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Collaborators in education, research, aging and community service
Meet the Experience Corps board
Meet the Experience Corps staff

"It's like a job. You have goals. You see results" -Yuriy, Experience Corps Member

Board of Directors

Dr. Mark Albion, of the Office of the President for the Lewis Initiative at Babson College
William Berkeley, founding director of Elderhostel
H. Lawrence Clark, former head of the Ocean Section at the National Science Foundation
Ellen Hargis, former president & chief executive officer of the Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona
David Kirp, professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley
Wendy Puriefoy, President, Public Education Networ
Martin W. Rodgers, Executive for Accenture Public Service
Wendy Zenker, Vice President of the National Council on Aging’s (NCOA’s) Benefits Access Group

Dr. Mark Albion

A seven-time social entrepreneur, Dr. Albion left Harvard Business School after nearly 20 years as a student and professor, to develop a community of service-minded MBAs, co-founding Net Impact in 1993. He's made 600+ visits to speak at business schools on five continents, for which Business Week magazine dubbed him "the savior of B-school souls." In 1996, he officially represented the United States at the United Nations to speak on how to educate the next generation of socially conscious global leaders. Dr. Albion is the author of seven books, most recently More Than Money: Questions Every MBA Needs to Answer, with a foreword by Net Impact executive director Liz Maw. The book has been distributed electronically to up to 55,000 MBAs in 75 schools. He is co-founder and chair of the More Than Money Institute LLC which was launched last February to help business students implement the book's framework. An animated movie based on the book, "The Good Life Parable: An MBA Meets a Fisherman," was awarded the largest environmental film festival's official short-film selection last January.

William Berkeley

Bill was the founding Chairman of the Civic Ventures Board of Directors (1998-2004), and the founding President of Elderhostel (1978-1997). Bill grew Elderhostel, an international nonprofit which provided education vacation experiences for older adults, to serve over 300,000 older adults in programs in every state and in over 50 different countries. When he left Elderhostel, the organization had a budget of $125 million. Earlier in his career, Bill served as President of the national nonprofit A Better Chance and as founding Executive Director of the Commission on Educational Issues in Newton, MA. He has also been active as an administrator and a board member at the Solebury School in New Hope, PA for more than half his life. He has a BA in English Literature from Yale, and holds a Masters in Education from Harvard University.

H. Lawrence Clark

Larry Clark recently retired after 25 years with the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Arlington, VA. He was most recently Head of the Ocean Section, which encompasses the Physical, Chemical, and Biological Oceanography Programs. He was appointed to this Senor Executive Service position in November 2000, and from October 2004 until April 2006, he served as Division Director and oversaw NSF’s $315 million annual ocean science research portfolio and the day-to-day operations of the Division. Previous to his Section Head position, he served as Program Director of the Oceanographic Technology Program for nearly twenty years. Under his leadership, this program provided resources for technology development, coastal ocean research, Arctic Ocean research, and for elements of the Division’s international and ocean education activities. During his career at NSF he was a Fellow, in the Commerce Science & Technology Fellows Program, serving on a 10-month detail to the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). From 1979 to 1981, he was Executive Secretary of the Advisory Committee for Ocean Sciences at the NSF. Prior to his moving to Washington, DC in 1979, he held several research and administrative positions at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, MA.

In addition to his professional career, Larry has been active with many non-profit organizations that try to improve the lives of people in need and is enjoying an “encore career” working closely with several of them. He is Board Chair of the Deerbrook Charitable Trust and serves on the Boards of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, the H.R.C. Foundation, the International Trachoma Initiative, and the Anacostia Community Outreach Center, in Washington, DC. He is former President of The Oceanography Society and a member of the American Geophysical Union. He served for eleven years on the Board of the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, CT and was Board Chair of the Sheridan School in Washington, DC.

Mr. Clark graduated from Rollins College in Winter Park, FL in 1969. He holds advanced degrees from U. Mass at Dartmouth (1972) and Cornell University (1975).

Ellen Hargis

Ellen served as president & chief executive officer of the Volunteer Center of Southern Arizona for twenty years.  Under her guidance the Center received numerous honors, including the George Romney Volunteer Center Excellence Award from the Points of Light Foundation and the Hands On Network 2007 Innovation Award. She recently created her own consulting firm, providing organizational and fund development services.  Her clients include the University of Arizona Biosphere 2 and the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits.

Over the course of her career Ellen has earned a reputation as a leader in creating innovative programs, forging relationships and collaborations and leveraging financial resources.  One of the programs she brought to the Volunteer Center was Experience Corps.   She applied to become an Experience Corps site because of her commitment to capitalizing on the resources of the many people who retire to the southwest and Experience Corps Tucson is now a very successful program that serves the needs of students throughout Pima County.

A noted workshop leader and trainer, Ms. Hargis is frequently called upon to make presentations to corporate and non-profit audiences.  She has spoken at conferences nationwide, was a founding board member for the national Join Hands organization, chaired the Volunteer Center National Network and served on the Board of the Points of Light Foundation.   She currently serves as Chair of the Every Voice in Action Foundation Board of Directors, Chair of the Pima County FEMA Emergency Food and Shelter Allocations Board and board member of Opening Minds Through the Arts Foundation.

Born in Chile, Ms. Hargis received a BA in Psychology from Vanderbilt University and an M.Ed. in Counseling and Guidance from the University of Arizona.

David Kirp

David Kirp is a Professor of public policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has expertise in the fields of higher education policy; access to higher education; law, politics and policy; primary and secondary education policy; race and ethnicity. His latest book, The Sandbox Investment: The Preschool Movement and Kids-First Politics, published in 2007 by Harvard University Press, won the 2007 Association of American Publishers Award for Excellence in the Education category and was named a San Francisco Chronicle notable book for 2007. In addition to writing about the preschool movement, he has written about a wide range of subjects, among them primary, secondary and higher education, race and gender discrimination, housing and civil liberties. His previous titles include Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line: Higher Education Goes to Market (Harvard University Press, 2003), and Our Town: Race, Housing and the Soul of Suburbia, Almost Home: America's Love-Hate Relationship with Community, and Education Policy and the Law (fourth edition). His articles have appeared in law, public policy, political science and education journals, as well as in The New York Times, The Nation, The Public Interest, The American Prospect, The Atlantic Monthly and The Chronicle of Higher Education. He has worked with numerous public agencies at the federal, state and local levels, as well as foundations and nonprofit organizations.

Wendy Puriefoy

Wendy Puriefoy has been president of Public Education Network (PEN), the nation's largest network of community-based school reform organizations, since PEN was founded in 1991. Under her visionary leadership, PEN has grown into a national network of local education funds reaching more than 11 million children in 1,220 school districts and 18,000 schools nationwide.

Ms. Puriefoy has been deeply involved in school reform since the 1970's when she served as a special monitor of the court-ordered desegregation plan for Boston's public schools. As president of PEN, Ms. Puriefoy has been the leading force behind systemic reform initiatives in school finance and governance, curriculum and assessment, parent involvement, school libraries and school health. With support from national foundations, PEN launched multi-million dollar public engagement initiatives focused on teacher quality, standards and accountability, and schools and community services.

Ms. Puriefoy is also a noted leader in the philanthropic world. Prior to being recruited as president of PEN, Ms. Puriefoy was executive vice president and chief operating officer of The Boston Foundation, a community foundation with an endowment of over $750 million supporting public health/welfare, educational, cultural, environmental, and housing programs in Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Puriefoy serves on the boards of numerous high-profile national organizations including DEMOS, Hasbro Children's Foundation, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), and the National Center for Family Philanthropy. In the past, Ms. Puriefoy served on the boards of FairTest, Jobs for the Future, Milton Hershey School, Ms. Foundation for Women, The PEW Forum on Standards-Based Reform, Women and Philanthropy, the National Charities Information Bureau, the Council on Foundations, Teach for America, Children's Express, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and the Boston Annenberg Challenge.

Ms. Puriefoy received a Bachelor of Arts degree from William Smith College and holds three Master of Arts degrees in African American Studies, American Studies, and American Colonial History from Boston University.

Martin W. Rodgers

Marty is a Senior Executive in Accenture’s Public Service Practice. He has worked as staff, board member, or consultant to dozens of nonprofits over the course of the last 20 years, including significant experience in the field of national and community service. In particular, Marty has been a leader in the national and community service field, including crafting numerous pieces of relevant legislation ranging from the King Holiday & Service Act and amendments to work-study, from the National & Community Service Trust Act of 1993, to the National Civilian Community Corps Act of 1992. In addition, Marty brings significant experience in diversity awareness and training and minority recruiting and retention. His service to nonprofit organizations includes an impressive list of governance, advisory, and staff roles at organizations such as AmeriCorps Alums, Children’s Defense Fund, Diocese of Gallup (New Mexico), Friends of the Children, Hands On Network, Harvard Business School – Volunteer Consulting Organization (VCO), Initiative for a Competitive Inner-City (ICIC), Junior Achievement, McKinney House for Pediatric Aids/HIV, NAACP, National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC* Americorps), Phelps Stokes Fund, Points of Light Foundation, Save The Children, Sr. Thea Bowman Black Catholic Foundation, Teach for America – DC, University of Notre Dame (Black Alumni Board of Directors, Institute for Church Life, Board of Trustees), and Volunteer Services Organization – Canada (VSO). Marty is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Harvard Business School.

Wendy Zenker

is the Vice President of the National Council on Aging’s (NCOA’s) Benefits Access Group (BAG).  NCOA’s mission is to find and help seniors and their family, friends and caregivers access the public and private benefit programs that can improve the quality of their lives and save them money.  Through its programs and activities, NCOA has helped more than 2 million seniors find more than $7 billion in benefits since 2001.  NCOA leads the National Center on Benefits Outreach and Enrollment, and the Access to Benefits Coalition (ABC) a public-private partnership devoted to helping seniors find the best combination of public and private programs that can help them afford their prescription drugs. 
Prior to joining NCOA in 2004, Wendy was the Chief Operating Officer at the Corporation for National and Community Service, the agency that oversees the Senior Corps programs, AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps*VISTA.  Prior to that, she was a senior executive at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and before that spent 15 years at the U.S. Department of Education in various management positions. Ms. Zenker earned her B.A. from Radcliffe College.

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"In the 21st century, the best anti-poverty program around is a world-class education. And in this country, the success of our children cannot depend more on where they live than on their potential."

-President Obama, "State of the Union," January 27, 2010
"Together, we can continue our commitment to education innovation by investing in Experience Corps, a program that helps elementary students by increasing the number of older adult tutors and mentors in the classroom. Independent research shows that Experience Corps works: Third-grade reading and math scores are rising and students feel safer at school."

-Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, State of the City Speech, February 22, 2010