Prnewsnow Reach the World NOW

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

BAEO President CEO Lawrence C. Patrick III Announces Resignation



r. Patrick has made the decision to devote his time and energy to pursuing an advanced degree and completing his personal educational goals.


October 6, 2006 -- The Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) announced today that Lawrence C. Patrick III will step down as President & CEO on Dec. 31, 2006. Mr. Patrick has made the decision to devote his time and energy to pursuing an advanced degree and completing his personal educational goals.



's8220;This was a very hard decision for me because it has been a tremendous honor to work for BAEO,'s8221; Mr. Patrick said. 's8220;But fighting on a daily basis for our parents to have access to better educational opportunities for their children has reminded me just how important education is. I have been inspired to follow my passion and finish my personal educational journey.'s8221;



Mr. Patrick-who was appointed President & CEO at the age of 26-was a founding member of BAEO's8217;s national Board of Directors. Prior to his nearly five years as President & CEO, Mr. Patrick served on the organization's8217;s Executive Committee for two years as secretary.



's8220;We have been very fortunate to have Lawrence serve as our leader,'s8221; said Board Chair Howard L. Fuller, Ph.D. 's8220;Lawrence has done a great job building this organization and we are grateful for his tireless work on behalf of our children. We love him and we wish him well as he pursues the next phase of his life.'s8221;



Mr. Patrick will maintain an active role with the organization as a member of BAEO's8217;s Advisory Board, and will be honored at Symposium 2007 - 's8220;Parental Choice Advocates: Fighting for Change, Achieving Results,'s8221; March 22-24, 2007, in Philadelphia.



Mr. Patrick, 31, led BAEO through a period of dramatic growth, building the national staff from three to 16 and expanding the organization's8217;s national reach. Under his leadership, BAEO launched several major programs and initiatives to educate and inform parents across the country about parental choice, including:



* Project Clarion, a $1.5M parent outreach campaign funded by the U.S. Department of Education, which informed more than 35,000 parents about free tutoring and public school choice;



* A 4M project to develop a national network of small high schools and a cadre of Black technical assistance providers which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation;



* During this period, the BAEO Symposium has grown to the largest annual gathering of school choice advocates in the country. Symposium remains the only opportunity for a diverse group of parental choice supporters to get together on the national level.



* BAEO has annually convened the largest gathering of school choice supporters in the country at its highly successful Symposium.



* A multi-city grassroots mobilization campaign to support and expand parental choice to empower Black families across the country, and;



* Numerous high-profile media campaigns designed to promote educational options in Florida, Ohio, Philadelphia, Detroit, Dallas and other states and cities.



's8220;I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish together through the years, but we are not done yet,'s8221; Mr. Patrick said. 's8220;Too many of our children are still suffering because they don's8217;t have access to equal educational opportunities. They are counting on us to continue the fight to disrupt the unacceptable status quo that currently exists in education.'s8221;



Founded in December 1999 by a diverse group of 50 dedicated Black education leaders, BAEO is a national membership organization whose mission is to actively support parental choice to empower families and increase quality educational options for Black children.



BAEO supports a wide array of educational options including charter schools, tuition tax credits, means-tested vouchers, private school scholarships, home schooling, public-private partnerships, Black independent schools, access to high quality supplementary educational services and effective innovations in traditional public schools.



BAEO believes that parental choice programs, which lead to the creation of quality educational options, not only rescue the children who can take advantage of such opportunities, but also create powerful incentives for all schools-public and private-to improve.



Prior to assuming the presidency of BAEO, Mr. Patrick served as Chief Technology Officer of Megaschool, a technology company he co-founded in 1999.



Mr. Patrick was a FAMU Presidential Scholar, a Knight Scholar and a National Knight Ridder Minority Scholar, and he was a two-time recipient of the Russwurm & Cornish Vision Award for Leadership. In recognition of his outstanding achievement, his college newspaper created an award named after him that has been given out each semester to an outstanding student.



During a short but distinguished journalism career, he worked for the nation's8217;s second largest newspaper company, spending time at the Detroit Free Press, the San Jose Mercury News, the Tallahassee Democrat and Knight Ridder New Media. He was the product manager for NewsLibrary, Knight Ridder's8217;s first-and most profitable-online product. A pioneer in online journalism, Mr. Patrick worked on Mercury Center, which was the most read web site in Silicon Valley at the time and the first web site to publish fully synchronized daily print and electronic editions.



Mr. Patrick sits on the Advisory Committee for the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University, and he served as a Commissioner to the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO. He serves on the Washington, D.C., Public Charter School Board and the Board of Directors of the National Charter Schools Institute.



's8220;I will miss working alongside our wonderful team of staff, volunteers and allies. But even though I am returning to school, I remain totally committed to our mission,'s8221; Mr. Patrick said. 's8220;The struggle continues.'s8221;






Prnewsnow Reach the World NOW

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

This article has been robotically scanned and tagged by Prnewsnow with the following search tags. No human manipulation of these tags take place.
| Reliabid | Online Auction | |




Last 1000 Articles Submitted XML FEEDS FOR ORGANIZED NEWS