"Lincoln on Leadership" Author to Deliver Keynote at July 8 MLK Legacy Luncheon

Donald T. Phillips

Donald T. Phillips helped pave the way toward the creation of a new genre of books on historical leadership

CINCINNATI, OH - As part of its ongoing mission to engage the community in dialogue that creates positive social change and inspire servant leadership, Union Institute & University’s (UI&U) Ph.D. program will host the biannual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Luncheon, Friday, July 8, from noon – 1:30 p.m. at the Kingsgate Marriot in Clifton. Bestselling author and expert on historical leadership, Donald T. Phillips, will deliver the keynote address titled “Social Change and the Role of the Scholar.”

“We are honored that Donald Phillips will serve as the guest speaker for the upcoming MLK luncheon,” said Dr. Nancy Boxill, coordinator of UI&U’s Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies Martin Luther King Jr. Specialization. “His exploration into the leadership styles of Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln - among other great leaders –serves as an important tool for our scholars who are applying MLK’s leadership practices to their own work in making lasting change in their communities.”

Phillips first became interested in leadership as an executive working for a large corporation in the late 1980s. Seeking ways to become a better manager, he found that seminars and books on leadership emphasized worker productivity but had little consideration for people. This led him to learn about leadership by studying the life and work of President Abraham Lincoln.

His first book, Lincoln on Leadership, paved the way toward the creation of a new genre of books on historical leadership and served as his inspiration for a trilogy on America leadership that also includes The Founding Fathers on Leadership and Martin Luther King, Jr. on Leadership. Today, Phillips is also an internationally-acclaimed speaker on historical leadership and has worked with companies including Lockheed Martin and Oracle, addressing executives on effective leadership.

Union’s biannual MLK Luncheon is an integral part of the university’s MLK Studies specialization within the Ph.D. program and is held twice yearly in conjunction with Ph.D. residencies in Cincinnati. The July 8 luncheon, from noon-1:30 p.m., will be held in the Grand Ballroom at the Kingsgate Marriott, 151 Goodman Drive, Clifton. The event is open to the public, however, seating is limited. Cost is $25 and includes lunch. To reserve tickets contact Nicole Mayes-Boyd, senior program specialist, at 513-487-1142 or at nicole.mayes-boyd@myunion.edu.

Union Institute & University Welcomes Civil Rights Leader

CINCINNATI, OH – Dr. Virgil Wood, church leader, educator, and civil rights activist, will visit Cincinnati to participate in Union Institute & University’s (UI&U) academic residency for the Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies program. As part of his visit, the Harvard-educated Baptist pastor will deliver, “Transposing the Dream of Martin Luther King Jr.,” at 6:30 p.m., on Sunday, July 6, in the Archway Ballroom of the Phoenix Club, Downtown. Dr. Wood will also help launch Union Institute & University’s new specialization in MLK studies as part of the Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies program.

Ordained as a Baptist minister in his late teens, Wood has served churches in RI, MA, and VA. During his pastorate in Lynchburg, VA, he became actively involved with the civil rights movement, establishing Martin Luther King’s work there as the Lynchburg Improvement Association, a local unit of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He served with the Conference for the last 10years of Dr. King’s life and work, and coordinated the state of Virginia’s role in the historic March on Washington on April 28, 1963.

In 1973, he received his doctorate in Education from Harvard University. As an educator, he served as dean and director of the African American Institute and associate professor at Northeastern University in Boston, and has been a professor at Virginia Seminary and College in Lynchburg, as well as a visiting lecturer and research and teaching fellow at Harvard University.

In addition, he served as an administrator for Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America, a job training organization serving disadvantaged and under-skilled Americans of all races; assisted in founding and establishing 13 OIC centers in eight southern states, and in Boston, MA. Wood also served as a panelist and member of three White House conferences under the Johnson, Nixon, and Carter administrations.

Dr. Wood is pastor emeritus of the Pond Street Baptist Church in Providence, RI, where he served as pastor for 25 years.

For more information about the Dr. Wood and his keynote address, contact: Jonathan Eskridge, PhD Program Director, 513-487-1199 or jonathan.eskridge@tui.edu.

Superintendent William J. Mathis to Speak at Union Institute & University

MONTPELIER, VT - William J. Mathis, superintendent of schools for the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union in Brandon, VT, will deliver the keynote address for the Vermont M.Ed. Program’s summer residency from 6:45-8 p.m., June 28, in the Noble Hall Reading Room located at UI&U’s Vermont Academic Center in Montpelier.

In his keynote address, Mathis will compare the United States with other nations in the ways we treat children and value education. The current status of education in the United States will also be examined in light of the vital social and economic necessity of equality of education if we are to have a democratic society. Mathis will also explore existing educational inequities in the nation. According to Mathis, the current injustices are seen as a natural outgrowth of the ascent and dominance of the prevailing neo-liberal, corporate model of government. Educators and educational leaders are seen as vital leaders if we are to have a just society.

In addition to serving as a superintendent, Mathis teaches education finance and law at the University of Vermont. He has published extensively on the cost of providing an adequate education, the federal No Child Left Behind law and on numerous policy issues. He is a former state superintendent of the year and national superintendent of the year finalist.

His school district was the lead plaintiff in Vermont’s state funding case which resulted in fundamental statewide reform. Mathis also is a plaintiff in the current case asking for the federal government to properly fund the federal law. In consultant work, he frequently works with groups across the nation in examining their funding systems and their fundamental purposes of education.

The keynote is free and open to the public. For more information contact Shelley Matz at 802-828-8810 or email Shelley.matz@tui.edu.

Union Institute & University Partners with the Academy of Medicine for Forum on Global Volunteerism

CINCINNATI – Leaders in the field of medical volunteerism will convene at Duke Energy Center in downtown Cincinnati April 17 to take part in “Medical Volunteerism and Ethics in a Global Society,” a daylong forum presented by Union Institute & University and the Academy of Medicine.

The event will feature keynote speakers Edward O’Neil, M.D., and Virginia Ruehlmann Wiltse, Ph.D. as well as talks by other nationally recognized experts in the field of medical volunteerism who will speak on a variety of related subjects including a first-hand accounts of a Third-World medical volunteer; health preparation for international travel and medical relief work; and the essential planning elements necessary to lead successful missions abroad.

Dr. O’Neil is the author of Awakening Hippocrates: A Primer on Health, Poverty, and Global Service, and A Practical Guide to Global Health Service, and founder of the founder the non-profit organization Omni-Med, (www.omnimed.org) which focuses on health volunteerism and ethical leadership. His keynote talk will address global volunteerism for everyone, and will explain how to recognize the right opportunities and how to get started.

Dr. Virginia Ruehlmann Wiltse, is a graduate of UI&U’s doctoral program in interdisciplinary studies and is the director and vice president of Care Response Madagascar Foundation – a locally-based organization that provides extensive relief efforts to Madagascar. Her presentation, “Ordinary People and Everyday Miracles: Global Volunteerism from the Non-Medical Perspective,” will include video footage from her travels to Madagascar that illustrate what can be accomplished when ordinary people contribute their resources or volunteer their time and talent to benefit the poor in the developing world.

“Medical Volunteerism and Ethics in a Global Society” is the first of three lectures presented by UI&U as part of their series; Presidential Forum: Leadership Opportunities and Social Responsibility in An Age of Accountability. The series is made possible by a grant awarded to UI&U from The Helen Steiner Rice Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation (GSF).

The event is open to the public and will also include a panel discussion, as well as a five minute Q&A between speakers. Dinner is included in the registration fee.
To register for the event contact the Academy of Medicine at (513) 421-7010 or visit www.academyofmedicine.org.

Union Institute & University Receives Grant from Helen Steiner Rice Fund, Greater Cincinnati Foundation

Grant will fund a three-year project for leadership and social responsibility

CINCINNATI – Union Institute & University (UI&U) has been awarded a grant from The Helen Steiner Rice Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation (GCF). The $75,000 award will be dispersed in $25,000 increments over the next three years and provide funding to support UI&U’s presidential lecture series; Presidential Forum: Leadership Opportunities and Social Responsibility in An Age of Accountability.

UI&U will partner with the Academy of Medicine to present the first forum, “Medical Volunteerism and Ethics in a Global Society,” on April 17 at Duke Energy Center. The day-long event will feature keynote speakers Edward O’Neil, M.D., and Virginia Ruehlmann Wiltse, Ph.D.

Dr. Roger Sublett, president of UI&U, said about the award, “UI&U and the Academy of Medicine are so grateful to The Helen Steiner Rice Fund and GCF. We applaud their foresight in funding the Presidential Forums, which will allow UI&U to showcase our emphasis on social justice and global issues, as well as make use of our network of our faculty and alumni around the country who are making a difference in our world. Our goal is to provide information and opportunities for all of us to come together to identify and address current social issues and see first-hand how engagement at the local level can create solutions at the global level.”

Dr. O’Neil is the author of Awakening Hippocrates: A Primer on Health, Poverty, and Global Service, and A Practical Guide to Global Health Service. He is the founder the non-profit organization Omni-Med, (http://www.omnimed.org/) which focuses on health volunteerism and ethical leadership.

Dr. Virginia Ruehlmann Wiltse, a graduate of UI&U’s doctoral program in interdisciplinary studies, runs Care Response Madagascar Foundation – a locally-based organization that provides extensive relief efforts to Madagascar, particularly in the remote Toamasina/Tamatave region.

Union Institute & University Brings Renowned Education Scholar to Montpelier Center

Dr. Peggy McIntosh is founder of the National Seeking Educational & Equity Diversity (SEED) Project on Inclusive Curriculum

MONTPELIER, VT – Union Institute & University’s (UI&U) Master of Education Program will present “Five Frames of Mind for Looking at Education,” by Dr. Peggy McIntosh, author of White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Sunday, February 24, at The Chapel in Old College Hall at UI&U’s Vermont Academic Center in Montpelier. The talk is open to the public. McIntosh will describe five interactive ways of looking at life and education. The talk will start with the most exclusive ways of seeing, which McIntosh was taught in her own culture and class framework, and will move through increasingly more inclusive ways of seeing which she has become committed to over time.

“Dr. McIntosh is well known for her groundbreaking work in the areas of white privilege, women’s studies, and educational equity,” said Connie Krosney, an education professor at UI&U. “As a presenter, she brings her own experiences into the conversation, and invites others to do the same, in a manner which promotes transformational learning, and creates an environment focused on social justice.” McIntosh is a senior research scientist and associate director with the Wellesley Centers for Women, and founder and co-director of the National Seeking Educational & Equity Diversity (SEED) Project on Inclusive Curriculum. The SEED Project helps teachers create their own year-long, school-based seminars on making school climates, K-12 curricula, and teaching methods more gender fair and multi-culturally equitable.

A $10 donation is requested. All proceeds from this event will benefit the SEED Project. Space is limited. To reserve a seat, register by contacting Shelley Matz at 802-828-8810, or e-mail shelley.matz@tui.edu.

Union Institute & University to Welcome Nationally Recognized Scholars for Nine-Day Ph.D. Residency

Program includes keynote speaker Dr. Ed O’Neil, Dr. Richard Cuoto and Peter Block, and visits to Cincinnati museums

CINCINNATI – Downtown Cincinnati will be home to more than fifty scholars from across the country when they converge at the Garfield Suites January 4-12 to take part in Union Institute & University’s (UI&U) residency for cohort Ph.D.s in interdisciplinary studies. The residency will feature keynote speaker Dr. Ed O’Neil, a pioneer in international healthcare and author of the book, Hippocrates Revisited, as well as presentations by community consultants Peter Block and Dr. Richard Cuoto.

UI&U’s Ph.D. in interdisciplinary studies is one of the most innovative among other doctorate programs in the county. The learners come together as members of cohorts that are formed based on the program’s three areas of concentration; ethical and creative leadership, public policy and social issues, and humanities and society.

“The program is adult centered – collegial but not professor/student centered,” said Judith Bryant, a Detroit-based organizational consultant and Ph.D. candidate. “The residencies are a way for me to connect, and are a great source of inspiration.”

True to UI&U’s “classrooms without walls” approach to higher education, the residency will utilize the Cincinnati community as a learning tool. Every term, learners visit Cincinnati museums, as part of their residency. This term, groups – or cohorts - will return to the Freedom Center, while others will visit the Contemporary Arts Center. Cohorts will return to Garfield Suites after their visit, to share their experiences in a discussion.

“We are proud that these (UI&U) doctoral candidates will have the opportunity to visit the Freedom Center during their residency in Cincinnati and hope that they are inspired by the past struggles for freedom so that they can act as agents to help eliminate modern day slavery,” said Donald Murphy, CEO of the Freedom Center.

Keynote speaker Dr. Ed O’Neil will talk about his work in international healthcare at 6 pm, Wednesday, January 9, at the Garfield Suites Hotel at 2 Garfield Place, Downtown. The talk is free and open to the public. Dr. O’Neil is the author of Awakening Hippocrates: A Primer on Health, Poverty, and Global Service, and A Practical Guide to Global Health Service. He is the founder the non-profit organization Omni-Med, (www.omnimed.org) which focuses on health volunteerism and ethical leadership. To date, over 120 physicians have gone abroad through Omni Med’s innovative, cooperatively designed programs in Belize, Guyana, and Kenya.

Contact: Jonathan Eskridge, academic residency advisor, 513-487-1199 or jeskridge@tui.edu.