Connect a Million Minds

The Connect a Million Minds National Advisory Board provides expert strategic counsel, guidance and support for the companys philanthropic objective - to connect a million young people to informal learning opportunities in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math. As leaders in their fields, Advisory Board members help ensure that TWC maximizes its commitment of $100 million cash and in-kind over five years to inspire todays youth to become the problem solvers of tomorrow.

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  Jodi Grant

  Executive Director of the Afterschool Alliance

  Jodi Grant is Executive Director of the Afterschool Alliance, a non-profit organization working to raise awareness about the urgent need for more afterschool programs. The Afterschool Alliance is supported by a group of public, private and nonprofit organizations that share its mission to give all children access to quality, affordable afterschool programs. Prior to being hired by the Afterschool Alliance in May of 2005, Jodi served as Director of Work and Family Programs for the National Partnership for Women & Families. In that position, she worked to protect and expand the Family & Medical Leave Act, and was a member of the team that successfully defended the law before the U.S. Supreme Court. Jodi also served as Staff Director of the Senate Steering and Coordination Committee and General Counsel to the Senate Budget Committee. Most recently, she has advised Congress and the Obama Administration on the economic recovery act and education reform and the value of learning, including STEM learning that is occurring across the country in afterschool classrooms.
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  Margaret Honey, Ph.D.

  President & CEO, New York Hall of Science

  Dr. Margaret Honey is widely recognized for her work using digital technologies to support children's learning across the disciplines of science, mathematics, engineering and technology.  Prior to joining the New York Hall of Science, she served as a Vice President of the Education Development Center and Director of EDC's Center for Children and Technology. While at EDC, Dr. Honey was the architect and overseer of numerous large-scale projects funded by organizations including the National Science Foundation, the Institute for Education Sciences, The Carnegie Corporation, The Library of Congress, the U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Department of Energy.  She also co-directed the Northeast and Islands Regional Education Laboratory, a 40 million dollar federally-funded initiative designed to help educators, policy makers, and communities improve schools by helping them access and leverage the most current research about learning and K-12 education.
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  Dean Kamen

  President and CEO, DEKA Research & Development and Founder, FIRST

  Dean Kamen is an inventor, an entrepreneur and a tireless advocate for science and technology. As an inventor, he holds more than 440 U.S. and foreign patents, many of them for innovative medical devices that have expanded the frontiers of health care worldwide. He founded DEKA Research & Development Corporation to develop internally generated inventions as well as to provide R&D for major corporate clients. The recipient of several awards, including the National Medal of Technology and the Lemelson-MIT Prize, Dean was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2005.  In addition to DEKA, one of Dean's proudest accomplishments is founding FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization dedicated to motivating the next generation to understand, use and enjoy science and technology.
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  Joshua Schuler

  Executive Director, Lemelson-MIT Program

  Joshua Schuler joined the Lemelson-MIT Program in 2003. A non-profit organization within MIT's School of Engineering, the Lemelson-MIT Program, recognizes outstanding inventors, encourages sustainable new solutions to real-world problems, and enables and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention. Prior to becoming the executive director in July 2007, Joshua ran InvenTeams , the Lemelson-MIT Program's national initiative to foster inventiveness among high school students. InvenTeams asks teams – composed of students, teacher(s) and industry mentors – to collaboratively identify a problem that they want to solve, research the problem, and provides up to US$10,000 for them to develop a prototype. During the 2007-2008 academic year, InvenTeams provided grants to twenty teams from public, private and technical magnet high schools in urban, suburban and rural communities across the United States.