Kumar Garg, President, Renaissance Philanthropy

Working both for President Obama and then Eric Schmidt, Kumar has been active in building out the field of learning engineering, which sits at the intersection of learning science and computer science. He previously shaped science and technology policy for the Obama Administration for nearly eight years, serving in a variety of roles in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Examples include (1) the Educate to Innovate campaign, with more than $1 billion in in-kind and philanthropic investment; (2) development of major State of the Union initiatives to train 100,000 excellent STEM teachers and bring computer science to all K–12 students; and (3) creation of iconic events such as the White House Science Fair. Prior to his time in government, Kumar worked on behalf of parents and children seeking educational reform as an education lawyer and advocate. Kumar received a BA from Dartmouth College and a law degree from Yale Law School.

Truman Liu, Program Director, LEVI Program

As Program Director for the Learning Engineering Virtual Institute (LEVI), Truman leads program implementation, including shepherding tens of millions of dollars in grant funding, tracking grantee impact, managing stakeholders (grantees, funders, partners), and building the community. Prior to LEVI, he managed education technology programs across school districts, including for 500,000+ K - 12 students at Los Angeles Unified districtwide. He gained social impact experience by working in nonprofit and philanthropic spaces across the US, Africa, and Latin America. Previously, Truman advised Fortune 500 companies as a strategic consultant; he managed complex operations for a $50B+ merger across 10,000+ employees, stood up a Fortune 100 center of excellence to standardize processes, and implemented a $25M cost reduction strategy across three continents. Truman received his MBA / MA Education from Stanford University and his BA from Georgetown University.

Ralph Abboud, Program Scientist, LEVI Program

Ralph is a Program Scientist at the Learning Engineering Virtual Institute (LEVI), working on applying large language models (LLMs) and general AI and machine learning approaches (e.g., graph neural networks, embedding models, etc.) to support LEVI grantees in their efforts to improve middle school math education. Beyond LEVI, Ralph also acts as a technical advisor on several Learning Engineering initiatives, most prominently the design and execution of technical competitions in education. Ralph holds a D.Phil. in Computer Science from the University of Oxford, specializing in graph representation learning (GRL). Before his D.Phil., Ralph completed an M.Sc. in Computer Science at the University of Oxford, studying neural approaches for program synthesis, and a B.E. in Computer Engineering from the Lebanese American University.

The Learning Agency is an operating partner of Renaissance Philanthropy, managing the implementation of key programs like the Tools Competition and Learning Engineering Virtual Institute

Ulrich Boser, CEO, The Learning Agency

Ulrich Boser is the founder of The Learning Agency. He has been an advisor to many foundations, universities, and companies. His research and writings have been influential, and his work has been featured everywhere from the front page of USA Today to The Tonight Show. Ulrich wrote a book on the science of learning titled Learn Better that was featured in many media outlets, including Wired, Slate, Vox, Fast Company, and The Atlantic. Amazon called it “the best science book of the year.” Earlier in his career, Ulrich worked as a contributing editor for U.S. News and World Report and as a researcher for the newspaper Education Week. He graduated with honors from Dartmouth College.