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PRESS RELEASE Contact: Carmon Cunningham (617) 728-4446 ccunningham@jff.org   BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE AT JFF Boston, MA, February 1, 2001    On January 2, Hilary Pennington became CEO and Vice-Chair of Jobs for the Future, one of the nation's leading organizations conducting research and crafting policies on innovative learning strategies and workforce systems. At the same time, the JFF Board of Directors appointed Marlene B. Seltzer as the new President.   These and other changes among the JFF board of directors and top-level staff expand the depth and breadth of the Boston-based nonprofit. Jobs for the Future has significantly enhanced and focused its recognized capacity to implement programs in the three targeted areas: strengthening educational and career opportunities for youth, increasing opportunities for low-income individuals to move into family-supporting careers, and helping the nation meet the demand for a knowledgeable, skilled workforce.   At the board level, incoming chairman Jane Phillips Donaldson, who heads the Phillips Oppenheim Group, brings over two decades of leadership experience in the nonprofit sector. Former board chairman Frank P. Doyle now leads the nominating committee. New to the board are C. Kent McGuire, Senior Vice President at Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, and William W. Ginsberg, President and CEO of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.   At the staff level, Jobs for the Future capped nationwide searches by announcing the arrival of two exceptional individuals: Jerry Rubin and Carmon Cunningham.   Jerry Rubin, Vice President for Building Economic Opportunity, brings to JFF 25 years of practical knowledge in designing economic development and workforce training initiatives for low-income families, municipal and state governments, and private industry. Carmon Cunningham, Vice President for Technology and Communications, will apply his experience in creating and leading initiatives in Web-based services, e-commerce, distance learning, and virtual communities.   Finally, two long-time leaders at Jobs for the Future have expanded their responsibilities. Richard Kazis and Lisa Hicks will play central roles as JFF sharpens its focus and expands the effectiveness and reach of its efforts to broaden educational and economic opportunity for all Americans.   Richard Kazis has been named Senior Vice-President. Mr. Kazis will continue to lead JFF's policy and research work, while also chairing the Program Leadership Team to promote knowledge-sharing and coordination across projects as the organization grows. As Vice President, Strategic Initiatives, Lisa Hicks will collaborate with senior staff to bring strategies for joining work and learning to JFF's many activities spanning the design and implementation of innovative programs, the development of pioneering social ventures, and the acceleration of practitioner learning.   Additional information on these individuals follows:   Hilary Pennington Ms. Pennington, JFF co-founder and its President for 16 years, returns after a year as a Fellow at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Her research at Harvard, which she will now pursue at JFF, looked primarily at the applicability of new strategies - and new technologies, in particular - to creating effective learning systems for the information economy. She is focusing on a critical question: Will technology be a force for incremental change in education, or will it dramatically transform teaching and learning?   During her sabbatical, President Clinton appointed Ms. Pennington to co-chair the Presidential Advisory Committee on Expanding Training Opportunities. She continues to co-chair the committee, which is developing recommendations for the Bush Administration on steps that could dramatically and quickly increase workforce skills in the United States. Also, she recently joined the board of directors of Independent Sector, a coalition of leading nonprofits, foundations, and corporations that are strengthening not-for-profit initiative, philanthropy, and citizen action.   Since co-founding JFF, Ms. Pennington has been influential nationally on a variety of initiatives bridging work and lifelong learning. As a consultant to foundations and corporations, she has been a constant advocate for better supporting young people as they make the transition to adulthood, for implementing effective education and training policies, and for expanding access to economic opportunity. An advisor to the first Bush Administration on workforce and education policies, she was also a member of the Clinton Presidential Transition team in 1992.   Marlene B. Seltzer Ms. Seltzer, the new JFF President, served as Interim President during Ms. Pennington's sabbatical. When Ms. Seltzer came to Jobs for the Future as Executive Vice President in 1995, she had already earned a reputation as a leader in the field of workforce development. As Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Employment and Training, she had administered the Commonwealth's $1 billion, employment-and-training programs. As President of Seltzer Associates, a for-profit consulting firm, she had helped the U.S. Department of Labor develop its workforce development policies.   Before serving as Interim President, Ms. Seltzer managed JFF's consulting work on strategic implementation, its research and policy services, and its products and services for national, state, and local organizations engaged in creating and improving workforce development systems. She also led JFF's work on increasing economic opportunity for low-income Americans.   Jane Phillips Donaldson Ms. Donaldson heads the Phillips Oppenheim Group, a nationally recognized search firm that identifies and recruits highly talented staff, particularly minorities, to large foundations and other nonprofit organizations. She is a former Dean of Admissions at Wesleyan University and founding Director of Admissions and Placement at the Yale School of Management. In the 1980s, she managed Bruce Morrison's winning campaign for U.S. Congress.   Frank P. Doyle When Mr. Doyle retired in 1996, he was Executive Vice President of the General Electric Company, serving on the three-member Corporate Executive Office to which all operating businesses and staffs reported. From 1981 to 1991, he was a Senior Vice President, with responsibility for corporate employee relations, public relations, government relations, corporate marketing and advertising. He joined GE in 1978 as Vice President, Corporate Employee Relations. In 1992, Mr. Doyle was named as the National Academy of Human Resources' first Distinguished Fellow.   C. Kent Mcguire As head of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Mr. McGuire oversees a staff of 325 and administers a budget of approximately $800 million. Previously, he was Education Program Officer at The Pew Charitable Trusts, managing grantmaking and management in elementary and secondary education. As Education Program Director for the Lilly Endowment, he designed and implemented initiatives to foster education policy development and education reform in Indiana and assumed responsibility for grantmaking and related improvement initiatives in the Indianapolis Public Schools.   William Ginsberg Mr. Ginsberg served in the Clinton Administration from 1994 through 2000, in several prominent positions related to community economic development and community banking. Most recently, he was Managing Director and CEO of the Federal Housing Finance Board, which holds almost $600 billion in assets and whose 7,500 members comprise much of the nation's community banking system. In 2000, Mr. Ginsberg returned to Connecticut to become President of the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, which has over $200 million in assets and is committed to the goal of community building.   Jerry Rubin Prior to joining Jobs for the Future as Vice President, Mr. Rubin founded and led the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership, which provided manufacturing improvement consulting and workforce training solutions for small and mid-sized manufacturers and their employees. For the metalworking industry, Mr. Rubin created the E-Team, which has become a national model for industry-community partnerships for workforce training. He has also served as Chief of Staff and Director of Policy and Planning for Boston's economic development agency.   Carmon Cunningham The arrival of Vice President for Technology and Communications Carmon Cunningham is a signal of JFF's responsiveness to the changing economy. He brings two decades of experience in public and corporate relations, international and domestic marketing, the management of strategic alliances, and the promotion of new business areas and business opportunities. Mr. Cunningham will apply this special expertise to the organization's ongoing efforts to develop and disseminate strategies that help individuals, communities, and businesses succeed together in the New Economy. Most recently, as Director of Alumni Relations at MIT's Sloan School of Management, Mr. Cunningham developed an innovative virtual community that offers on-line directories, career management services, community forums, and distance learning opportunities.. Prior to MIT, Mr. Cunningham was Strategic Alliance and Business Development Manager at Digital Equipment Corporation.   Richard Kazis Richard Kazis has led JFF's policy and research efforts for almost a decade, authoring several of its most influential reports. In the early 1990s, he directed Jobs for the Future's initial multi-site initiative on school-to-career models. In recent years, he has created and led projects on new labor market intermediaries, best practices for linking disadvantaged youth with further education and careers, and policy strategies to help low-wage workers advance in the new economy. A former teacher at an alternative high school for returning dropouts, Mr. Kazis has supervised a Neighborhood Youth Corps program, helped organize fast food workers, built labor-environmental coalitions around jobs, and studied informal, experiential learning in Israel.   Lisa Hicks Prior to her appointment as Vice President, Ms. Hicks directed JFF's work advancing policies, systems, and organizations to help sustain promising changes in education and employment for youth and adults. Ms. Hicks joined Jobs for the Future after serving as Executive Director of the Governor's Education Improvement Commission in Delaware, where she led a diverse business-education partnership developing recommendations for decentralizing education governance and accountability systems. In addition, she advised the Delaware Superintendent of Education on the implementation of standards-based education reforms, coordinated the Goals 2000 statewide planning process, and staffed a national advisory council of leading education researchers established to evaluate the progress of Delaware's systemic reforms.    ###    Jobs for the Future develops, strengthens, and promotes innovative learning strategies and workforce solutions that broaden educational and economic opportunity for all Americans, particularly those at risk of not succeeding in today's complex and rapidly changing economy. Working with policymakers, practitioners, the media, and the public, Jobs for the Future seeks to: strengthen opportunities for youth to succeed in postsecondary learning and high-skill careers; increase opportunities for low-income individuals to move into family-supporting careers; and help the nation meet the growing economic demand for a knowledgeable, skilled workforce. For more information about JFF, please visit the Web site at www.jff.org.