Window of Opportunity Champions
Presented Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at The Corcoran Gallery of Art
CORPORATE CHAMPION AWARD
The PNC Financial Services Group
The Corporate Champion Award recognizes an organization that has in a very tangible way become part of the communities in which it works. Through its Grow Up Great program, PNC Financial Services Group has during the past seven years has enabled and encouraged employees to donate more than 225,000 hours of employee time volunteering in early childhood education. In Head Start programs in PNC communities, PNC employees have read with students, planted gardens, and provided financial education to children and families. PNC has been named to the Working Mother 100 Best Companies List ten times.Accepting the award for PNC was Sharon Cercone, PNC Vice President of Work/Life Strategies. Cercone is responsible for employee volunteerism in the Grow Up Great program.
DREAM LIVES ON HEAD START ALUMNI AWARD
Bruce E. L. M. Strothers
Counsel, North America Strategic Marketing Legal Team
The Coca-Cola Company
Bruce E. L. M. Strothers is Counsel with the North America Strategic Marketing Legal Team of The Coca-Cola Company. Strothers' responsibilities include marketing, advertising and promotional matters for many of the most recognized soft drink brands in the world, including Fanta® and Sprite®. Additionally, Strothers has been the designated legal resource to various Business Insights, College and Professional Sports, Entertainment and Multicultural Teams across domestic and international markets.
Previously, Strothers was an associate at the Morris, Manning & Martin corporate law firm in Atlanta, where he counseled entrepreneurs, emerging companies and global corporations. Prior to Atlanta, Strothers provided corporate legal services to other preeminent companies. As an attorney in the Procurement Group of SBC Communications Inc., (now AT&T Inc.) in Northern California, Strothers' responsibilities included all corporate-wide pager and mobile phone master agreements. Strothers also served as legal counsel for Personify, Inc., a customer intelligence software firm in San Francisco, and as a consultant attorney in the Technology and Supplier Contracts Group of JP Morgan Chase Bank in New York City.
Strothers serves on the Board of Directors for The Atlanta Heights Charter School, is an Emory Law School Externship Program Director and is a Kappa Boulé Archon of Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity. Strothers is a graduate of Head Start, Brown University, Seattle University School of Law and Columbia Law School with honors.
WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY CHAMPION
Roberto J. Rodriguez
Special Assistant to President Obama for Education
White House Domestic Policy Council
Previously, Roberto was Chief Education Counsel to United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. In this capacity, he managed the Democratic education agenda for the Committee and led policy development and strategy for legislation addressing early childhood education, elementary and secondary education, higher education, and adult education.
Roberto began his tenure on Capitol Hill working for the Senate HELP Committee on the development of the No Child Left Behind Act. He has worked on various reauthorizations of federal legislation, including the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Head Start, Child Care, Higher Education, and the America COMPETES Act.
Prior to working on Capitol Hill, Roberto worked as Senior Education Specialist at the National Council of La Raza, where he conducted research and analysis of federal and state education reform issues, as well as the development and evaluation of community-based education programs.
He is a native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and a graduate of the University of Michigan and of the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Watch the Window of Opportunity Video here.