Michael Thomas Duffy is the president of the Great Oaks Foundation, which has a mission is to provide students with access to a quality education through high dosage tutoring. Previously he worked at the NYC Department of Education under Chancellor Joel Klein, working for three years in the administration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg to help expand the number of high quality charter schools. Michael’s efforts in education grew out of his work in the civil rights movement, having served as the chairman and commissioner of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ civil rights enforcement agency, a position he held for six years. He has also held leadership positions in the non-profit sector: he served on the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Campaign, for several years as its co-chair; two terms on the Vestry of St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan; and is currently chair of the board of the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts in Old Lyme CT, where he and his husband Patrick have a home. Michael has a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where he wrote his thesis on business support for child day care and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity College in Connecticut with a degree in Economics. For the past 12 years he has been an adjunct professor at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service.