From the Director

October 1, 2005

Greetings!

Having just come to IEL as the seventh Director of EPFP, I am impressed that the Fellows for 2005-2006 will constitute the program’s 42nd annual class. EPFP™ has a rich tradition with many marks of distinction. I am delighted to be at the helm of this remarkable program.

This is my first quarterly letter to all those individuals who have connections to EPFP. After one week on the job I have been in contact with the Site Coordinators in eleven states and the District of Columbia. They are individuals of great accomplishment, and I relish the prospect of working with them. I thus send the Site Coordinators my robust thanks for their good work, because EPFP™ can only be as strong at each site as the people who tend to it there. Our shared purpose is to make EPFP™ the best program it can be.

To the 2005-2006 Fellows, I welcome you to EPFP™ and pledge my tireless efforts to ensure that your experience in the months ahead will be transformative both personally and professionally. Every staff member of IEL wants you to complete the fellowship with deeper knowledge of the theory and practice of leadership in various settings, a greater appreciation for the processes, institutions, and outcomes of public policy making, and a collection of new friends and contacts that will expand and diversity your professional network for many years to come.

To the nearly 6,000 EPFP™ Alumni who reside all across the country, I thank you for your ongoing commitment to the program. I also tell you candidly that EPFP™ intends to enlist your expertise, enthusiasm, connections, and financial resources to transform and modernize EPFP™ and help it expand into new states. EPFP™ presently confronts a host of challenges and opportunities, and the operational and material support of those who have taken part in the program is indispensable to its future. I look forward to getting acquainted and forging lasting partnerships with the Alumni.

The individual sites are getting underway with their programs, and the air is filled with possibilities. I will be making field visits to several states this fall to see how things are going on the ground. The telephone and email are crucial communication tools, but the bonds between the IEL headquarters and the state sites must be strengthened through regular, in-person contacts. These site visits will give the Site Coordinators and me a chance to really get to know one another and to think strategically, comparing ideas about the ways EPFP™ can and should change in the months and years ahead. Over time, careful planning will set the stage for decisive action.

Preparation for the Leadership Forum (December 4-7 in Miami, Florida) is going forward with purpose and precision. Our undertaking at the conference is to study leadership, decision making, and policy – in theory and in practice – at several levels and in various settings. On the first full day of the conference we will focus on the global environment. We will also seek to simulate decision making in a tense and tricky environment in which diversity is paramount. Day two will find us looking at the shifting national context, emphasizing the importance of understanding and appreciating diversity in our various professional settings. The third (and shorter) day will provide a chance to see how local officials and institutions function and cope in light of the national and global backdrops. Throughout the Leadership Forum, we must think about how we can best incorporate the learning from this gathering into our daily work. Our mission in Miami is to build our base of knowledge of a world of many parts, perspectives, and people; to engage in debate and discussion; and then to put our new understanding to the test. All of this will help set the stage for the Washington Policy Seminar in April, where public policy – in all its manifestations – will be the heart of our inquiry.

Given the intense, ongoing national discussion of so many issues that bear directly on the future of young people and children, the Leadership Forum will take place at a consequential moment for our country. We are reminded that, in the life of a democratic republic, all citizens bear perpetual responsibility for the content of public policy and the quality of our civic life. Each of us must be a leader. For all of us who care deeply about education and ensuring better outcomes for the young, the challenges are unremitting and steep. Yet we all are in our chosen lines of work because we sought them, and we must recall the words of Robert Frost in “Two Tramps in Mud Time”:

But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation
As my two eyes make one in sight.
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For heaven and the future’s sakes.

I look forward to communicating regularly with Site Coordinators, Fellows, Alumni, and Sponsors. Please share with me your ideas about the future of EPFP. If you know someone who would make an excellent Site Coordinator for a site in a new state, or if you know someone who might be interested in making a commitment to EPFP™ as a Sponsor, let me know. I will always be glad to hear from you. Together, we can ensure that future generations of Fellows will have an unsurpassed experience in EPFP™ and then go forward to make lasting contributions in the wider world – thus following in the footsteps of so many distinguished EPFP™ Alumni.

Thank you for your commitment to EPFP.

Sincerely,

Douglas M. Brattebo
Director
Education Policy Fellowship Program
Institute for Educational Leadership
202-822-8405 Ext. 129
brattebod@iel.org