July 31, 2015
Reading Partners names new board officers
Reading Partners, a national nonprofit organization that empowers students to succeed in reading and in life by engaging community volunteers to provide one-on-one tutoring, has announced its new slate of board officers. Susan Hayes of the San Francisco Bay Area has been named chair, with Walter Elcock of Dallas appointed vice chair. Kathy Taylor has been named secretary, and Dan Carroll from the Bay Area, is treasurer.
“Reading Partners is on a high-powered trajectory to change the educational outcomes of hundreds of thousands of students in the next few years,” says CEO Michael Lombardo. “This slate of officers brings us the power and energy to advance our mission. They will play a critical role as we introduce new pilots and programs to make a measurable impact on 4th grade reading proficiency across the country.”
Chair Susan Hayes has spent 31 years in executive positions in the nonprofit sector, and recently retired after 19 years as president and CEO of ReSurge, a nonprofit organization that builds surgical capacity in developing countries and provides reconstructive surgical care for children and adults living in poverty. Hayes has served on the board of directors of InterAction, the largest alliance of US-based international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) focussed on the world’s poor and most vulnerable people. She also serves on the board of Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Gatos, and on the Advisory Council of CreaTV, the non-profit community media center that manages the public and education channels for the City of San Jose. She has been on the Reading Partners board since 2001.
“Reading Partners is in a national model for raising student reading achievement. Our program of engaging community volunteers as partners in education is effective and scalable,” says Hayes. “Every child deserves the opportunity to read at grade level and I believe that this organization can move us closer to the large-scale impact we need to achieve that.”
Walter Elcock was elected vice chair of the board. He was part of the management team at Bank of America for more than 39 years, including president of Bank of America Texas, before retiring in 2013. He has been a member of the board of trustees for the Dallas Museum of Art over the past 10 years and is also a board member of the State Fair of Texas. He has been on the Reading Partners board since 2014.
Board Secretary Kathy Taylor has been on the Reading Partners board since 2014, including a term as vice chair. The former mayor of Tulsa, OK, Taylor entered public service in 2003, when she was appointed Oklahoma’s Secretary of Commerce, Tourism and Workforce Development, and was elected as mayor of Tulsa in 2006. She serves on the board of Sonic Industries, the nation’s largest drive-in restaurant chain.
Dan Carroll is in the second year of his term as board treasurer. The retired TPG Capital Partner has been on the board of Reading Partners since 2013. Carroll currently serves on a number of nonprofit boards, including Teach For America – Bay Area, the Blum Center for Developing Economies at Berkeley, Be the Change, and University High School.
Reading Partners will provide individualized literacy tutoring to more than 11,000 elementary school students in more than 200 schools in low-income communities across nine states and the District of Columbia this upcoming school year. The nonprofit organization delivers a highly effective, evidence-based program that has helped tens of thousands of children master the fundamental reading skills they need to succeed in school and beyond. To learn more, readingpartners.org
