Gabrielle Wyatt is a Taubman Center for State and Local Government fellow, focusing on social and urban policy. Appointed to serve as member to the Board of Education for Baltimore County Public Schools her senior year of high school, Gabrielle conducted research with Superintendent Dr. Joe A. Hairston on the achievement gap in Baltimore County high schools. Her passion for education policy led her to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Sondheim Public Affairs Scholar Program, where she graduated from in May 2010. She has interned with a nonprofit in West Baltimore, working with students from West Baltimore Middle School, navigated through the tunnels of Capitol Hill as an intern for Congressman Howard McKeon and researched emerging trends in corporate involvement in education through an internship with T. Rowe Price’s Community Involvement Department.

At the end of her junior year at UMBC, Gabrielle was appointed by State Superintendent Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick to serve on the Achievement for Maryland’s Minority Students Steering Committee and became a Public Policy and International Affairs fellow, sending her to the Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan for the summer. Last year, Gabrielle is worked on a university research grant on the effect of the foreclosure crisis on homeless students in Maryland and as a consultant for Baltimore County Public School’s Office of Equity and Assurance.

Zainabu Rumala continuously demonstrates commitment to a strong work ethic. Being one of the youngest graduates to earn a B.S. degree at the University of Florida, she also earned both her J.D. and M.S.B.A. by the age of 22. She went on to complete a clerkship at the Florida Supreme Court under the direction of former Chief Justice Peggy Quince and Justice Barbara Pariente. In this position, Zainabu was responsible for researching and analyzing legal issues, and making recommendations to assist justices with determinations of jurisdiction, disposition of original proceedings and motions, and oral argument/court conference preparation. She also helped draft memoranda, summaries, orders/opinions, and other Court documents.

Currently, Zainabu is a student at the Harvard Graduate School of Education working towards an Ed.M. degree with a specialization in human development and psychology. She is active in various organizations on campus including BRIDGE, an organization that fosters the future of education innovation within a shared, collaborative space; and the Oval Office initiative of the Women & Public Policy Program at the Kennedy school, a program that provides a select group of students training and support for future political endeavors. Zainabu also serves as an editor for the Women’s Policy Journal of Harvard. She enjoys exploring ways to give back to the community and in the future desires to practice public interest law and remain engaged in the education policy and social entrepreneurship sectors.

Danielle Allen is a Master in Public Administration candidate at Harvard Kennedy School and a Zuckerman Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership. Prior to HKS, Danielle worked at DC Public Schools under Chancellor Michelle Rhee in Washington, D.C. Her efforts at DCPS centered on supporting graduated autonomy at high-performing schools and monitoring turnaround model design and implementation at low-performing schools. Danielle attended The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Morehead-Cain Scholar, where she studied public policy and economics. She is originally from Monroe, NC and is also a Harry S. Truman Scholar.

Danielle is also concurrently pursuing a Master in Business Administration at Stanford Graduate School of Business. While at HKS, she hopes to deepen her understanding of the political and policy debates that are at the center of today’s education reform efforts and ultimately, to reenter the education sector with a renewed commitment to ensuring educational equity for all children.

Jonathan McMaster is a Master in Public Policy candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School, pursuing a concentration in Business and Government. During the summer of 2011, he worked as a political advisor for US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice in New York. At the US Mission to the United Nations, he worked in the political and sanctions divisions, focusing on the Horn of Africa, Libya, Palestine, and Sudan.

Jonathan graduated from Stanford University in June 2011 with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Modern Languages, Arabic and French. While at Stanford, Jonathan was selected to participate in Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s seminar, Challenges and Dilemmas in American Foreign Policy. In 2010, he received the Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship and will serve as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer upon graduating from the Kennedy School. At Stanford, he also worked as a fitness coordinator East Palo Alto Tennis and Tutoring, where he served as a mentor and physical fitness instructor for urban kindergarten through twelfth grade students. He also participated on Stanford’s Track and Field team as a sprinter. Jonathan was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland.