Conference Presenters

Widely known as an educational pioneer and reformer, Lowell Milken is chairman of the Milken Family Foundation (MFF), which he co-founded in 1982. Under his leadership, MFF has become one of the most innovative private foundations in the United States, creating national programs in K-12 education and medical research. Among his contributions to strengthening K-12 education, Mr. Milken conceived the Milken National Educator Awards in 1985 to recognize the importance of outstanding educators and to encourage talented young people to choose teaching as a career. With a network of over 2,200 recipients, the Milken Educator Awards is today the nation’s largest teacher recognition program, active in 48 states plus the District of Columbia. Recognizing that sufficient numbers of quality teachers would never result from current education practices, Mr. Milken launched the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP) in 1999 to restructure and thus revitalize the teaching profession. TAP’s comprehensive and systemic approach makes the teaching profession more appealing, the job conditions more manageable, and the pay for high quality teachers more generous. TAP is already being implemented on over 130 campuses, impacting more than 60,000 students and 4,000 teachers. Based on TAP’s rapid growth and results, as well as increasing demand nationwide, Mr. Milken has established the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching to expand opportunities for public/private partnerships and development of best practices that will further the goal of a quality teacher for every classroom in America.