GSE Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients
GSE Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients
2009
Roberta Stevens
Outreach Projects and Partnerships Officer
Library of Congress
Roberta Stevens, M.L.S., is the outreach projects and partnerships officer at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC, and the project manager of the National Book Festival. She has had a 35-year career in a wide range of libraries. Previously, she was the resource center coordinator for the Genesee-Wyoming Board of Cooperative Services, she oversaw media services for the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and was the director of technical operations for the Fairfax County Public Library.
For the past 24 years, Ms. Stevens has assumed a variety of responsibilities at the Library of Congress, including high-profile positions working with members of Congress and their staff, individuals at the highest levels of government, and top donors to the library. She managed the three-year Library of Congress Bicentennial Program, which included commemorative coins, a commemorative stamp, exhibitions, publications, symposia, concerts, and the Gifts to the Nation program that resulted in $80 million raised for library collections, projects, and a scholarly center.
Most recently, Ms. Stevens has been the project manager for the National Book Festival, a collaborative effort of the Library of Congress and the Office of the First Lady, which began in 2001. Funded by donations, this complex enterprise annually features 70 popular and diverse authors and attracts an audience of 120,000. Over the festival’s eight years, 440 of America’s best known and most celebrated authors have participated in the event.
Ms. Stevens has served two terms on the ALA (American Library Association) Council, which is the governing body of ALA. She is currently on ALA’s Executive Board and has just completed her candidacy for ALA President. She was a member of ALA’s Committee on Legislation for six years and chaired its Privacy Subcommittee during the critical time following passage of the USA Patriot Act.
2008
June Justice Crawford
Private Consultant
Literacy Education
June Crawford, Ed.M., is a private consultant who moved back to Western New York after a long career in literacy education.
She began her academic career as a non-traditional student in Millard Fillmore College at UB and continued her studies in the Graduate School of Education while teaching classes as a graduate assistant in the Learning Center. This led to a lifelong interest in developmental education for college students and the evaluation of education programs. Ms. Crawford spent 20 years at Niagara University, where she was the founding director of the University Learning Center, receiving recognition from the National Center for Developmental Education for an outstanding program in the United States. She is a founding member and the first president (1979) of the New York College Learning Skills Association.
Ms. Crawford is retired from the National Institute for Literacy, U.S. Department of Education in Washington, DC. At the federal level, she directed the Bridges to Practice teacher training program for teachers of adults, and developed a certification program that is currently being utilized by 46 States for teachers in adult literacy programs.
Other federal work included the supervision of the contract for the Adult Literacy Research Working Group, working with reading and writing researchers from many universities across the United States in reviewing research in adult literacy and determining guidelines for the literacy field. This work has produced several publications; forms the basis for the latest in reading training programs for adult educators, sponsored by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education; and has spawned the development of new pre- and post-tests of teacher knowledge of reading.
Ms. Crawford has presented at most of the major reading and/or learning disabilities conferences in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and has published a text for college students, and several articles on literacy education, the latest in a monograph recently published by the International Dyslexia Association.
2007
Arthur Cole
Senior Advisor
Public Service Institute
University of Oklahoma
Arthur Cole, Ph.D., recently retired from the federal government after more that thirty years of service. Dr. Cole's positions included director of the Department of Education's training and development office that served 5,000 staff; deputy director of the White House Initiative for Historically Black Colleges and Universities; service in the United States Peace Corps as director for the Kingdom of Lesotho, an independent nation inside South Africa, where he led over 100 volunteers who assisted some of the lowest income residents on the continent in education, agriculture, and health projects; and he was responsible for overseeing more than twenty federal programs in the areas of technical assistance, public school choice, teacher education, and educational equity, as director of School Improvement Programs.
In 2003, Dr. Cole joined the University of Oklahoma as senior advisor in the Public Service Institute. There he continues to address the challenges of education, poverty, and communication for the most impoverished citizens of the world through the institute's partnership with the Observatory for Cultural and Audiovisual Communication, a non-government organization accredited by the United Nations, and based in Milan, Italy.
Lenora Cole
Commissioner
Board of Elections and Ethics
District of Columbia
Lenora Cole, Ph.D., has dedicated her life and professional career to help eradicate racial inequalities and stereotypical gender roles. Her accomplishments include developing curricula and programs to educate economically, culturally, and mentally challenged youth in school districts in Buffalo and Chicago, and serving as vice president for student affairs at The American University and the University of the District of Columbia. At both institutions she strengthened and created student development programs to recognize the needs of all students.
During the height of the women's movement, President Ronald Reagan appointed her director of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor, to create standards and policies for women in the workforce. In this position, she was the chief government spokesperson for employed women, and directed the Washington office and 10 regional units.
Dr. Cole has traveled extensively, both nationally and internationally, advocating for working women and advising them of their rights, opportunities, and responsibilities. She has also served her community as a board member for numerous non-profit and professional organizations, and is currently one of three commissioners of the Board of Elections and Ethics of the District of Columbia.
2006
David S. Spence
President
Southern Regional Education Board (SREB)
David Spence, Ph.D., became president of SREB in 2005. As president, Dr. Spence oversees the nation's largest school improvement network, the nation's largest educational technology collaborative of state K-12 and postsecondary agencies, and many other initiatives designed to help the organization's 16 member states lead the nation in educational progress.
From 1998 to 2005, Dr. Spence was executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer of the California State University System, which includes 23 campuses, over 400,000 students and 20,000 faculty. During that time, he implemented the system's strategic plan, the development of a systemwide initiative to increase graduation rates and the establishment of a system accountability process. Most notably, he initiated and coordinated California's Early Assessment Program, in which the college readiness of high school juniors is evaluated, and the results used to further prepare senior year students and adjust high school standards to focus on college readiness.
Dr. Spence received his doctoral degree in higher education from UB in 1975.
2005
J. Donald Schumacher
President and CEO
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO)
J. Donald Schumacher, Psy.D., has been the president and CEO of NHPCO since October 2002, and president of the National Hospice Foundation since June 2003. He also serves as president of the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr. Schumacher received his doctorate from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (MSPP) in 1986. Prior to attending MSPP, Dr. Schumacher graduated from UB with his master's degree in rehabilitation counseling in 1977. From 1978-1989 he was the CEO of Hospice West in Waltham, MA. He served as the president and chief executive officer of The Center for Hospice & Palliative Care in Buffalo from 1989-2002. Dr. Schumacher currently serves on the board of the National Health Council. He has lectured nationally on the psychological care of the terminally ill patient and the expansion of hospice care both nationally and internationally.
Dr. Schumacher is licensed as a clinical psychologist in Massachusetts and New York State.
