Who

Kopp's Teach for America sticks recent college grads in crummy public schools in an effort to improve the American educational system.

Backstory

Kopp came up with the idea for Teach for America—a Peace Corps-style program to bring teachers to poor schools—while she was an undergrad at Princeton. She made the idea her senior thesis; a year later, in 1990, she set about making it a reality. More than a decade and a half later, Teach for America continues to place idealistic 20-somethings (often freshly minted undergrads) in America's lousiest schools for two years. It now has 3,500 teachers deployed across America (with plans to grow to 8,000 by 2010) and counts 10,000 alums. In 2003, Kopp published a memoir about TFA, One Day, All Children: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach for America and What I Learned Along the Way.

Of note

Teach for America has been widely praised for creating a culture of public service but it's had its share of critics, too. Some say the program is elitist (it accepts only about 17 percent of applicants) and that its mainly middle-class teachers aren't prepared to deal with the challenges of inner-city schools. But like so many non-profits, the biggest challenge for the group has been raising cash. In 2002, the federal government cut off its $14 million annual AmeriCorps grant; these days just 30 percent of Teach for America's $70 million operating budget comes from government agencies like the Department of Education. But Kopp has been busy on the fundraising front. She recently collected $60 million in donations from about a dozen donors.

Personal

Kopp's husband, Richard Barth, is the CEO of Knowledge is Power, an educational outreach program. They have four kids—Benjamin, Francis, Haddon, and Georgina—and live on West End Avenue.

True story

Kopp appeared on an episode of The Colbert Report and Stephen Colbert suggested the perhaps easiest way to alleviate differences in education would be to eliminate education entirely. Kopp didn't appear terribly amused.