The Changing Federal Role in Illinois Education

Northern Illinois University (NIU) is an engaged public research university that serves a diverse student body. As the 13th President of Northern Illinois University, Dr. Lisa C. Freeman champions the university mission, emphasizing NIU's enduring commitments to promoting the social and economic mobility of our students, producing high impact research and artistry, and engaging with the Chicagoland region. She has a deep commitment to equity and promoting excellence by matching talent with opportunity. Believing that relationships are resources, Freeman actively cultivates strategic partnerships to enhance student success, scholarly pursuits, and institutional effectiveness.

Freeman earned a B.S. in 1981, and a M.S. and D.V.M. in 1986, from Cornell University. She went on to earn a Ph.D. at The Ohio State University in 1989 and subsequently worked as a postdoctoral fellow and research scientist at the University of Rochester School of Medicine before joining the faculty of Kansas State University in 1994, and the executive leadership of Northern Illinois University in 2010. Freeman was selected as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow in 2004-5, and a Leadership Greater Chicago, Daniel Burnham Fellow in 2026.

Freeman has been widely recognized for contributions to her profession and to the communities where she has lived and worked. Among those honors are being named the Outstanding Woman Veterinarian of the Year by the Association for Women Veterinarians, and invited to join The Chicago Network, the Economic Club of Chicago, and the Commercial Club of Chicago. She has served previously on the board of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) and is currently on boards that include Altus Academy, the Brookfield Zoo Chicago, Campus Compact and the Illinois Economic Development Corporation.

Robin Steans is President of Advance Illinois, an independent policy and advocacy organization working to build a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career and civic life. She is also a Trustee of the Steans Family Foundation, where she helps guide education and community development grant making in the North Lawndale and North Chicago communities.  A longtime public school parent, Robin Steans has spent over twenty years working on public school reform.  She served as Issues Director of the Small Schools Coalition, as Associate Director of Leadership for Quality Education, and taught at public high schools in Boston, San Francisco and Chicago before going on to earn her law degree.

Ms. Steans was co-founder and past Board Chair of the Celiac Disease Center at the University of Chicago, helped found and currently serves as a Director of North Lawndale College Preparatory Charter High School, and has served on two Local School Councils.

Robin graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Brown University, received her master’s degree in Education from Stanford University, and attended law school at the University of Chicago, where she graduated cum laude and Order of the Coif. She is married and has three children, all of whom attended and graduated from Chicago Public Schools.

Mr. Palmer provides policy, legal, strategic planning, and advocacy services to education leaders across the country, including state/national policy counsel and federal advocacy before the White House, U.S. Department of Education, and Congress. He works on a wide range of major reforms, from designing K-12 policies that promote college and career readiness, to building comprehensive birth-to-five early learning systems, to promoting access and diversity in higher education. Mr. Palmer previously served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education and Attorney and Policy Advisor in the Clinton White House where he worked on the President's Race Initiative on education and civil rights issues. He holds a Juris Doctor from the University of California Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a Bachelor of Arts with honors from the University of Maryland.

Prior to her appointment as Secretary of the Illinois Department of Early Childhood (IDEC), Dr. Ramos served as First Assistant Deputy Governor for Education in the Governor’s Office.  Teresa also served as Vice President of Public Policy, Research, and Advocacy at Illinois Action for Children and as Director of Community Engagement for Advance Illinois and assisted the Governor’s education transition team. Dr. Ramos holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology with a minor in Latina/Latino Studies from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.