Governor, Magic Johnson, LAUSD's Top Dog on Schedule at Milken Conference Today

Gov. Jerry Brown, Basketball Hall of Fame member Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy are among today's scheduled participants in the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills.

Brown will be part of a panel titled "The Remarkable Potential of Precision Medicine," which uses genomics -- the study of genomes, all the inheritable traits of an organism -- medical devices, computer science and other fields to treat individual patients, instead of broad populations, with the safest and most effective therapies for their specific conditions.

The other panelists are UC San Diego Chancellor Pradeep Khosla, UC San Francisco Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Jeffrey Bluestone, and Christopher Austin, the director of the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

The discussion will be moderated by Michael Milken, the one-time junk bond king now chairman of the Milken Institute, which organized the conference at The Beverly Hilton.

Johnson will be part of a panel on "The Business of Sports," along with NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France, Arizona Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald, and South African billionaire mining magnate Patrice Motsepe, the owner of the Mamelodi Sundowns FC of South Africa's Premier Soccer League.

Deasy will be among the participants in a discussion titled "Textbooks, Tablets and Teaching: Reinventing How We Learn." Deasy has drawn criticism for his use of bond funds intended for construction projects for a $1 billion plan to give all students iPads.

University of California President Janet Napolitano will be part of a panel examining "The Future of Higher Education," along with Northeastern University President Joseph Aoun and George Washington University President Steven Knapp.

Napolitano will also be part of a panel on "Leaders on Leadership," a discussion on long-term thinking in industry, markets, government, education and life. The other panelists are Wynn Resorts Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn and Howard Marks, chairman of the Oaktree Capital Group, LLC. Milken will moderate the discussion.

The conference concludes today.

--City News Service