Chicago Annenberg Challenge - Obama, Ayres, Nixon, Reagan, Thatcher...

[grassfed]

Barack Obama, elected by the Board of Directors as founding chairman and president of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), a Chicago public school reform project funded by the Annenberg Foundation, resigned as chairman and president in September 1999.
http://www.annenberginstitute.org/challenge/sites/chicago.html

Nixon appointed Annenberg as ambassador to the United Kingdom. Annenberg introduced Reagan to Margaret Thatcher. Leonore Annenberg was named by President Ronald Reagan as the State Department's Chief of Protocol.



The founding members of the Annenberg Chicago School Reform Collaborative announced in 1995 were:
William Ayers
Warren Chapman
Anne Hallett
Patricia Anderson, principal, Sullivan High School
Sheila Castillo, coordinator, Chicago Association of Local School Councils; LSC member, Inter-American Magnet School
Jessica Clarke, education director, Chicago Urban League
Dolores Cross, president, Chicago State University
James Deanes, president, Parent/Community Council; LSC member, Armstrong Elementary School
Lafayette Ford, LSC member, Lucy Flower Vocational High School; former chairman, Chicago School Board Nominating Commission
Adela Coronado-Greeley, teacher and founder, Inter-American Magnet School; 1993–4 Illinois Teacher of the Year
Patricia Harvey, executive assistant to the general superintendent (1993–5), chief accountability officer (1995–7), Chicago Public Schools; former principal, Hefferan Elementary School
Brenda Heffner, director, Chicago office of the Illinois State Board of Education; former principal, Haven Middle School in Evanston, and Haugan, Smyser, and Beethoven Elementary Schools in Chicago
Sokoni Karanja, executive director and founder, Centers for New Horizons; 1993 MacArthur Fellow; former member of the board of directors, Woods Charitable Fund (1987–1992)
Peter Martinez, senior program officer for education, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (1991–2001); convenor of the Alliance for Better Chicago Schools coalition (ABCs) (Spring 1988)
Coretta McFerren, executive director, West Side Schools and Communities Organizing for Restructuring and Planning (WSCORP); former staff coordinator and chief spokeswoman, People's Coaltion for Educational Reform (PCER)
Eric Outten, co-chairman, Schools First; LSC member, Hirsch High School and Burnside Elementary School
Migdalia "Millie" Rivera, executive director, Latino Institute
Joan Jeter-Slay, associate director, Designs for Change; former member, Interim Chicago School Board (1989–1990)<21><48>
Bernard Spillman, consultant, the Comer Project; former assistant superintendent for academic and vocational instructional support, Chicago Public Schools; former principal, Westinghouse Vocational High School
Lynn St. James, co-director, Chicago Forum for School Change—an affiliate of the Coalition of Essential Schools (1994–5); chief education officer, Chicago Public Schools (1995–7); former principal of Lindblom High School, King High School and Pirie Elementary School
Carol Swinney, policy advisor, Office of the Mayor
Beverly Tunney, president, Chicago Principals Association; principal, Healy Elementary School
Deborah Lynch-Walsh, director, Chicago Teachers Union Quest Center (1992–5); teacher, Marquette Elementary School (1995–2001); president, Chicago Teachers Union (2001–4)
William Ayers and Warren Chapman were elected by the Collaborative as co-chairmen of the Collaborative in 1995.
Executive director and staff
Ken Rolling, the executive director of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from September 1995 through 2001; then executive director of Parents for Public Schools (2003– ); was the former associate director and program officer for community organizing and school reform at the Woods Fund of Chicago (1985–1995).<25><26><52> In September 1995, an office administrator was hired. In August 1996, a program director, a grants manager and a financial officer were hired. In 1997, a director of development, a communications director, a communications assistant, a clerical assistant and a data manager were hired, bringing Rolling's staff to nine. The University of Illinois at Chicago provided office space rent-free to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge staff.


Board of Directors
The founding Board of Directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge as announced in 1995 were:
Patricia Albjerg Graham
Barack Obama, civil rights attorney at Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland; lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School; member of the board of directors of the Joyce Foundation and the Woods Fund of Chicago; winner, Crain's Chicago Business 40 Under 40 award, 1993; former president of the Harvard Law Review (1990–1991); former executive director of the Developing Communities Project (June 1985–May 1988)
Stanley O. Ikenberry, president of the University of Illinois (1979–1995); member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago (1983–1995); former professor of education (1965–1971) and senior vice president (1971–1979) of Pennsylvania State University
Arnold R. Weber, president of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago (1995–1999); member of the board of directors of the Arie and Ida Crown Memorial and the Tribune Company; former president of Northwestern University (1985–1994) and the University of Colorado (1980–1985); professor of labor economics and friend and colleague of George P. Shultz at MIT, the University of Chicago, and in the Nixon administration
Ray Romero, vice president and general counsel of Ameritech; Chicago School Finance Authority board member (appointed in 1992 by Governor Jim Edgar); candidate in the 1996 Democratic primary for the 5th Congressional District of Illinois; winner, Crain's Chicago Business 40 Under 40 award, 1991; former Illinois Commerce Commission commissioner (appointed in 1985 by Governor Jim Thompson); former civil rights attorney as Midwest regional director of MALDEF where he was lead counsel for Hispanic plaintiffs in the 1985 Chicago ward remap
Wanda White, executive director of the Community Workshop on Economic Development; former policy director of the Women's Self-Employment Project; former deputy commissioner of economic development under Chicago Mayors Washington, Sawyer and Daley
Susan Crown, president of the Arie and Ida Crown Memorial; vice president of Henry Crown & Company; daughter of Lester Crown
Handy Lindsey, Jr., executive director (1988–1997) then president (1997–2003) of the Field Foundation of Illinois; former associate director of the Chicago Community Trust (1986–1988)

The final Board of Directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge in 2001 were:
Patricia Albjerg Graham
Barack Obama
Edward Bottum, managing director of Chase Franklin Corp.; former president and vice chairman of Continental Illinois Bank
Connie Evans, founder and president of the Women's Self-Employment Project
Susan Blankenbaker Noyes, former labor attorney at Sidley & Austin; daughter of Republican former Indiana state senator Virginia Murphy Blankenbaker; goddaughter of Patricia Albjerg Graham
Scott C. Smith, president, CEO and publisher of the Chicago Tribune; former president, CEO and publisher of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale; former chairman of the South Florida Annenberg Challenge
Nancy Searle, consultant to the Searle Funds at the Chicago Community Trust
Victoria Chou, dean of the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago
John W. McCarter, Jr., president and CEO of the Field Museum
Jim Reynolds, Jr., co-founder, chairman and CEO of Loop Capital Services
The Board of Directors met monthly for the first six months and quarterly thereafter.

Barack Obama, elected by the Board of Directors as founding chairman and president of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (1995–1999), resigned as chairman and president in September 1999 to run as a candidate in the 2000 Democratic primary for the 1st Congressional District of Illinois, and was succeeded by Edward Bottum (1999–2001).

Patricia Albjerg Graham, elected by the Board of Directors as founding vice chairman and vice president (1995–2000), resigned as vice chairman and vice president in 2000 when she retired as president of the Spencer Foundation and moved back to Cambridge, Massachusetts, was succeeded by John W. McCarter, Jr. (2000–2001).

Ray Romero was initially elected as secretary-treasurer by the Board of Directors, but declined because of other commitments; Wanda White was then elected by the Board of Directors as founding secretary-treasurer (1995–1998), was succeeded by Edward Bottum (1998–1999), and then Victoria Chou (1999–2001).
Chicago School Reform Collaborative