Dr. Lanich has devoted his adult life to improving educational opportunities and outcomes for students, particularly those historically deemed disadvantaged. He founded Educational Results Partnership in 2001 to provide a forum for educators to collaborate and share best practices based on reliable, actionable data. Dr. Lanich’s passion for helping students succeed has been shaped by more than 20 years in K-16 and graduate education as a public school teacher and administrator, university professor, researcher, business community liaison, and foundation president. He led Core Curriculum Services and the Academic Achievement Alliance for the Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools. Over succeeding years, he was appointed by the Governor of California to the Academic Content Standards Commission, and also served on the state’s African American Achievement Gap Advisory Commission. In 2006, he was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Education to the National Assessment Governing Board. In 2012, he took on the role of executive director of the California Partnership for Achieving Student Success. 
 

Dr. Lanich holds a BS in biological sciences from the University of California, Irvine, an MA in secondary education from Cal State University, Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Southern California.

Mr. Meunier is a long-standing business leader in California and in the retailing industry nationwide. He began his career with Macy’s, retiring as executive vice president in 2011. He also represented the company’s external affairs initiatives in all Western states, plus Hawaii and Guam. Mr. Meunier is the former chair of the California Retailers’ Association; San Francisco Travel Association; co-chair of the San Francisco Center for Economic Development; vice chair of the California Travel and Tourism Commission; and finance chair of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce. He received the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR) Silver Spur Award for his visionary work in transforming San Francisco’s Union Square. A strong advocate of the power of education to transform lives, he served on the advisory board for the Kalmanovitz School of Education at St. Mary’s College of California, and currently directs operations at the Order of Malta Clinic of Downtown Oakland, a free healthcare clinic serving the low-income and uninsured community. 

Mr. Jones has dedicated his career to building businesses, advocating for education, and making a difference in the community. He is the retired senior vice president and member of the Chairman’s Council for State Farm Mutual Insurance Companies and former president and CEO of State Farm General Insurance Company, the California affiliate of State Farm Mutual Insurance Companies. There, he was responsible for a workforce of 6,000 employees and agents across California. Previously, Mr. Jones served on the Board of Directors for the Tiger Woods Foundation, the Coalition for Access to Education Resources, Aspire Public Schools, and the NCAA Leadership Advisory Board. He also served as board chair for the California Business Roundtable, Junior Achievement of Southern California and the Los Angeles Urban League. In 2008, he was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to the California State Board of Education. 

Mr. Jones holds a BA in business from Franklin University, an MA in international business from Hood College and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ms. Reba Cardenas McNair is a Brownsville businesswoman and civic leader who currently serves as president of two Brownsville land development corporations. She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 1977 with a bachelor of journalism. She then went on to receive an MS from Columbia University. She is the 2017–2018 board chair for IDEA Public Schools and is a member of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) School of Business Advisory Board and the UTRGV Development Board. She is a recent recipient of the Preservation Award from the Brownsville Historical Association.

Mr. Kinney is Operations Vice President for State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Companies. He currently serves in the Property & Casualty Claims Department and has oversight for its Vendor Management, Risk & Compliance and Shared Services operations. He resides in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Kinney joined State Farm® in 1986 as an attorney in the Corporate Law Department. He spent his first 15 years with State Farm in various legal roles in the Law Department, including leading the satellite corporate law office in Sacramento, California. He then moved to the operations side of the business and has served in a variety of executive leadership positions. An Illinois native, Mr. Kinney received a bachelor's degree from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign. He earned the Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) designation in 2009. Mr. Kinney is the proud father of three wonderful children. 

Ms. Janet Auer served as a senior advisor in education and corporate programs for Global Investment at Chevron Corporation. She was responsible for overseeing Chevron’s education investment initiatives. Auer has 30 years of experience working in various facets of Chevron. Previously, Auer worked as a legislative/communications specialist in government affairs.  Prior to that, she served as a business analyst with Chevron Information Technology Company where she supported the company’s human resource system by acting as liaison between the business needs and technical needs of the company. Auer is focused on education because she believes that students across all geographic areas should have access to programs that enhance rigorous project-based learning to prepare them for college and career. Auer was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and still lives in the region. 

Alex Barrios serves as Chief Executive Officer of Educational Results Partnership (ERP). He led the creation of ERP’s Skills Currency Initiative and the ERP Institute, initiatives designed to strengthen skills-based hiring for students and employers and to improve collaboration between educators and employers to support more efficient talent-to-job matching.

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Before becoming CEO, Alex served as President of ERP, where he managed the California Partnership for Achieving Student Success (Cal-PASS Plus), the state’s first longitudinal student data system. He also led the development of software for the Equity Intelligence Platform, a data-driven tool designed to help organizations, governments, and communities measure, track, and improve outcomes for underserved populations .

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Prior to joining ERP, Alex was a member of the Superintendent’s Cabinet at Sacramento City Unified School District. Earlier in his career, he spent more than a decade in the executive and legislative branches of California state government, serving as a special assistant, consultant, legislative representative, and director to multiple legislators and constitutional officers. He has also worked as a public affairs consultant to Fortune 500 companies and non-profit organizations.

Alex’s leadership and service have been recognized through formal resolutions from the California State Assembly, California State Senate, the County of Los Angeles, and the City of Sacramento. He earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communication studies from California State University, Sacramento.