Join us at 4:45 pm on Tuesday, Oct 26th to hear from Rajiv Vinnakota, co-founder and managing director of the SEED Foundation, Inc.
About Rajiv Vinnakota
Rajiv Vinnakota is co-founder and managing director of the SEED Foundation, Inc., an organization devoted to bringing outstanding educational opportunities to underserved inner city communities.
Prior to co-founding SEED, Vinnakota was an associate at Mercer Management Consulting, where he worked on strategic and financial projects in a variety of industries. He has been involved with programs for inner-city and adjudicated children and served on the board of The Empower Program, which worked with youth to end the culture of violence. He graduated from Princeton University with a degree in molecular biology and a certificate of studies from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy. Vinnakota is an Echoing Green fellow, an Ashoka fellow and a former trustee of Princeton University. He recently served his alma mater as the national chair for Annual Giving and is on the executive committee of the Aspire capital campaign for Princeton. Vinnakota is also a board director for a public company, Colfax Corporation (NYSE: CFX).
For his work at The SEED Foundation Raj has been named a Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian magazine and has received the Manhattan Institute’s Social Entrepreneurship Award, and an Oprah Winfrey “Use Your Life” Award. Vinnakota was also named the 2009 winner of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson Award, the highest honor that Princeton bestows on an undergraduate alumnus. Vinnakota is married and has one daughter and two cats.
Make Plans Now to Join Us for a Presidential Address by Dr. Nancy Zimpher on Wednesday, Oct. 27
About Dr. Zimpher
On June 1, 2009, Dr. Zimpher became the 12th Chancellor of the State University of New York by unanimous vote of the SUNY Board of Trustees. With more than 440,000 students, SUNY is the nation’s largest comprehensive public university system.
A dynamic and nationally-recognized leader, Chancellor Zimpher is known as an effective agent of change in higher education. The Chancellor began her career as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in the Ozarks and has never lost her passion for providing accessible, quality education for every student.
As the first academic in recent memory to be appointed Chancellor, she is also the first woman to serve in this capacity in the system’s 60-year history.
As President of the University of Cincinnati, Dr. Zimpher led a bold, aggressive strategic planning process, UC|21: Defining the New Urban Research University, which transformed the campus into a national powerhouse and a model for urban universities in the 21st Century. Under her leadership, UC’s retention and graduation rates, student satisfaction ratings and national rankings all improved.
Prior to her tenure at UC, Dr. Zimpher served as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Executive Dean of the Professional Colleges and Dean of the College of Education at The Ohio State University.
Chancellor Zimpher began her work at SUNY with a statewide tour of SUNY’s 64 campuses, and has engaged a strategic planning process for the SUNY system that will serve as a model for statewide collaboration for public higher education in New York State and beyond.
She has authored or co-authored numerous books, monographs and academic journal articles on teacher education, urban education, academic leadership, and school/university partnerships.
Chancellor Zimpher holds a bachelor’s degree in English Education and Speech, a master’s degree in English Literature, and a Ph.D. in Teacher Education and Higher Education Administration, all from The Ohio State University.
Chancellor Zimpher also chairs the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities Board; is a past chair of the National Association of State University and Land-Grant Colleges Board of Directors; and is a member of the National Board for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education.
She is married to Dr. Kenneth R. Howey, a nationally recognized expert and researcher in teacher preparation, particularly in urban settings. Dr. Zimpher has one son, Fletcher, and two step-sons, Mark and Michael.
Join us for a lunch on Oct. 27 and a thought-provoking speech by Deborah Jewell-Sherman, Senior Lecturer on Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
About the Presentation:
A Leadership Framework for Achieving
Excellence and Equity for All Learners
The achievement challenge that faces all educators in the pre-kindergarten through 16 continuum is monumental. Too often, demography defines destiny for many students. The stakes have never been higher, and those who view closing the gap as a moral imperative embrace both innovation and accountability. In order to achieve excellence and equity for all learners, we must first understand the achievement gap and emphasize the need for a heightened sense of urgency. We must then develop a comprehensive framework for addressing this complex challenge and examine and learn from successes and failures in our institutions.
About Deborah Jewell-Sherman
Dr. Jewell-Sherman is a graduate of Harvard Graduate School of Education's Urban Superintendents Program and has built a reputation over the past decade as one of the most successful urban district superintendents in the country. Prior to joining the Harvard Graduate School of Education's faculty, Dr. Jewell-Sherman served as superintendent of Richmond Public Schools - with a track record of success that culminated in her being named Virginia Superintendent of the Year 2009 by the Virginia Association of School Superintendents (VASS). During her appointment, 95 percent of Richmond's lowest performing schools achieved full accreditation under Virginia's Standards of Learning reform legislation. In addition, the district improved from 18 percent to 91.7 percent of all schools meeting this standard as measured by the State Department of Education (2008). Currently, Dr. Jewell-Sherman serves as the Director of the Urban Superintendents Program and is the principal investigator for an initiative between the faculty of HGSE and the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. In the fall of 2010, Dr. Jewell-Sherman will serve as a key faculty member for HGSE's new Doctor of Education Leadership Degree (Ed.L.D).
