David Kirp

David L. Kirp, author of Kids First: Five Big Ideas for Transforming Children's Lives and America's Future (Public Affairs, 2011) is a professor and former acting dean at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. In 2008 he served on President Obama’s Transition Team. Previously, he taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and was the founding director of the Harvard Center on Law and Education. A former associate editor of the Sacramento Bee and a syndicated columnist, he now writes for publications including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The American Prospect and The Nation and consults with leading national and state organizations. His most recent books are The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics and Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: The Marketing of Higher Education.