HOME > ABOUT > People

Meet the People Behind the Network

Anthony Jackson, Chief Executive Officer
Shari Albright, Chief Operating Officer
Judith Conk, Director of Academic Affairs
Barbara Kelley, Director of Professional Development
Jennifer Chidsey Pizzo, Director of Data Services and Curriculum
Deborah Agrin, Senior Program Associate
Wendy Blankenburg, Executive Associate

Vivien Stewart, ISSN founder and Vice President for Education, Asia Society

Anthony Jackson
Chief Executive Officer, International Studies Schools Network
Executive Director, Asia Society

Anthony Jackson, Ph.D., trained in both developmental psychology and education, is one of the nation’s leading experts on secondary school reform and adolescent development.  Before joining Asia Society as Executive Director of the International Studies Schools Network and after serving as the Director of the Walt Disney Company’s Disney Learning Partnership, Dr. Jackson acted as Vice President for Development and Communications at the Galef Institute in Los Angeles.  Prior to this, Dr. Jackson directed the Carnegie Corporation Task Force on the Education of Young Adolescents, which produced the seminal Turning Points report on middle school reform, and also authored the follow-up blueprint, Turning Points 2000.

Shari Albright
Chief Operating Officer, International Studies Schools Network
Executive Director, Asia Society

Shari Becker Albright, Ed.D., is the Chief Operating Officer for Asia Society's International Studies Schools Network. Before joining Asia Society, Shari was the principal of International School of the Americas (ISA), a public, internationally-focused magnet school in San Antonio, Texas.  The school was the recipient of the Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize for Excellence in International Education and serves as a mentor school for the Coalition of Essential Schools.  During her tenure with the International School, she also served as the Director of the North East School of the Arts and as a professor of educational leadership with Trinity University for the last 10 years.  Shari was named the HEB Excellence in Education Texas High School Principal of the Year in 2005.

Judith Conk
Director of Academic Affairs
International Studies Schools Network

Judy Conk is the Director of Academic Affairs for the International Studies Schools Network.  Before retiring from public school administration in 2001, she worked in both urban and suburban settings as a Principal, Assistant Superintendent, and for sixteen years, as a Superintendent.

Mrs. Conk has spoken and written on topics such as school change, leadership development, assessment, arts education, staff development, instructional strategies, and multiple intelligences in the classroom.  She is a member of the Professional Development Cadre of the National Middle School Association as well as the Speakers Bureau of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Partners in Education Program.  In May of 1996, Mrs. Conk was awarded the prestigious Distinguished Service Award for Educational Leadership from the New Jersey Association of School Administrators.  Mrs. Conk also received a Governor’s Award in Arts Education as Outstanding Superintendent of 2001. 

Barbara Kelley
Director of Professional Development
International Studies Schools Network

Barbara Kelley was inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame in 2004.  She served as the only teacher to chair the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, succeeding founding Chair, Governor Hunt of North Carolina.  Barbara served as a consultant to the Romanian Education Ministry in 2001 – 2002.  She led delegations of National Board Certified Teachers to China, Australia/New Zealand and Russia for the People to People Ambassadors Program.  In 1999, Teacher Magazine named her one of ten people who shaped the decade in American education. She retired after teaching physical education for twenty-nine years.  Ms. Kelley received a Milken National Educator Award in 1998.  She is a former Maine Physical Education Teacher of the Year and High School Coach of the Year.

Jennifer Chidsey Pizzo
Director of Data Services and Curriculum
International Studies Schools Network

Jennifer L. Chidsey Pizzo is the Director of Data Services and Curriculum for the Asia Society’s International Studies Schools Network.  Prior to joining Asia Society, Jenn was Director of K-12 Initiatives at University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education where she focused on internationalizing K-12 education in West Philadelphia schools and directed the SPARK! Project, an NSF-funded initiative to engage urban middle school students in science, math, engineering and technology activities.  Prior to Penn she was Director of Education and Outreach for Ross Institute in New York City and Director of Curriculum and Assessment and member of the Leadership Council (Head of School team) for Ross School in East Hampton, New York. A former science teacher, Jennifer was previously Dean of Science at Ross School. She has taught elementary, secondary and post-secondary students and currently is an instructor in Penn’s Master’s of Integrated Science Program. She has held the positions of Curator of Science Education at the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science and Director of Education at the Iowa City Area Science Center.

Deborah Agrin
Program Associate, Education
Asia Society

Deborah Agrin is an Senior Education Program Associate at Asia Society, working to promote international education and expand opportunities for experiential learning for faculty and students in the International Studies Schools Network.  Prior to Asia Society, Ms. Agrin provided support for international students working in the United States requiring help with employment, insurance, taxes, and government regulations at the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE).  Ms. Agrin holds a M.A. in International Education from New York University and a B.A. in Psychology from Cornell University.

Wendy Blankenburg
Executive Associate
Asia Society - International Studies Schools Network

Wendy Blankenburg is the Executive Associate for Asia Society's International Studies Schools Network.  Wendy provides key administrative leadership to the Network, which is based in Asia Society's Los Angeles office.  Wendy was previously a program assistant at the Natural Resources Defense Counsel.  She has a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Human Development from Montana State University.

Vivien Stewart
Vice President, Education
Asia Society

Vivien Stewart founded the International Studies Schools Network in 2003.

Vivien Stewart is Vice President for Education at Asia Society. She is responsible for Asia Society's programs to promote the study of Asia and other world regions, cultures, languages, and global issues in America's schools and for building connections between U.S. and Asian education leaders.

In the U.S. this includes working with a network of state and national education leaders; creating a national initiative to expand the teaching of Chinese; managing a prizes program to recognize excellence in international education; providing professional development and award-winning web resources for teachers and students; and developing a model network of internationally oriented schools in cities around the U.S.

Internationally, she has developed a series of international benchmarking exchanges to share expertise between American and Asian education, business, and policy leaders on how to improve education to meet the demands of globalization. This includes delegations to one anothers' schools; producing publications (e.g., Math and Science Education in a Global Age); and hosting expert meetings such as the Asia-Pacific Education Forum held in Beijing in 2006 and to be held in New Delhi in 2008.

Ms. Stewart has had a long involvement with education and youth affairs. Over the course of a distinguished career at Carnegie Corporation of New York, she was a leader in shaping reform agendas in early childhood education, urban school reform, science education, teaching as a profession, and healthy adolescent development. In addition to grantmaking, she was responsible for the management of a number of Carnegie task forces, which produced influential reports such as Turning Points, A Matter of Time, and Starting Points. She was also instrumental in the creation of the National Center for Children in Poverty and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.