President & Founder, The Algebra Project, Inc.

Bob Moses was born and raised in Harlem, NY, where he attended public schools. He received a B.A. in Philosophy from Hamilton College in 1956, and received an M.A. in Philosophy from Harvard University in 1957. Moses directed the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee’s Mississippi Voter Registration Project from 1961-1964; was co-Director of the Council of Federated Organizations 1962-1964, and was a lead organizer for the 1964 Mississippi “Freedom” Summer Project, parachuting Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to 1964 National Democratic Convention in Atlantic City. 

Moses taught mathematics at the Samé School in Tanzania, East Africa from 1969 – 1976, when he returned to the United States and re-entered the doctoral program in Philosophy at Harvard.

A MacArthur Foundation Fellow 1982-1987, he used his fellowship to begin the Algebra Project, which uses mathematics as organizing tool for quality education for all children in America. With support of the National Science Foundation the Algebra Project works with middle and high school students who previously performed in the lowest quartile on standardized exams, proposing that they attain a high school math benchmark: graduate on time in four years, ready to do college math for college credit. 

Moses is co-author with Charles E. Cobb, Jr., of the book Radical Equations—Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project (Beacon Press, 2001); and co-editor with Theresa Perry, et al., ofQuality Education as a Constitutional Right-creating a grassroots movement to transform public schools (Beacon, 2010). For information on Algebra Project approaches to the teaching and learning of mathematics, please see Practitioner’s Use of the 5-Step Curricular Process, a 3 min. video:https://stemforall2020.videohall.com/presentations/1898

Moses was the Distinguished Visitor for the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University 2011-2012, and has been an adjunct lecturer at NYU School of Law from 2012 - 2016. He has served on the Education Advisory Committee of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute from 2004 to the present. In May 2016, the University of North Carolina press published Dr. Laura Visser-Maessen’s book, Robert Parris Moses – a life in civil rights and leadership at the grassroots.  He has received numerous honorary doctorate degrees, has delivered keynote speeches and workshops nationwide, and has served as principal investigator on eight National Science Foundation mathematics education research awards to date; most recently NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot award # 1649342 and NSF INCLUDES Conference award # 1650533.

For more information on current efforts to develop a national “We the People – Math Literacy for All” Alliance that is calling on the nation for Direct Federal Investment and Involvement in supporting mathematics literacy for all K-12 students, and particularly for students performing in the lowest quartile on state standardized exams, please visit https://www.mathliteracyforall.org and see a 2019 video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBj0pZ_avko

Actor, producer and humanitarian Danny Glover has been a commanding presence on screen, stage and television for more than 30 years. As an actor, his film credits range from the blockbuster Lethal Weapon franchise to smaller independent features, some of which Glover also produced. In recent years he has starred in an array of motion pictures including the critically-acclaimed Dreamgirls directed by Bill Condon and in the futuristic 2012 for director Roland Emmerich. In addition to his film work, Glover is highly sought after as a public speaker, delivering inspirational addresses and moving performances in such diverse venues as college campuses, union rallies and business conventions.

Glover has gained respect for his wide-reaching community activism and philanthropic efforts, with a particular emphasis on advocacy for economic justice and access to health care and education programs in the United States and Africa. For these efforts Glover received a 2006 DGA Honor and was honored with a 2011 “Pioneer Award” from the National Civil Rights Museum. Internationally Glover has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program from 1998-2004, focusing on issues of poverty, disease and economic development in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Glover was presented in 2011 with the prestigious Medaille des Arts et des Letters from the French Ministry of Culture and was honored with a Tribute at the Deauville International Film Festival. In 2014 Glover received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of San Francisco. Currently Glover serves as UNICEF Ambassador and Ambassador for the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent along with Harry Belafonte and Forrest Whittaker.

In 2005, Glover co-founded NY-based Louverture Films with writer/producer Joslyn Barnes and more recent partners Susan Rockefeller and the Bertha Foundation. The company is dedicated to the development and production of films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value and artistic integrity. Among the films Glover has executive- or co-produced at Louverture are the César-nominated Bamako, Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the Academy Award® and Emmy nominated film Trouble The Water; the award-winning The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 and Concerning Violence; Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner The House I Live In; Cannes Palme d’Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, the Academy Award® nominated and Emmy winning Strong Island, ZAMAby Lucrecia Martel, and this year’s Oscar® nominated documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening by RaMell Ross and Oscar® nominated Best Foreign Language Film Capernaum by Nadine Labaki.

A native of San Francisco, Glover trained at the Black Actors’ Workshop of the American Conservatory Theatre. It was his Broadway debut in Fugard’s Master Harold…and the Boys that brought him to national recognition and led director Robert Benton to cast him in his first leading role in 1984’s Academy Award-nominated Best Picture, Places in the Heart. The following year Glover starred in two more Best Picture nominated films: Peter Weir’s Witness and Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple. In 1987 Glover partnered with Mel Gibson in the first Lethal Weapon film and went on to star in three hugely successful Lethal Weapon sequels. Glover starred in The Royal Tenenbaums and To Sleep With Anger which he executive produced and for which he won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor. On the small screen, Glover won an Image Award, a Cable ACE Award and earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the HBO Movie Mandela. He has also received Emmy nominations for his work in the acclaimed miniseries Lonesome Dove, the telefilm Freedom Song, and as a director he earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for Showtime’s Just a Dream. Glover also appeared in the HBO Original Movie Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight.

Glover starred in Mr. Pig which had its debut at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and which is now on Netflix. Co-starring Maya Rudolph, Mr. Pig was filming entirely on location in Mexico and is a tour de force for him. He starred in Almost Christmas for Universal Studios, in Rage co-starring Nicolas Cage, Beyond the Lights and Complete Unknown. He also co-starred in the highly-acclaimed feature film The Old Man & The Gun with Robert Redford and in the films Proud Mary opposite Taraji P. Henson, Come Sunday and Sorry to Bother You. Glover also had a pivotal role in the Critically-acclaimed Last Black Man in San Francisco.

Most recently Glover appeared in the Sony Pictures box office hitJumanji: Welcome to The Jungle co-starring Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black and Danny DeVito. He just completed filming the independent feature Press Play on location in Hawaii.

Dr. Gregory Budzban joined the Department of Mathematics of Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 1991, was promoted to the rank of Professor in the department in 2006, and served as Chair of the department from 2010-2015.  He was named Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences of SIU-Edwardsville in August 2015, a position from which he has recently retired. Since 2001, he has collaborated with Bob Moses and his colleagues at the Algebra Project and Young People’s Project to help design novel curriculum materials based on mathematically-rich experiences to help all students in the country receive the mathematics education they truly deserve. 

The Algebra Project, Inc.

Since the mid-1990’s BJ Walker has served as a public official, managing a broad portfolio of human services programs in the administrations of Governors in Georgia and Illinois and the Mayor of the City of Chicago. As Commissioner in Georgia from 2004 to 2011, she was responsible for child welfare, public health, behavioral health, developmental disabilities, TANF, childcare, food stamps, Medicaid eligibility, aging, and child support. In Illinois, she managed a statewide human services reform effort, resulting in the historical consolidation of many of IL’s human and social services under one umbrella agency and then ran the State’s community services Division. Serving as Deputy Chief of Staff for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, her portfolio included oversight of major mayoral initiatives in human services, education and out of school time programming for youth. Most recently, she served as Acting Director for the IL Department of Children and Family Services, following her 2017 retirement from Deloitte Consulting LLP where she served for five years as a Managing Director in their national public sector practice. Previously, she worked with Franklin Covey in their Four Disciplines of Execution practice and served as a Senior Fellow with the Annie E. Casey Foundation.  She now manages a consulting practice, In the Public Way, Inc. which serves as a platform (inthepublicway.com) for supporting state and non-profit leaders engaged in transformational change management efforts. In 1993, BJ Walker was awarded a prestigious yearlong resident Fellowship with the Annie E. Casey Foundation. BJ has an MA degree from Northwestern University and a BA from Mt Holyoke College.  In the 1990’s she served as board chair for The Chicago Algebra Project and now serves as a board member with the national Algebra Project, Inc and the Stewards of Change Institute.