MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR
Dear Friends of the Mandel Center,
The Mandel Center was once again recently ranked in the top 10 best nonprofit management programs in the country by U.S. News and World Report. We continue to make positive strides in enhancing the leadership skills of nonprofit managers around the world.
Our alumni, now totaling over 600, hold a vast array of top-quality positions working in the nonprofit sector representing the arts, higher education, human services and more. Among our most recently accomplished alumni are: Sheryl Aikamn, a 1995 MNO graduate who was just appointed to the Community Foundations Leadership Team at the Council on Foundations; Beth Norwood Fischer, a 2002 CNM graduate who began a new job as Director of Development for Belk College of Business at the University of North Carolina; Todd Hash, a 2004 JD/CNM alum who is now working as the Director of Public Policy for the Tennessee Disability Coalition; and Irit Mahidor-Elboher, a 2001 MNO graduate who started a new position as Director of External Relations at the Ruppin Academic Center in Israel. Read more about these and other successful graduates of the Mandel Center in the Alumni Class Notes section of this newsletter.
Current students are also doing great work while attending the Mandel Center. Cheryl Morrow-White was recently named Director of Child Policy Initiative at Case's Schubert Center for Child Development.
This year we were honored to graduate 46 students who received the Master of Nonprofit Organizations degree (21), our Certificate (14), or one of the Center's dual degrees (11). Shilpa Kedar was recognized as the winner of the Mandel Center Student of the Year Award because of her demonstrated leadership through work in Romania, India and the United States where she completed a number of organizational assessments. More about Ms. Kedar and other graduates can be found in the Graduation Celebration article of this newsletter.
The Center's faculty is also making headlines. David Hammack, the Hiram C. Hayden Professor of History in the College of Arts and Sciences and member of the Mandel Center program faculty, is working on a national research project in cooperation with the UCLA Center for Civil Society. This exciting effort focuses on the influence of foundations on American society.
Included in other faculty news is the retirement of Professor John Yankey, a 32 year veteran of Case. He is a special professor who has been selected as the Teacher of the Year by Mandel Center students three times. Dr. Yankey also served as Interim Executive Director of the Mandel Center and has shown exemplary service to the local and national community as the Leonard W. Mayo Professor of Family and Child Welfare. An endowed scholarship fund has been established in honor of Dr. Yankey. The scholarship was initiated this past June with an initial gift of over $60,000. Scholarships will be awarded to Mandel School students in either the joint MSSA/MNO degree or MSSA/CNM certificate program with the Mandel Center.
Additional faculty news includes the departure of Professor Dennis Young to Georgia State University. Dr. Young will serve as the Bernard B. and Eugenia A. Ramsey Professor of Private Enterprise in the Andrew School of Policy Studies. He will be missed by faculty, students and staff.
The Mandel Center also has a strong commitment to community service and has recently received significant funding from the Treu-Mart Foundation to continue the unique Treu-Mart Youth Development Fellowship Program. This program is a nine-month experience for youth-serving professionals that teaches and embodies the resiliency model of youth development, an asset-based paradigm for working with middle-school-aged youth. Sixteen fellows representing 12 agencies in the Cleveland area have been chosen for the program's first cohort.
The Mandel Center's planning for our new building continues to move forward with renderings of the building expected this fall. We are thrilled so far with the initial design features. Mandel Center staff, faculty and students look forward to being housed in a first-class, innovative facility that will sustain and grow our tradition of building nonprofit leaders, as well as growing our commitment to community service and research on behalf of nonprofit professionals everywhere.
Enjoy the rest of your summer and please feel free to contact me with ideas, innovations and feedback about all of our Center's exciting programs and activities.
Sincerely,
Susan Lajoie Eagan
Executive Director
