Daniel Pekarsky is a professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the director of the university's Joint Program in Education and Jewish Studies.

Prof. Pekarsky's academic interests focus on the ethics of education, moral education, and Jewish education. His involvement in Jewish education has included teaching at the Melton Centre for Jewish Education at the Hebrew University, developing and directing the Cleveland Fellows Program, and continuing work on a number of Mandel Foundation projects.

Dr. Eli Gottliebholds degrees in Philosophy and Developmental Psychology from Cambridge and a doctorate in the Psychology of Education from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prior to joining the faculty in 2004, Eli served for three years as a visiting professor in Cognitive Studies in Education at the University of Washington. His research examines the relations between cognition, identity and education. Recent publications include "The development of religious thinking" (Religious Education, 2006) and "Learning how to believe: Epistemic development in cultural context" (Journal of the Learning Sciences, 2007).

Israel Scheffler is Scholar-in-Residence at the Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education (Brandeis University). He is also the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Education and Philosophy Emeritus at Harvard University and a co-editor of the Mandel Foundation's Visions of Jewish Education. 

Professor Scheffler taught philosophy as a member both of the Faculty of Education and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University from 1952 until his retirement in 1992. He founded the Philosophy of Education Research Center at Harvard in 1983. When the research center was closed in 2003, Professor Scheffler established the Philosophy of Education Research Colloquia at the Mandel Center. His main interests lie in the philosophical interpretation of language, symbolism, science, and education.

Michael Inbar received his Ph.D. in Social Relations from the Johns Hopkins University in 1966. He has taught at he University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and at the Johns Hopkins University. In 1975 1976 he was Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, and in 1982 1983 at the Graduate Center of C.U.N.Y. In 1988-1989 he was a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University.

Prof. Inbar was appointed professor of Sociology and Psychology at the University of Haifa in 1976 . From 1978 to 1981 he held the post of scientific director of the Henrietta Szold Institute for Research in the Behavioral Sciences in Jerusalem.

In 1968 Prof. Inbar joined the faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he was appointed in 1981 Barbara and Morton Mandel Professor of Cognitive Social Psychology and Education. In 1983 he was elected chairman of the department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, and in 1984 Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. Since 1989 he is Professor Emeritus in the department of Sociology and Anthropology.

Dr. Inbar is a member of the Israeli Sociological Association, the American Sociological Association, the American Psychological Society, the Israeli Society for Social Psychological Research, the International Society for the Study of Argumentation, the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, and an affiliate member of the European Association of Experimental Social Psychology.

Prof. Nisan is Academic Director of the Mandel Leadership Institute and Head of the Mandel program for IDF Educational Leadership Development. He was formerly Director of the School for Educational Leadership and of the "Mandel Fellowship for Educational Researchers" Program. Prof. Nisan is a Developmental Psychologist who served as Dean of the School of Education at the Hebrew University and as a member of the Council for Higher Education. His areas of research, on which he has written extensively, include moral development and behavior and human motivation.

Moshe Halbertal is a Professor of Jewish Thought and Philosophy at the Hebrew University and a fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute.

He received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University in 1989, and from 1988-1992 he was a fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. He has served as a visiting Professor at Harvard Law School at University of Pennsylvania Law School and at NYU Law School. 

Prof. Halbertal is the author of the books “Idolatry” (co authored with Avishai Margalit) and “People of the Book: Canon, Meaning and Authority”, both published by Harvard University Press. He has also authored “Interpretative Revolutions in the Making”, and “Between Torah and Wisdom: R. Menachem ha-Meiri and The Maimonidean Halakhists in Provence”, both published in Hebrew by Magnes Press. His last book published in Hebrew is “Concealment and Revelation: The Secret and its Boundaries in Medieval Jewish Thought” (Yeriot, 2001). Moshe Halbertal is the recipient of the Bruno Award of the Rothschild foundation, and the Goren Goldstein award for the best book in Jewish Thought in the years 1997-2000.

Adam Gamoran is Professor of sociology and educational policy studies and Director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Professor Gamoran has an international reputation as a scholar conducting research and writing at the intersection of society/institutions and education, particularly science and mathematics education. Dr. Gamoran is highly respected for his knowledge of institutional structures and organizational patterns that deny access to education to under represented groups in society. A member of the National Academy of Education, his research focuses on inequality in education, resource allocation in school systems, and school reform.

He is the lead author of "Transforming teaching in math and science: How schools and districts can support change", which examines the organizational context of school reform for mathematics and science at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. He has also co-edited three books, including (with Andrew Porter) "Methodological advances in cross-national surveys of educational achievement." He received his Ph.D. in education from the University of Chicago.

Lee S. Shulman is the 8th President of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The Foundation was created by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered by the United States Congress in 1906.

Shulman was the first Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education and Professor (by courtesy) of Psychology at Stanford University. He was previously Professor of Educational Psychology and Medical Education at Michigan State University, serving as a member of that faculty from 1963 to 1982. He was the founding Co-Director of the Institute for Research on Teaching (IRT) at Michigan State University from 1976.

Shulman is a past president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). He is a member of the National Academy of Education, having served as both vice-president and president of that organization. In 2002 he was elected a Fellow of The American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Shulman's research and writings have dealt with the study of teaching and teacher education; the growth of knowledge among those learning to teach; the assessment of teaching; medical education; the psychology of instruction in science, mathematics, and medicine; the logic of educational research; and the quality of teaching in higher education.

Prof. Wineburg's work stands at the interdisciplinary crossroads of education, cognitive science, and history.  He studied religion and history at Brown and Berkeley, writing an honors thesis on Sefer Hasidim with Danny Matt in 1982.  He went on to teach in public and Jewish schools, and in 1989 completed a doctorate in Psychological Studies in Education at Stanford under Lee Shulman. He spent the next twelve years at the University of Washington, where he was Professor, Cognitive Studies in Education, and Adjunct Professor, Department of History.  For his sabbatical in 1997-98 he spent the year in Metulla (Israel), while serving as Visiting Professor at the University of Haifa and studying kabbalah with Rabbi Dovid Freedman of Tzfat.

In 2002 he returned to Stanford as Professor of Education.  His book, "Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past" was the 2002 Frederic W. Ness Award winner from the Association of American Colleges and Universities, given to the book that contributes most to the "improvement of Liberal Education and understanding the Liberal Arts."

Ms. Hochstein is a member of the founding group of Mandel Foundation's endeavors in Israel, including the Mandel Leadership Institute. A policy-planner by training, she established the Institute's policy studies department. Ms. Hochstein has contributed to major policy-analytic projects, including the West Bank Database Project, and the Commission on Jewish Education in North America. She was trained in public policy at the New School for Social Research (M.A. degree), MIT (as Humphrey Fellow) and at the University of Michigan.