Clay is the Founder and President of Roberts & Associates, a company dedicated to the development of healthy contributing young people. 

Mr. Roberts has worked as an entrepreneur, author, consultant and is a nationally recognized speaker.  He and his team have developed several national model programs including; Here’s Looking at You 2000, a K-12 drug prevention program, and Natural Helpers, a peer-helper program.

Clay has appeared as a prevention expert on the “Today Show”. His programs have been highlighted on “PBS Frontline”, “Hour Magazine”, and in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report and Instructor Magazine. He has been a keynote presenter at over 700 international, national, state and local conferences and community events.

Pedro Noguera is a Distinguished Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA.  A sociologist, Noguera's research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions, as well as by demographic trends in local, regional and global contexts.  He is the author, co-author and editor of thirteen books.  His most recent books are The Crisis of Connection with Niobe Way, Carol Gilligan and Aisha Ali (NYU Press) and Race, Equity and Education: The Pursuit of Equality in Education 60 Years After Brown (Springer Press), and he has published over 250 research articles, book chapters, research reports and editorials. He serves on the boards of numerous national and local organizations, including the Economic Policy Institute, the National Equity Institute and The Nation Magazine.  Noguera appears as a regular commentator on educational issues on several national media outlets, and his editorials on educational issues have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News and Los Angeles Times.  Prior to joining the faculty at UCLA he served as a tenured professor and holder of endowed chairs at New York University (2003 – 2015) Harvard University (2000 – 2003) and the University of California, Berkeley (1990 – 2000).  Noguera was recently appointed to serve as a special advisor to the Governor of New Mexico on education policy. He also advises the state departments of education in Washington, Oregon and Nevada, and from 2009 - 2012 he served as a Trustee for the State University of New York (SUNY) as an appointee of the Governor.  In 2014 he was elected to the National Academy of Education and Phi Delta Kappa honor society.  Noguera has received seven honorary doctorates from American universities, and he recently received awards from the Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, from the National Association of Secondary Principals, and from the McSilver Institute at NYU for his research and advocacy efforts aimed at fighting poverty.

Michael R. McCormick is the Superintendent of the Val Verde Unified School District. He was named Superintendent of the Year in 2018 for Riverside County by the Association of California School Administrators (ACSA) and Instructional Leader of the Year in 2019 by the California Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).

Michaelis known for his passion for innovation and helping students attain their higher education aspirations. Before becoming Superintendent, Michael served six years as the Assistant Superintendent for Education Services for Val Verde USD. Under his leadership, VVUSD has been recognized by the Leadership Policy Institute as a California school district that is “beating the odds” for African American and Hispanic students. Recently, Education Trust West named Val Verde USD as “tops among California districts closing the achievement gap.”

The Val Verde Unified School District is known for its emphasis on technology integration, and Michael has presented multiple keynotes at Google Symposiums focusing on the successful implementation of instructional technology in a K-12 school district.