NCTQ is pleased to announce the addition of four new members to our prestigious Advisory Board. First we welcome two additional teachers to our board, each choosing to teach in quite different settings. Amy Jo Leonard is a Reading First coach at an elementary school located on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota. We came to know Amy Jo when she joined us at the launch of our reading study last May, testifying as to the importance of teachers' knowledge of reading instruction.

Bringing to the Advisory Board the important perspective of a new teacher, Laura Schwedes teaches at KIPP: STAR College Prep Charter School in New York City. A graduate of Princeton University and Teachers College, Laura is teaching American history.

We are also honored to have Ellen Moir join our team. Twenty years ago, Ellen decided to do something about the deplorable lack of support that new teachers typically get. She founded and now serves as the executive director of the New Teacher Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz, creating the foremost program on induction in the country and extending its important influence well beyond California borders to school districts across the nation.

Finally, welcome to Cindy Brown, Director of Education Policy at the Center for American Progress. With strong Democratic roots, Cindy serves as an important voice in the education reform community, championing issues that were once the sole proprietorship of names linked with (R). We are thrilled to have Cindy's fresh thinking and determination to move teacher compensation reform full steam ahead.

Welcome Amy Jo, Laura, Ellen and Cindy! (And we promise next year's bunch will pay more attention to gender balance!)