Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher to Chair First StriveTogether Board of Directors
April 10, 2017
New York’s Alliance of Eight Cradle To Career Sites Now Among 70 Nationally
Cincinnati, Ohio – State University of New York Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher will chair the first StriveTogether Board of Directors, the organization recently announced. A co-founder of StriveTogether, Chancellor Zimpher has ensured SUNY’s involvement with eight community partnerships in New York where leaders work collectively to prepare students for success in school, college, and career.
The New York sites are among 70 nationally to work with StriveTogether and commit to improving education outcomes for every child, from cradle to career. The work typically focuses on improving six student outcomes: kindergarten readiness, early-grade reading, middle-grade math, high school graduation, college enrollment, and degree/certification completion.
"StriveTogether’s cradle to career network reaches 8 million students across the country and connects more than 10,000 organizations all in an effort to educate more students and educate them better," said Chancellor Zimpher. "This work is critical to the future of education in our communities, our state, and our nation. I look forward to working with Vice Chair Danae Davis and the Board as well as Jeff Edmondson and StriveTogether leadership as we continue to bring the network’s most successful proof points to scale."
New York sites are: The Albany Promise, Geneva 2020, Harlem Renaissance Education Pipeline, ROC the Future, North Country Thrives, South Bronx Rising Together, Yonkers Thrives, and Zone 126.
Chancellor Zimpher’s appointment as chair comes as StriveTogether makes a transition from nonprofit to independent status, becoming a 501(c)(3) organization with more than $7 million recently received in support of the move from key investors, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Living Cities, KnowledgeWorks, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Ford Foundation.
She will be joined on the StriveTogether Board of Directors by Danae Davis, executive director of the Milwaukee Succeeds partnership, and Tom Fry, managing partner at Dietel Partners, who will serve as officers. In addition, Steve Ballmer, former chairman and CEO of Microsoft, will serve as an executive advisor to the Board.
"We’re excited about this next step in our journey to improve educational outcomes in communities across America," said StriveTogether Managing Director Jeff Edmondson. "Our new board will help guide our work to achieve results at scale — work made possible through the support of new and existing investors."
StriveTogether was created in 2010, following the success of the Cincinnati-based StrivePartnership, a cross-sector education collaborative led by Chancellor Zimpher that focused on shining a light on disparities and closing achievement gaps. Based on lessons from Cincinnati and other communities like Dallas, Memphis, and Tacoma, StriveTogether has developed a data-driven, collective impact approach to improving local education systems to better serve all students.
About StriveTogether
StriveTogether is a national network of 70 communities that supports the success of every child, cradle to career. They provide coaching, connections, and resources to local partnerships and work together to accelerate progress in education. Communities using their approach have seen dramatic improvements in kindergarten readiness, academic achievement and postsecondary success. The Cradle to Career Network reaches 8 million students, involves more than 10,200 organizations and operates in 31 states and Washington, D.C. Visit https://www.strivetogether.org/.
About the State University of New York
The State University of New York is the largest comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, and more than 95 percent of all New Yorkers live within 30 miles of any one of SUNY’s 64 colleges and universities. Across the system, SUNY has four academic health centers, five hospitals, four medical schools, two dental schools, a law school, the country’s oldest school of maritime, the state’s only college of optometry, and manages one US Department of Energy National Laboratory. In total, SUNY serves about 1.4 million students amongst its entire portfolio of credit- and non-credit-bearing courses and programs, continuing education, and community outreach programs. SUNY oversees nearly a quarter of academic research in New York. Research expenditures system-wide are nearly $1.1 billion in fiscal year 2023, including significant contributions from students and faculty. There are more than three million SUNY alumni worldwide, and one in three New Yorkers with a college degree is a SUNY alum. To learn more about how SUNY creates opportunities, visit suny.edu.
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Holly Liapis
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