STAFF BIOGRAPHIES
Andrew Mott — Executive Director <amott [at] communitylearningpartnership.org>
Andrew currently is the Executive Director of the Community Learning Partnership and a Senior Fellow at the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University, working with the Research Center on Leadership in Action. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, and a member of the Michigan Bar.
In 1967, Mr. Mott began 35 years of service with the Center for Community Change . He served as the Center's Director of Field Operations for twenty years. In that capacity, he was responsible for directing the Center's field staff as it provided technical assistance to several hundred grassroots low-income and minority community organizations and community development corporations throughout the U.S. In addition, Mr. Mott provided on-site advice and assistance to grassroots groups with regard to organizational development, housing, community reinvestment, and community development.
As the Center's Deputy Executive Director for several years, Mr. Mott had primary responsibility for planning and program development for CCC. He was responsible for launching new initiatives on jobs, economic development, and leadership development, and overseeing a number of CCC special projects, studies, training initiatives, and pilot programs. Over the years Mr. Mott has launched and directed several special projects, created and led national coalitions, conducted studies and helped lead joint efforts to develop new public policies regarding poverty and community development.
Mr. Mott became Executive Director of the Center in 1998. During his five years as Executive Director, he expanded the organization and deepened its emphasis on community organizing and public policy work. New capacities for participatory action research, media and communications, and national issue campaigns were added to the Center during his directorship. Mr. Mott has directed, edited, and contributed to numerous studies related to housing and community development, grassroots involvement in monitoring, evaluating and acting on public policy issues, and strategies for building grassroots capacity and increasing poor people's impact on the issues which most concern them.
After leaving the Center in 2002, Mr. Mott created the Community Learning Partnership, through which he works with others to expand learning within the field of community organizing and social change.
Among his board responsibilities, Mr. Mott has served as founding Chairman of the Coalition on Human Needs, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the Working Group for Community Development Reform, and the Coalition for Low Income Community Development. He has also served on the boards of the Presbyterian Economic Development Corporation, Community Catalyst, Ayuda and ActionAid USA.
Among his board responsibilities, Mr. Mott has served as founding Chairman of the Coalition on Human Needs, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the Working Group for Community Development Reform, and the Coalition for Low Income Community Development. He has also served on the boards of the Presbyterian Economic Development Corporation, Community Catalyst, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, the National Neighborhood Coalition, Ayuda and ActionAid USA.
Prior to his work with CCC, Mr. Mott served two years in the Peace Corps as a university instructor in the Department of National Development at Pahlavi University in Shiraz, Iran. This program combined undergraduate and masters' level work, and included experiential learning in the villages as well as an interdisciplinary curriculum. His teaching in Iran followed his service as a management intern in the Community Action Program of the Office of Economic Opportunity, where he assisted with early planning for the "war on poverty's" health and legal services programs.
Ken Rolling <ken [at] communitylearningpartnership.org>
Ken Rolling recently completed six years (2003-2009) as National Executive Director of Parents for Public Schools (PPS), a national network of parents in organizing in eleven states to improve public schools especially for low-income and families of color. Under Ken’s direction PPS developed a statewide organization in Mississippi called “From the Schoolhouse to the Statehouse.” From 1995 to 2002 Ken was Executive Director of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the largest privately funded public school reform effort in Chicago in those years. President Barack Obama was the founding chair of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. For ten years- 1985-1995 -- Ken was a program officer and Associate Director of The Woods Fund of Chicago where he developed and managed the Fund’s priority for community organizing and public school reform.
Ken serves as Chair of The Needmor Fund Board of Directors; Chair of the Shanti Foundation for Peace; and board member of Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI). He lives in Evanston, Illinois; is married to Rochelle Davis; and has two children.
Ken co-authored a chapter in Letters to the Next President: Straight Talk about the Real Crisis in Education, Teachers College Press – published in 2004 and 2007. And authored a chapter in School Reform in Chicago: Lessons in Policy and Practice, Harvard Education Press, 2004.
LaDon James <ladon [at] communitylearningpartnership.org>
LaDon James is currently working with the Community Learning Partnership on Research and Administration. She was formerly the National Field Manager at the Center for Progressive Leadership (CPL) a national leadership institute. Prior to joining CPL, LaDon served as Campaign Organizer at the Center for Community Change (CCC), a national policy/advocacy organization based in Washington, DC. Prior to joining CCC, she worked as the Lead Community Organizer in the Kingsbridge Heights for the Northwest Bronx Community Clergy Coalition a community organizing group which focuses on winning decent and affordable housing, demanding better schools and fighting for environmental justice.
LaDon is a new advisory board member of the Leadership Learning Community and Vice-chairwoman of the Algebra Project’s Board of Directors. The Algebra Project seeks to impact the struggle for citizenship and equality by assisting students in inner city and rural areas to achieve mathematics literacy. She attended Hunter College in New York where her course work included studies in African Spirituality in the Diaspora, African American History, Poverty in the US and Community Organizing.
Syd Beane <syd [at] communitylearningpartnership.org>
Syd Beane is the Coordinator of the Minnesota Community Learning Partnership which is partnering with Minneapolis Community and Technical College on designing and launching Certificate and Degree programs in the fields of Community Organizing and Community Economic Development. In addition, MCLP is developing an articulation agreement which will enable MCTC graduates to transfer into programs in which they continue developing their knowledge and skills in Community Change.
Beane was the first Native American to be trained by the Industrial Areas Foundation, went on to direct citywide Indian Centers in Phoenix and Lincoln, and served as Western Regional Director with the Center for Community Change based in San Francisco. Member Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota with a MSW Graduate Degree from Arizona State University. His teaching experience includes instructor of community organizing at Arizona State University and San Francisco State. Collaborator /instructor with the Community Development Degree Program at Minneapolis Community & Technical College. He also is an independent documentary filmmaker.