Paige Alexander is the chief executive officer of The Carter Center, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter to advance peace and health worldwide. Before joining The Carter Center, Alexander had a distinguished global development career, with more than two decades of experience in the government and nonprofit sectors.  

Patrick Lenain is a Senior Associate with CEP. He is also an Adjunct Professor of Economics at Université de Paris-Est Créteil and teaches corporate social responsibility at EM-Normandie business school. Prior to joining CEP, Patrick worked during 23 years for the OECD, where he led policy-advice work on topics ranging from taxes, public finances, healthcare, inequality, wellbeing, gender and climate change. He has co-founded the OECD Global Forum on Productivity, which gathers policymakers and academics to advance joint engagements and best practice on productivity. He is as a member of Luxembourg’s National Productivity Council. Patrick also worked for the International Monetary Fund in several senior positions, including as Resident Representative in Kyiv, Ukraine, as well as at the European Commission and the French Treasury. He has published five books on macroeconomics, international finance, and responsible business. Patrick graduated from Université de Paris-Dauphine with a Doctorate in Economics, where he wrote a PhD thesis on the benefits of international economic cooperation. He grew up in France and today lives in Paris.

Since her first days as a classroom teacher, Catherine Truitt’s priority has been students. Ensuring that students have an opportunity to receive the best education possible is the driving force in her day-to-day work. She recognizes that today’s students are tomorrow’s workforce and remains committed to readying graduates for college or career. As North Carolina state superintendent, Truitt’s work is focused on improving the state’s public schools, expanding innovation, and creating new opportunities for students to learn, grow, and successfully transition into the post-secondary plans of their choice.

Truitt’s service in education began as a high school English teacher, where she spent 10 years in the classroom at both the high school and middle school levels. Her last three years in the classroom were spent at West Johnston High School, where she taught English to 11th and 12th grade students. It’s this classroom experience that Truitt draws from when considering how to best equip students, engage parents and invest in teachers.

In 2012, Truitt joined the International Center for Leadership in Education, where she worked as a school turnaround coach with underperforming school districts. She collaborated with principals and superintendents to craft plans to close achievement gaps while developing whole-district transformation initiatives. Truitt also served as a coach for teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade, helping them develop strategies to foster student engagement and cultivate learning.

In 2015, Truitt was given the opportunity to apply her experience as a teacher and coach to help shape education policy in North Carolina when Gov. Pat McCrory appointed her as his senior education advisor. In the Governor’s Office, she coordinated policy for all dimensions of public education and helped lead the development of strategic state education policy goals for ages 0-20.

Most recently, Truitt served as chancellor of non-profit Western Governors University North Carolina (WGU NC). As chancellor, she focused on increasing access to higher education for the 1.5 million North Carolinians with some college but no degree. Truitt collaborated with community colleges, hospitals, school districts and economic development groups to ensure that state workforce demands were being met. Prior to joining WGU NC, Truitt served as Associate Vice President of University and P-12 Partnerships at UNC General Administration, helping strengthen the educator pipeline and supporting public colleges of education.

Truitt is a 1994 graduate of the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Arts in English. She received her master’s in education from the University of Washington in 1997. She and her husband, Jeff, an attorney and captain in the U.S. Navy Reserves, live in Cary. They have one daughter in college and a son and daughter enrolled in Wake County public schools.

Dr Adepeju Adeniran is an experienced clinical and public health physician with over 15 years of experience, with core experience in the areas of health system strengthening focused on local lessons and solutions to Universal Healthcare Coverage in Nigeria. She is currently the health system strengthening lead on the Universal Health Care Access at the Lagos State Primary HealthCare Board, a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supported project. She led health services delivery, as well as advocacy for sexual health services for marginalised key populations, The Initiative for Equal Rights, ensuring that health systems focus on equity in health delivery.

Dr Adeniran is the founder and National Co-chair of the Women in Global Health Nigeria, where she leads initiatives and advocacy for gender parity in Global Health care leadership in Nigeria. She believes that LMIC health systems have significant insights to add to global health policy and aligns her career in the direction of making these contributions palpable.

Francesca Bosco has an International Law and Human Rights background and 15+ years’ experience in working for international organizations (United Nations and World Economic Forum) on action-oriented research, capacity building and technical assistance in international justice, crime and security. She has developed her expertise on countering and preventing cybercrime and misuse of technology, focusing on opportunities, risks and threats created by new technologies (like AI, Web3, etc) specifically on vulnerable communities, like humanitarian and development NGOs. She has a long-standing expertise on leading programs to foster cybersecurity and increase cyber resilience via cyber capacity building. At the Institute, she is leading the strategic engagement in programs and initiatives leveraging multistakeholder cooperation (with civil society, academia, corporates, philanthropy and public institutions) to strengthen cyber resilience and secure digital transformation as enabler to achieve the Agenda 2030 and SDGs goals.