Jack Markell
President
JAM Consulting, LLC
Jack Markell has served as US Ambassador to the Italian Republic and the Republic of San Marino and previously to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Prior to that, he served two terms as Governor of Delaware. He also served as Chair of the National Governors Association and the Democratic Governors Association and as President of the Council of State Governments. In 2016, Markell was recognized as Policy Leader of the Year by the National Association of State Boards of Education for the following: In 2010, Delaware won first place in President Obama’s “Race to the Top” competition. During his tenure, Delaware adopted higher learning standards, improved its teacher preparation programs, invested in early childhood education, created a statewide world language immersion program, built the nation’s best college access program for low-income youth and created a new “Pathways to Prosperity” program, enabling thousands of high school students to earn industry-recognized credentials in a wide array of fields. The results: significantly more low-income students enrolled in the best early childhood centers, record-high graduation rates (84.4% vs. 79.6% in 2012), more than quadrupling the number of students (to 2600) taking college-level courses in high school and doubling the number of students taking and passing Advanced Placement tests.