An Educational Dinner at the Mayor's with Mind Research

An Educational Dinner at the Mayor’s with Mind Research

I was lucky to attend such an interesting informative dinner on Monday night with Mayor Villaraigosa, at his Residence, the Getty House, with a truly exceptional group: Monica Garcia of LAUSD, the Ambassador to Uruguay, Frank Baxter, Dr. James Rosser, president of CSULA, Gale Banks, Apple of the Black Eyed Peas, and Dr. Matthew Peterson, Nigel Nisbet & Chiara Tellini of Mind Research, discussing Public School Education and LAUSD. The Mayor has done a great job with inner-city and South LA schools in LAUSD. I have to say, I am impressed. Apple came to the US as a young kid from the Philippines. He is almost blind and was having trouble in school. Once in the US, he was able to have his sight problem diagnosed and was then able to find a way to learn. Dr. Matthew Peterson, the founder of Mind Research, was himself dyslexic, and in fifth grade still could not read. Now, he has a PhD in neuro-science and systems engineering and additional degrees in Mandarin language and literature. Oh, and he runs this extremely successful software company. Nigel Nisbet is a rock star turned mathematician and gamer which makes him a perfect player in Mind Research. What an amazing group to discuss the future of public school education.