Nicholas Torres, MEd, has more than 20 years of experience in executive management. He has built and led one of the largest and most nationally recognized human services organizations, founded and governed two charter schools, founded a nonprofit to scale high-impact social enterprises (including school-based health centers and high school/college access and completion pipelines), and founded a social sector innovative thinking management consulting organization.

Folasade (Sade) A. Olanipekun-Lewis is the Regional Director for Government Affairs and Air Service at American Airlines.

Matthew Stitt is a director and national lead for equitable recovery and strategic financial initiatives in PFM’s Management and Budget Consulting team. He is also co-director of PFM’s recently launched Center for Budget Equity and Innovation and is currently leading the firm’s work on budgeting for equity for the cities of Syracuse, New York, Norfolk, Virginia, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Mr.

Claire Robertson-Kraft, PhD, is the Founder and Director of ImpactED and an instructor at the University of Pennsylvania. She has more than ten years of experience working as a teacher, evaluator, and non-profit leader in the Philadelphia region. She has extensive experience teaching research methods and conducting evaluations in the areas of education, public policy, positive psychology, social impact, and community engagement. 

Michael DiBerardinis joined Fels as a full-time Professor of Practice in January 2018. Prior to this role, he served as Managing Director for the City of Philadelphia under Major James Kenney since January 2016. As Managing Director, he played a critical role in the Kenney administration, overseeing and coordinating activity across most major operating departments of the city's government.

Samantha Sangenito is an instructor at the Fels Institute of Government and Political Science department at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches topics in data science to graduate and undergraduate students. As a data scientist in the public sector, she developed performance management systems that allow communities to track and evaluate their efforts towards becoming trauma-informed.

Lauren Russell holds a PhD in economics from MIT and a bachelor's degree in economics, mathematics, and mathematical methods in the social sciences from Northwestern University. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and the Social Sciences at Dartmouth College from 2017-2019, she managed the Policy Research Shop which produced research for the state legislators in Vermont and New Hampshire and local policymakers. Professor Russell has taught at the Fels Institute of Government since 2019 and has served as a faculty co-director since 2023.