corporate communications, becoming an officer in 1999.
Acocella holds a J.D. from the University of Notre Dame Law School and received her undergraduate degree from The University of Chicago.
Meryl Chertoff
Legislative relations professional, attorney and community volunteer
As a legislative relations consultant in New Jersey, Chertoff represented corporations, professional associations and charitable organizations before the New Jersey State Legislature and regulatory agencies. She specialized in health, education, youth and financial services issues. She has spoken to private groups and on television about homeland security preparedness issues, and has written about preparedness for state audiences.
Chertoff served as Director of New Jersey's Washington, D.C. Office under two governors, and served in the Office of Legislative Affairs of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), participating in the agency's transition into the Department of Homeland Security from 2002-2003.
Chertoff served as legislative counsel for former New Jersey Assemblyman Richard H. Bagger (R-22nd District), and as an adjunct instructor at Seton Hall University School of Law.
Chertoff is a member of the Metropolitan Board of Directors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington, a volunteer for the Red Cross of the National Capital Region, and a member of the Board of the New Jersey Excellence in Public Service Series. In 2000, she earned the New Jersey Region of the Anti-Defamation League's Distinguished Service in Civil Rights Award. She is a former trustee of the United Way of Somerset County, New Jersey, and of the United Fund of Westfield.
Chertoff graduated magna cum laude from Harvard-Radcliffe College. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, and practiced law for seven years in New York City and New Jersey. She and her husband have two children.
Viet Dinh
Georgetown University Professor of Law and former Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy at U.S. Department of Justice
Viet D. Dinh is founder and principal of Bancroft Associates PLLC. He is Professor of Law and Co-Director of Asian Law & Policy Studies at the Georgetown University Law Center. He serves on the Board of Directors of News Corporation, where he is also Chair of the Corporate Governance Committee. Dinh previously served as U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2001 to 2003. In that capacity, Dinh conducted a comprehensive review and revision of Department of Justice priorities, policies and practices to ensure that all available resources are dedicated to protecting America against terrorist acts. He played a key role in developing the USA Patriot Act and revising the Attorney General's Guidelines, which govern federal law enforcement activities and national security investigations.
Dinh holds or has held positions on the boards of Liberty's Promise, the American Judicature Society, the Transition Committee for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Section on National Security Law of the Association of American Law Schools, and the ABA Section on Administrative Law. He previously served as Associate Special Counsel to the U.S. Senate Whitewater Committee, Special Counsel to Senator Pete V. Domenici for the Impeachment Trial of the President, and counsel to the Special Master in the Austrian and German Bank Holocaust Litigation.
Dinh graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he was a Class Marshal, Olin Research Fellow in Law and Economics, and Bluebook editor of Harvard Law Review. He clerked for Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Brian Jones
Senior Counsel at Dow Lohnes
Brian Jones is Senior Counsel at Dow Lohnes, PLLC, a Washington, DC law firm. He’s the former General Counsel of College Loan Corporation (CLC) where he was responsible for legal activities and assuring compliance with federal and state laws regulating higher education financing and marketing.
Jones has an extensive background in law and higher education. He most recently served for four years as the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE), in which capacity he was the fourth-ranking officer of the Department and principal adviser to the Secretary on all legal matters affecting department programs and activities.
Prior to his tenure at DOE, Jones was an attorney with the law firm of Curiale Dellaverson Hirschfeld Kelly and Kraemer, where he provided educational law counseling to many colleges and universities. He also served California Governor Pete Wilson as Deputy Legal Affairs Secretary (Deputy General Counsel), as counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee from 1997 to 1998 and was the President of the Center for New Black Leadership from 1995 to 1997.
Jones holds a J.D. from UCLA and is a graduate of Georgetown University, from which he earned a B.S.B.A. in finance.
Roderick R. Paige, Ed.D., Vice Chairman
Former U.S. Secretary of Education
(2001-2005)
During his tenure at the U.S. Department of Education from 2001 to 2005, Secretary Roderick R. Paige was a fierce and innovative champion of education reform who led the way in setting new standards of achievement for all students in our education system. He spearheaded the implementation of the historic No Child Left Behind Act, with its goal of reinvigorating America's education system.
Dr. Paige has devoted his life to transforming the state of education by improving the way that children learn on all levels, a passion that has manifested itself most recently when he co-founded the bi-partisan Chartwell Education Group LLC. This group is a consulting firm devoted to offering solutions to the 21st Century challenges faced by the public and private sector enterprises that focus on pre-K, K-12 and post-secondary education, both in the United States and throughout the world.
Prior to his time at Chartwell, and after he left the administration in 2005, Dr. Paige served as a Public Policy Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. There he was able to explore a more global perspective of education. As he said: "Civilizations rise and fall depending upon the quality of education."
His appointment by President George W. Bush as the seventh U.S. Secretary of Education, and the first school superintendent to serve in this position, was a signal honor for Dr. Paige, the son of a principal and a librarian in the public school system. Born in 1933 in segregated Monticello, Mississippi, Dr. Paige's accomplishments speak of his commitment to education. He earned a Bachelor's degree from Jackson State University in his home state. He then earned both a Master's and a Doctoral degree from Indiana University.
Dr. Paige began his career as a teacher and coach. He served for a decade as dean of the College of Education at Texas Southern University (TSU), working to ensure future educators receive the training and expertise necessary to succeed in the classroom. He also established the University's Center for Excellence in Urban Education, a research facility that concentrates on issues related to instruction and management in urban school systems.
Elected to the Board of Education of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) in 1989, Dr. Paige was a trustee and an officer until 1994, when he became Superintendent of HISD, the nation's seventh largest school district. Inside Houston Magazine named him as one of "Houston's most powerful 25 people" for helping guide the city's growth and prosperity. He was also honored as an outstanding educator by the Council of the Great City Schools (2000) and the National Association of Black School Educators (2001). His innovative practices also led Dr. Paige to being named the National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators in 2001.