News Release

UNC poverty center expert panel to discuss
how schools can help prepare low-income youth

CHAPEL HILL - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity - based in the UNC School of Law - will host a panel discussion Thursday (Nov. 9) examining how public schools can make a difference in the lives of low-income youth as they make the transition from school to the workplace.

The event is open to the public and will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the auditorium of the campus' Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building, home to the UNC School of Social Work, at 301 Pittsboro St.

The poverty center's director, former U.S. Sen. John Edwards, will convene the session and serve as the lead questioner of the panelists. Dr. Lynne Vernon-Feagans, William C. Friday distinguished professor of education at UNC, and Dr. Deborah Hicks, visiting scholar in women's studies at Duke University, will serve as moderators.

The panel brings together leaders in education and public policy to debate the question of how and if education could make a difference in shaping economic futures for low-income youth. The panelists are:

• Dr. Larry Aber, a professor of applied psychology and public policy at New York University, who was appointed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the new Commission for Economic Opportunity to help reduce poverty and increase economic opportunity. Aber also directed the writing of a report on New York City school reform. His current research focuses on how social policies toward low-income families affect family income dynamics, parenting, and children's health and development.
  
  
• Dr. Annette Lareau, a professor of sociology at the University of Maryland, who studies inequality in America. Her research examines the day-to-day lives of poor and working class families by exploring how their everyday worlds intersect with educational experiences and futures.
  
  
• Bill McNeal, executive director of the North Carolina Association of School Administrators and the 2004 national schools superintendent of the year. McNeal served in the Wake County public schools for 29 years, first as a teacher and later as its superintendent, from 2000-05.
  
  
• Dr. Carol Stack, a professor emeritus at the University of California-Berkeley who has authored several book about minority families and youth. She writes about urban and rural poverty, family policy, race and ethnicity and youth in the United States. She is currently working on a book based on 10 years of research following low-income and minority youth from high school into young adulthood.
  
  
• Rachel Tompkins, president of the Rural School and Community Trust, a national nonprofit organization addressing the relationship between good schools and thriving rural communities. Prior to joining the trust, she served as an extension professor for community, economic, and workforce development in the West Virginia University extension service.
  
  
• Dr. George Wood, director of the Forum for Education and Democracy and principal of Hocking High School in Stewart, Ohio. Dr. Wood has published numerous papers and articles on the role of public schooling in democracies.

The center was established in February 2005 as a forum for the best minds in the state and the nation to work on issues of poverty, work and opportunity. Its efforts seek to address the pressing needs of those currently living at or below the poverty level, provide a non-partisan interdisciplinary forum to examine innovative and practical ideas to move more Americans out of poverty, and raise public awareness of issues related to work and poverty. Its staff and volunteers also aim to train a new generation to combat the causes and effects of poverty and to improve the circumstances of working people.

-30-

Media Parking: Members of the media who want to cover the event should contact Matt Marvin in advance to make arrangements. Marvin can be reached at (919) 962-4125 or mmarvin@unc.edu.

Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity background: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb05/edwards020405.html

UNC School of Law contact: Matt Marvin, (919) 962-4125, mmarvin@unc.edu
News Services contact: Karen Moon, (919) 962-8595, karen_moon@unc.edu