BHEF Holds Leadership Summit on Leading Community-wide Education Improvement Efforts

Louisville, KY (October 28, 2010) — The Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) today kicked off Cities for Success: A BHEF Leadership Summit in Louisville, KY, where for two days CEOs, university presidents, superintendents, mayors, and foundation leaders will engage in a dialogue around improving educational outcomes in Louisville and across the country.

In Louisville, a team of business leaders, advised by BHEF, recently joined forces with the mayor, P-12 and higher education leaders, and community leaders to commit to adding at least 40,000 more bachelor’s degrees and 15,000 more associate’s degrees among Louisville area residents in coming years.

High-level delegations from Des Moines, Iowa, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, including the cities’ mayors, are attending Cities for Success to gather information about launching projects similar to the one in Louisville in their respective cities. Lumina Foundation President Jamie Merisotis is the featured keynote speaker and will discuss, “Lumina’s Big Goal: Increasing the Nation’s Level of High-Quality College Degrees and Credentials to 60 percent by 2025.”

“The Louisville commitment and the process that led up to it can be a model for the nation on how to create lasting partnerships and leadership networks to improve student achievement, with a focus on the entire P-16 pipeline,” says BHEF Executive Director Brian K. Fitzgerald. “We are excited to have gathered together such an impressive array of leaders who truly can have a significant impact on moving the needle on education improvement and degree attainment.”

“We are proud to be a model for other cites who are committed to creating a successful college-going culture,” says Greater Louisville Inc. President and CEO Joseph F. Reagan. “We’ve found the formula to accomplish this begins with a community of education-oriented employers who support their employees and the education community at large. It takes everyone – businesses, citizens, institutions of learning, civic leaders, elected officials – to ensure we have the educated workforce necessary to help our communities grow and prosper well into the future.”

Cities for Success is a hallmark of BHEF’s College Readiness, Access, and Success Initiative (CRI). The CRI is a dynamic platform for business and higher education to work together to promote college readiness, access and degree completion for underserved populations, particularly in math and science. Education improvement involves cultivating networks of business, higher education, P-12, political, and community leaders who: (1) are committed to sustained engagement to improve education outcomes; (2) invest their time, leadership, and organizations’ resources; and (3) collaborate to develop a shared understanding of the education pipeline’s interconnected problems and a shared vision for systemic solutions; (4) accept a stake in the outcome and commit to advancing solutions; and (5) advocate for the necessary public policies.

To learn more about the CRI and BHEF’s other key initiative, Securing America’s Leadership in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Initiative, go to www.bhef.com.