Education Program for Local Teachers
Pittsfield – The Legacy Banks Foundation has announced plans to launch an Education Lecture Series, a program that will bring prominent speakers in the field of education to Berkshire County to provide a professional enrichment opportunity for area educators. The program, which will take place twice each year with one program in the spring and another in the fall, is free and open to all teachers from the over 70 public and private schools throughout Berkshire County.Richard Sullivan, president of The Legacy Banks Foundation, indicated that the Foundation developed this exciting program to provide a professionally enriching opportunity for area teachers, which will also ultimately benefit their students. “The teachers in Berkshire County work so hard each day to develop, nurture and guide our young people to become our next generation of community leaders,” said Sullivan. “We at the Foundation felt it was important to give back to those who teach and provide them with this unique opportunity to learn from distinguished educators who can provide them with valuable insight to bring back into their classrooms.”
Sullivan additionally announced the program’s first speaker, Howard Gardner, the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Gardner will present “Education in the Era of Globalization,” on Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at the Colonial Theatre. Recently acclaimed in the Wall Street Journal as one of the top five influential business thinkers along with Bill Gates and Thomas Friedman, Gardner is a noted professor, psychologist, and author. He has received numerous awards and honors including the MacArthur Prize Fellowship, and he was the first American to receive the University of Louisville’s Grawemeyer Award in Education.
Gardner has authored over 20 books as well as 400 articles in scholarly journals. Additionally, he has received honorary degrees from 22 colleges and universities. Gardner holds a Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University and has served as a Postdoctorate Fellow with Harvard Medical School and Boston University Aphasia Research Center.
Legacy Banks Chairman and CEO J. Williar Dunlaevy expressed his delight in welcoming Gardner to inaugurate The Legacy Banks Foundation Lecture Series saying, “We are so pleased to bring this wonderful program to our area teachers who do so much for our children. Howard Gardner’s depth of expertise in the area of education will provide a truly enriching program for the educators throughout Berkshire County and, in turn, their students.”
Additional information about The Legacy Banks Foundation Education Lecture Series will be distributed directly to the schools in the fall. Anyone with questions may contact Lori Gazzillo at 413-445-3417.
