Leadership

Cornelia Grumman, Executive Director

As Executive Director of the First Five Years Fund, Cornelia Grumman oversees FFYF's advocacy, communications, and alliance-building strategies. Prior to joining FFYF in January 2008, Grumman served on the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune, where she wrote mainly about education, politics, criminal justice, and other social policy issues. Grumman won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for her series of editorials calling for death penalty reform.

Grumman earned a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree from Duke University. She lives in Chicago with her husband, Jim Warren, and their two sons, Blair and Eliot.

K. Shiek Pal, Esq., Director of Policy and Government Relations

K. Shiek Pal is an attorney and public policy specialist with broad experience spanning education reform issues, corporate law practice, and international affairs.

Mr. Pal’s legal practice has included merger control work with the U.S. Department of Justice and in private practice where he represented numerous Fortune 100 clients. Mr. Pal has also served as a legal and policy advisor on domestic education reform issues to non‐profit organizations, state level government agencies, and political campaigns. Mr. Pal's education experience includes teaching at an innercity public school, helping to open and direct charter schools, and serving as Assistant General Counsel to Teach For America.

Most recently, Mr. Pal was the Assistant Attorney General and Counsel to the

Assistant Superintendent for Early Childhood Education in the District of Columbia.

This position built on his prior K‐12 teaching and policy experience, and provided

insight across the full range of educational issues from birth through high school

graduation. Additionally, Mr. Pal has been expanding his policy expertise into the

international arena. He is currently studying Middle Eastern and Persian Gulf

security issues at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, where his research

focuses on the role of education in terrorist recruitment and radicalization.

Mr. Pal earned a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government, a J.D. from Boston University and a B.A. in Asian studies and international relations from Trinity College; he is currently earning an M.A. in Middle Eastern Security Studies from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. Mr. Pal currently serves as a director on the board of CentroNia, a nonprofit organization providing bilingual early childhood education in Washington D.C., as well as on the Advisory Board of The Generation Project, a national educational philanthropic organization. He resides in Arlington, VA with his adorable terrier Boogie.