AJ Crabill is the national school board governance leader at the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS), an organization comprising the 80 largest urban school systems across the USA. Prior to his work at CGCS, he served as a Deputy Commissioner of the Kansas City Public Schools (KCPS). Crabill chaired the 2017 and 2018 annual conferences for the International Policy Governance Association and has provided governance training to school districts nationwide to help refocus school board members on the core mission of improving student outcomes. Guided by the idea that student outcomes don't change until adult behaviors change and drawing on his intimate familiarity with the triumphs and terrors of the USA's safety nets for children, he has devoted much of his adult life to advocating for the well-being of the nation's most vulnerable youth.