FOUNDATION LEADERS INSTITUTE

Please join us for GFE’s seventh Foundation Leaders Institute (FLI), which will focus on the challenges and opportunities of leading during these difficult times.

FLI registration is open exclusively to foundation trustees, presidents, executive directors and senior executive team members, and advance registration is required. There is no fee if you’re attending the conference; the fee is $150 for attending the institute only. Attendance is limited and applicants will be screened to confirm eligibility.

The GFE Foundation Leaders Institute is presented by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation.
 

10:30 AM – 2:00 PM

Wednesday, October 7

A special program that immediately follows Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's concluding remarks at GFE's annual conference, the Foundation Leaders Institute features a unique leadership conversation about the challenges and opportunities for grantmakers as they navigate these rapidly changing times. How can philanthropy's leaders engage in -- and advance -- the important national movement of education reform across the pre-k through post-secondary continuum at a time that is also characterized by cutbacks and retrenchment? How can leaders ensure that their sites remain on the horizon while also responding to the real challenges of the present?

Keynoting the institute is former North Carolina Governor James Hunt. A nationally-reknowned education leader whose tenure in North Carolina modeled the boldness and comprehensive thinking that is invited by the conference theme, Governor Hunt will speak to the pressing issues of leading educational improvement during today's challenging times. Following his remarks, foundation leaders will have an opportunity to reflect in conversation with peers on how they can best navigate the often competing calls for innovation and responsiveness to immediate needs. How can funders make bold, innovative strides during adverse times? And how must grantmakers adjust their plans to ensure our collective efforts yield gains in student learning at the scale our nation now requires?

Speakers

James Hunt, Governor; Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC

Serving for a historic four terms as Governor of North Carolina, James Hunt is a nationally-recognized leader in education who led his state through twenty years of education reform and economic growth. Governor Hunt’s early childhood Smart Start program won the prestigious Innovations in American Government Award from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and has been emulated by states across America. In the last decade of his governorship, the schools of North Carolina increased NAEP scores more than any other state in America. In the 1980’s, Governor Hunt and the Carnegie Corporation of New York organized the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards which he chaired for ten years. Governor Hunt chairs the Board of Directors of two institutes he founded, The James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill, and the Institute for Emerging Issues at N.C. State University. Governor Hunt is currently a member of the law firm of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, PLLC, in Raleigh, NC.