Happy Friday, everyone. I can remember a time when things slowed down in the summer, but no more, right? Just keep pushing on! But do take a quick look at the scoops I have for you and some EdNET updates before your weekend starts—and when it does, I hope it is a terrific one!
New roles for colleagues and friends….
James L. Accomando of Fairfield, Connecticut has been installed as the 55th president of National PTA, the oldest and largest all volunteer child advocacy association in the United States. Accomando’s installation took place during a ceremony at the 2017 National PTA Convention & Expo in Las Vegas.
A father of two children, the husband of a public school teacher, and with a K-12 teaching credential of his own, Accomando has been engaged in education and active in PTA for nearly 20 years. He firmly believes in the mission of PTA and that everyone can make a difference in the lives and futures of all children.
As president, Accomando is committed to ensuring that all children have equity and quality in learning and access to a first-class public education. He will also focus on making sure PTA is relevant to today’s families.
Accomando has served in a variety of leadership positions in PTA. For the past two years, he served as president-elect of National PTA. Prior to his election, he served a two-year term on the National PTA Board of Directors and was also a member of the National PTA Standards of Affiliation Committee. Additionally, he served as president of the Connecticut PTSA, president of Fairfield Ludlowe High School PTA, and was a board member and executive at Holland Hill Elementary School and Fairfield Woods and Tomlinson Middle Schools. While president of Connecticut PTSA, he was instrumental in the Snow Flakes for Sandy Hook Elementary School Healing Initiative.
Accomando will serve as president of National PTA until June 2019. Please join me in congratulating him on this new role!
Parchman, Vaughan, & Company, LLC, a leading middle market investment bank focused on the education and training industries, continues its long-standing partnership with the Morehead-Cain Foundation by welcoming Morehead-Cain scholar Jacob Schmidt as a summer analyst. Jacob is a rising junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, pursuing a Business Administration degree from the prestigious UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School. He is a member of the varsity football team at North Carolina and also commits time to the school’s Athletes in Action organization. He spent last summer in Cape Town, South Africa as a mentor and coach at the Ubuntu Football Academy, a non-profit organization focused on empowering young boys through sports and developing the next generation of African leaders.
The Morehead-Cain Foundation is the United States’ oldest and most prestigious merit scholarship program, which features a distinctive summer enrichment program designed to support students throughout their college experiences. During the course of four summers, scholars have opportunities to complete an outdoor leadership course, commit themselves to public service in the U.S. or abroad, conduct research at sites around the world, and gain experience in private enterprise.
The selection criteria for Morehead-Cain Scholars are leadership, academic achievement, moral force of character and physical vigor. Recipients are chosen solely based on merit and accomplishment. Less than 3 percent of all applicants receive the scholarship.
Congratulations to Jacob and kudos to the terrific Parchman-Vaughan team!
Authors!
Bernard Percy, Owner, and Lee Eichenbaum, CEO, Foundations of Brilliance, are celebrating the release of their book, Your Right Career.
Your Right Career is said to be written for those who realize they’re not achieving the quality of life they want from their career or education path. This book is for those you really want to help improve the quality of life by helping them go confidently in the direction of their dreams and live the life they imagine.
As many of you know, Bernard is a former New York City public school teacher who is now an internationally renowned author and lecturer. He has traveled across the world to over 30 countries and personally delivered hundreds of seminars, workshops, and well over a thousand individual consultations to help people figure out the right education or career path.
Congratulations, Bernard and Lee, on this new accomplishment!
First off, let me say welcome to a new EdNET 2017 sponsor: Westchester Publishing Services. We appreciate their support and the support of all of our sponsors. View the impressive list!
Tune in to Education Talk Radio on Wednesday! On July 12th, I will be interviewed by our friend Larry Jacobs about programming for this year’s EdNET conference. Two of this year’s EdNET Advisory Board members, Dayton Johnson, President, Dayton Johnson Executive Search and Consultancy, and Katharine Mobley, Chief Marketing Officer at Crescerance, will be joining me. Please tune in at 10:30 ET on Education Talk Radio. It will be fun!
Now that everyone is back from the hustle and bustle of ISTE, if you haven’t registered yet for EdNET, go do that now. You will save yourself money by registering with the discount available only through July 31st. Don’t be late! Register now!
And last but not least….I hope you enjoy the column I wrote for this week’s newsletter, Vicki’s Top 10 List of Things You’re Going to Love About EdNET 2017. I had a lot of fun writing it, and it gave me a chance to highlight all the exciting things—a number of them new, based on feedback from you—you will find at this year’s conference. Check it out!
And sad news to share….
Dr. Eamon Michael Kelly, who spent nearly two decades as president of Tulane University, passed away on June 28th from complications from surgery at the age of 81. Dr. Kelly, the child of Irish immigrants, grew up in the Bronx during the Great Depression and World War II. All around him, “people were sick and people were out of work,” his son said. “And he wanted to help them.” To do that, he chose economics as his career path. A native of New York, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University and a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University in 1965. He worked as an assistant professor at Penn State University and then for a decade at the Ford Foundation in New York, during which time he also served as chairman of the City Council of Englewood, New Jersey.
Kelly and his family moved to New Orleans in 1979, when he became Tulane’s chief financial officer and executive vice president. He became interim president the following year and took over the position permanently in 1981. He served till 1998, taking over an institution that perpetually ran deficits, balanced its budget after his first year on the job and during his tenure helped increase the school’s endowment from $50 million to $406 million and its net worth from $190 million to $610 million. He also instituted Tulane’s nondiscrimination policy for recruiting faculty and students. The university was noted for having the highest percentage of African-American students of any major private research university in the United States.
Kelly retired in 1998 to spend more time with his family, but colleagues tended to put the word “retirement” in quotation marks when they discussed it. He continued serving on philanthropic and governmental boards, focusing on science and technology, poverty and international development in Africa and the Far East.
Kelly was a former chairman of the board of the National Science Foundation and the original chairman of the Satellite Working Group, which established the first nationwide private satellite system in the United States to benefit the Public Broadcasting Service. He co-founded the Payson Graduate Program in Global Development and worked to improve organizational leadership and management in countries throughout the developing world, from Rwanda to Brazil.
Dr. Kelly was Chairman of the Board of Digital Promise and Digital Promise Global. From an open letter posted on the organization’s website following his death: “Dr. Kelly was instrumental in turning Digital Promise from an idea into a reality, serving as Chairman from our launch in 2011 until his passing. His leadership, deep expertise, and wisdom guided us to our current success. And his warmth, wry humor, and quiet presence made him a pleasure to work with. He will be deeply missed.”
His honors included the Anti-Defamation League’s Torch of Liberty Award, the National Arts Club Centennial Medal for Contributions to Education and Humanity, the NAACP’s George Washington Lucas Community Service Award, and honorary degrees from Xavier and Jackson State University. At the time of his death, he was serving as Director of Policy Formulation with the Economic Development Administration, Chairman of the Association of American Universities, and Chairman of the Satellite Working Group. He also served as a special consultant to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1977, helping draft legislation that prevented the insolvency of New York City.
Dr. Kelly’s passing is a tremendous loss, but what an amazing and what will be lasting impact he made during his life. Our thoughts and prayers are with all who now mourn his death.
OK weekend, here we come! I really need a quiet one and am hoping that’s what I get. Have whatever works for you, and I will see you next week. Till then….Vicki, the Snoop
[Send me your scoops at bighamv@aol.com and be sure to follow me on Twitter @Snoops4Scoops #SheSnoops]
