National Ambassadors Council

Warren Browner serves as the Chief Executive Officer of California Pacific Medical Center, a Sutter Health affiliate based in San Francisco. Sutter Health is a network of hospitals and health services that is one of the major providers of health care in Northern California. CPMC is their premier, state-of-the-art facility in central San Francisco. 

A board-certified internist and scientist, Dr. Browner previously served on the faculty at UCSF for 15 years, serving as Chief of General Internal Medicine and Acting Chief of the Medical Service at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. He has served as Executive Editor of the American Journal of Medicine for seven years and is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of General Internal Medicine. He has been a member of federal panels for the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Browner’s research focuses on the genetics of human longevity. He is the author of several books and numerous articles in scholarly journals.

Dr. Browner has supported Breakthrough San Francisco as well as Breakthrough’s National Office. His son, Michael Duryee-Browner, is Director of Curriculum and Instruction at Breakthrough San Francisco.  

Angela Duckworth is co-founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit that uses psychological science to help children thrive. She is also the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, Faculty Co-Director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative, and Faculty Co-Director of Wharton People Analytics. Prior to her career in research, Angela founded Breakthrough Cambridge (now Breakthrough Greater Boston), a program that was profiled as a Harvard Kennedy School case study and, in 2018, celebrated its 25th anniversary. She is also a former teaching fellow at Summerbridge (now Breakthrough) New Orleans. 

A 2013 MacArthur Fellow, Angela has advised the White House, the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs. She has also been a McKinsey Management Consultant and a math and science teacher at public schools in New York City, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. Angela has received numerous awards for her contributions to K-12 education, including a Beyond Z Award from the KIPP Foundation. Angela’s TED talk is among the most-viewed of all time. Her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance has been a #1 New York Times bestseller and uses her Breakthrough experiences as context for her belief in the power of persistence.

Jennifer Dulski was one of the first 500 employees at Yahoo and until recently, was the Facebook Vice President for Facebook Groups. Jennifer left Google in 2013 to join the team at Change.org as its new COO and President. Jennifer’s first job after college was founding and running Summerbridge Pittsburgh (part of the Breakthrough Collaborative). She is the author of the 2018 bestselling book, Purposeful, and currently serves on the boards of Move, Inc., Little Passports, and the Silicon Valley site of The Breakthrough Collaborative.

Josh Edelman is currently the Head of Network at Transcend where he focuses on building a vibrant national community of visionary stakeholders throughout the field of education. Previously, Josh spent over a decade at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a Senior Program Officer and then Deputy Director in the K-12 program before serving as a Senior Advisor for the US Program President. He also worked in Chicago public schools to support the development of programs that would target student achievement and performance. He has also held various leadership positions at The SEED Foundation, first on the board of directors, then as principal of The SEED School, a public charter boarding school in Washington, DC. Prior to SEED, Josh taught social studies for three years at Milton Academy in Massachusetts and seven years at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California where he was also the founder and Executive Director for RISE (Realizing Intellect through Self-Empowerment), a youth development program targeted at African-American youth.

Josh has a bachelor’s degree in American history from Harvard University, a master’s degree in education from Stanford University, and a second master’s in educational administration with an administrative credential, also from Stanford University.

An active community volunteer with a particular focus on education and the arts in the San Francisco Bay Area, Leslie is a former teacher and administrator at Stanford. She completed 11 years of service as a trustee of Stanford University, chairing the board from 2008-12. In addition, Leslie is a member of Stanford’s LEAD and Arts Advisory Councils and the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.  Previously, she served on the boards of the Breakthrough Collaborative, Alder Graduate School of Education, Aspire Public Schools, the San Francisco Day School, and many others. Leslie earned her B.A. from Radcliffe College and her Ph.D. from Stanford University. 

Netha Johnson joined Albemarle in 2018 after more than 20 years of diverse leadership experience, both domestically and internationally. Prior to his role with Albemarle, he served in several roles with 3M Company. Most recently, Johnson served as Vice President and General Manager, Electrical Markets Division where he was directly responsible for 3M’s electrical and renewable energy solutions. Prior to that, Johnson served as 3M’s Vice President, Advanced Materials Division. In this role, he was responsible for the Advanced Material Division, consisting of three distinct businesses, which provided world-leading, innovative solutions in fluoropolymer chemicals, advanced ceramics, and light-weighting materials. Preceding his business career, Johnson served as a U.S. Naval Special Operations Officer. Johnson speaks Mandarin and German and holds an MBA from Duke University and a Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California.

David Lawrence Jr. retired in 1999 as publisher of the Miami Herald to work in the area of early childhood development and readiness. He chairs The Children’s Movement of Florida, aimed at making children the state’s top priority for investment. He has served on the Governor’s Children and Youth Cabinet and twice chaired the Florida Partnership for School Readiness. He has led successful campaigns for The Children’s Trust, a dedicated source of early intervention and prevention funding for children in Miami-Dade, Florida. In 2002, he was a key figure in passing a statewide constitutional amendment to provide pre-K for all Florida 4-year-olds. He is the founding chair of the Early Learning Coalition of Miami-Dade and Monroe. His memoir, A Dedicated Life: Journalism, Justice and a Chance for Every Child, was published in 2018.

Chris Lee is a singer/songwriter and actor. He has starred in several productions across television, stage, and screen. Most notably, in 2016 he starred in the award-winning musical Hamilton, playing the roles of Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson. Lee attended Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee where he studied musical theatre. Lee grew up in Atlanta, Georgia where he was a Breakthrough Atlanta student in the early 2000s. He credits Breakthrough as being the first place where he performed in front of his peers, which fueled his passion for the arts and pursuing his dreams as an entertainer.

Hector is an impassioned advocate for the better use and application of technology to improve the lives of individuals in economically disadvantaged areas. Starting from humble beginnings on the border of Mexico, Hector rose to become the former CEO and current chair of Fortune 500’s Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). With nearly 40 years’ experience in the information technology and consumer electronics sectors as an engineer, Corporate Strategist, and Chief Executive, this UT Austin/Rice graduate, author, and Ohtli Awards winner is committed to making an impact. Hector has been a long-time supporter of Breakthrough, including serving on the board of Breakthrough Central Texas.

Keno brings over 20 years of experience as a social entrepreneur creating and implementing innovative programs in education, leadership development, and social justice. With a background that blends military service, classroom teaching, and organizational development rooted in
diversity, equity, and inclusion, he delivers senior-level leadership and guidance to multi-disciplinary teams delivering social impact. As Senior Director at Purpose, he has worked with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support their effort to elevate diverse voices that can help
broaden the conversation about the issues inhibiting economic mobility and generate deeper awareness and actionable understanding.

Before Purpose, Keno served as Vice-President of Programs at the Echoing Green Foundation where he provided strategic leadership to Echoing Green’s flagship Fellowship programs designed to identify, develop, and support early-stage social justice and climate change
leaders. A 1997 Echoing Green Fellow himself, Keno also created the Breakthrough Atlanta program, an empowering educational experience that has resulted in equitable access to higher education for over 2,000 Atlanta middle school students and prepared over 400 college-aged
teaching fellows for education sector roles. An educator at heart with a passion for leadership development, Keno also co-created and taught the Resilient Leadership course at Yale University and has served as an Executive Coach to a wide range of impact leaders around the world.

Prior to joining the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Don was the founder and CEO of Aspire Public Schools and has spent the past 40 years in public education, where he is widely recognized as a leader in public school reform and the charter school movement. In 1992, Don served as the Superintendent of San Carlos School District, where he sponsored the first charter school in California. The San Carlos Charter Learning Center became a California Distinguished School and has since served as a model for many other charter schools. In 1998, Don and entrepreneur Reed Hastings co-founded Californians for Public School Excellence, a grassroots organization that led to the passage of the Charter Schools Act of 1998, which lifted the cap on the number of charter schools in the state. Dr. Shalvey also served as a recent member of Breakthrough Collaborative’s Strategic Planning Committee.

With a staff of more than 40 employees, Stein oversaw the corporate legal group, the litigation and claims group, and the global compliance and ethics group for the company’s various brands. Stein joined Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in 1992. In 2006 he was appointed General Counsel and also held positions as Deputy General Counsel and Assistant General Counsel. Stein worked in private practice in Miami and New York before he joined the company. Stein is a long-time supporter and former Breakthrough Miami board member.

Ruth Zukerman is the co-founder of SoulCycle and Flywheel, both wildly successful companies that innovated the studio cycling movement. She pioneered the boutique fitness industry by creating a pay-per-class structure and offering a more dedicated genre of group fitness, emphasizing customer service, and quality experiences. Zukerman speaks around the country, inspiring people to get unstuck, and find new paths and passion for a successful second, third, or even fourth act in their careers. She’s currently at Flywheel as Creative Director and still teaches classes there every week. Her memoir, RIDING HIGH: How I Kissed SoulCycle Goodbye, Co-Founded Flywheel and Built the Life I Always Wanted, was published in October 2018.