Celebrating Twenty Seven Years of
Leadership Development
Since its inception in 1979,
the North Carolina Education Policy Fellowship Program has graduated over
500 Fellows. The program was sponsored by the North Carolina School Boards
Association until 1991 when it became affiliated with the Public School
Forum of North Carolina, Inc. Site co-coordinators are Jo Ann Norris and
Gladys Graves of the Forum staff. The EPFP site is in Raleigh, the state
capital, which affords the Fellows greater exposure to the diverse
policymakers who affect state policy. The program site is comprised of
individuals from the education arena including public schools, higher
education, and community colleges, as well as participants from human
services, political disciplines, and corporate and nonprofit sectors. The
Fellow is supported by a tuition grant of $2,500 from his/her sponsor and
financial support for travel and accommodations to two national
conferences, one in Atlanta, Georgia and one in Washington, DC.
Each new class continues the
trend of high caliber participants and is rich in its members' range of
experiences, both professionally and personally. Each class includes a
cohort of 25-30 Fellows who focus on technological, fiscal, legislative
and administrative issues, as well as on factors affecting children and
families. The program meets every week from mid-September to mid-May in a
dinner-seminar setting. In this setting, Fellows increase their awareness
of how public policy is made, learn whom the key players are in the
formation of this policy, and become more confident and involved in the
policy-making process. Strong efforts are made to develop and maintain
connections between the Fellows and the 500 EPFP Alumni who live and work
in North Carolina and in other states, as well as with the many resource
people who have served EPFP over the years, several of whom have become
“core curriculum.” These committed alumni become recruitment agents for
the program and routinely sponsor new Fellows year after year.
The graduation for the
2006-07 class will be held on October 30 at the Cardinal Club, Wachovia
Building, Raleigh. The keynote address will be given by Mrs. Cynthia
Marshall, State President, AT&T North Carolina. Mrs. Marshall has 26 years
of experience in the telecommunications industry, joining Pacific Bell in
1981 as a Group Manager in Operator Services. Since then she has held a
variety of line management and staff positions in operations, human
resources, network engineering and planning, and regulatory /external
affairs. She is deeply committed to advocacy for child in need of adoption
or in need of support in foster care situations. The 2007-08 class of
Fellows will serve as the “host” for the graduation. The event is also a
reunion for alumni and is attended every year by over 125 alumni and
sponsors of “who’s who in education.”
For more information about the program
and participation as a Fellow in 2007-08 contact Jo Ann Norris or Gladys
Graves, co-coordinators, at the Public School Forum. (Tel. 919-781-6833)
The application may be downloaded from the EPFP link on the Forum webpage
at
www.ncforum.org. Do not delay. Do it today!