Board
Robert J.
Kingston
Robert Kingston is a Senior Associate of the Kettering Foundation. He grew up in England, was educated at Oxford, and first came to this country (of which he is now a citizen) as a professor of Shakespeare at the University of Michigan.
A former president of The College Board, Kingston served as Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities in the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations, and was executive director of Public Agenda in its formative years.
At Kettering, Kingston is editor of the Kettering Review; executive producer of the annual television program, A Public Voice; assists in the developing of collaborative projects with other organizations — like the international “Deliberative Democracy Workshops” and the “National Issues Convention” (with McNeil/Lehrer Productions and the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford); and he has contributed in the planning of virtually all of the foundation’s operating programs.
Dick Molpus
Dick Molpus is currently President of The Molpus Woodlands Group, LLC (MWG), a timberland investment management organization headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi.
In 1980, he was Governor William Winter's first appointee and was selected as Executive Director of the Governor's Office of Federal-State Programs. In 1983, he became Secretary of State of Mississippi and was re-elected by significant margins in 1987 and 1991. In 1993, he was elected President of the National Association of Secretaries of State, where he founded Project Democracy, an effort chaired by former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter to increase voter participation in the United States. Dick Molpus and his wife, Sally, were the founders of Parents for Public Schools, which now has chapters in 25 cities in 15 states across the United States. He was also Co-Chairman of the successful 2006 Jackson Public School Bond Campaign that brought $150MM in renovations and new schools to Jackson. In 2007 he became the founding Chairman of the United States Endowment for Forestry and Communities, a $200MM endowment funded by the U.S./Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement. The endowment is focused on improving forest health and assisting timber-reliant communities in the U.S.
Dick Molpus has been married to the former Sally Nash of Corinth, Mississippi for 37 years and are the proud parents of two children, Nash and Rich.
C. Kent McGuire
C. Kent McGuire is the Dean of the College of Education at Temple University. He also serves as Director of the Center for Research in Human Development and Education, a university-based research organization focused on the study and demonstration of effective strategies for educating poor and minority youngsters. Dr. McGuire is a tenured Professor in the Educational Administration Program, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Temple University.
Prior to joining Temple University Dr. McGuire was senior vice president at the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, where his responsibilities included leadership of the education, children and youth division. In 1998 through 2001, Dr. McGuire served in the Clinton administration as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, where he was the senior officer for the department's research and development agency. As the education program officer for the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts from 1995 to 1998, he managed Pew's K-12 grants portfolio. From 1991 to 1995, Dr. McGuire served as Education Program Director for the Eli Lilly Endowment.
Earlier in Dr. McGuire’s career he was an assistant professor at the University of Colorado in their School of Education. Prior to this, Dr. McGuire worked for the Education Commission of the States, where he rose from policy analyst to senior policy analyst and director of the School Finance Collaborative.
Dr. McGuire is active in a variety of professional and civic associations. He currently serves on the following boards: Moorestown Public School; Institute for Education Leadership; Jobs for America’s Future; The New Teacher Project; Parents for Public Schools; Wachovia Regional Foundation; and Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation.
Dr. McGuire received his Ph.D. in public administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1991, his M.A. in education administration and policy from Columbia University Teacher's College in 1979, and his B.A. in economics from the University of Michigan in 1977.
Jane Prancan
Jane Prancan currently serves as the Senior Director for Resource Development and Public Education for the American Indian College Fund, a national organization providing support for the nation’s 32 tribal colleges/universities and their students. She also is a principal in the consulting firm, Community Ventures Plus, which provides services to corporations, foundations and nonprofit organizations. She retired as the president of the Qwest Foundation in 2000. She was the founding executive director of its predecessor, the U S WEST Foundation, and headed that organization for 18 years. Prior to her work at U S WEST, she was a program officer with the Piton Foundation.
Jane has a Master’s degree from the University of Colorado and a B.A. from the University of Denver.
Jane serves on a number of community and business boards, including, vice chairman of Bellco Credit Union, treasurer of the Harwood Institute, and chairman of the Denver Community Corrections board. She also serves as a board member of the Jack and Marilyn MacAllister Foundation, Osage Initiatives, and PHAMAL (Physically Handicapped Amateur Musicians and Actors League) and is an emeritus board member of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver.
Deborah Alvarez-Rodriguez
Deborah Alvarez-Rodriguez joined Goodwill Industries as President and CEO in March 2004. Known for her dynamic leadership style, and with 15 years of executive management experience spanning the non-profit, philanthropic, public and private sectors, Ms. Alvarez-Rodriguez has a track record of catalyzing change within organizations and leading them toward greater innovation, accountability and responsiveness.
Throughout her career Ms. Alvarez-Rodriguez has consistently aimed to advance disadvantaged individuals and communities by promoting and implementing new policies, services, and business opportunities based on cross-sector collaboration.
Prior to joining Goodwill, Ms. Alvarez-Rodriguez was Vice President of Silicon Valley's Omidyar Foundation, the family foundation created by the founder of E-Bay, where she developed community building, human services and grant making strategies. Previously, as the Director of San Francisco's Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF), she helped build one of the most comprehensive early childhood education and care systems in the nation and launched one of California's most comprehensive working wage and workforce development initiatives for childcare workers.
Before joining DCYF, Ms. Alvarez-Rodriguez specialized in evaluation, strategic planning and health system redesign at the Lewin Group, an internationally recognized health care consulting firm. Previous to that position, she was Founder and CEO of San Francisco's Every Child Can Learn Foundation, Executive Director of Intergovernmental and School-linked Services at the San Francisco Unified School District, and Assistant Director for Budget and Planning for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Ms. Alvarez-Rodriguez is a graduate of Harvard-Radcliffe College.
Gil C. Thelen
Gil Thelen is Publisher and President of The Tampa Tribune, a 240,000 circulation daily paper in Tampa, Florida. Thelen was a consultant to KnightRidder on newsroom development prior to joining the Tribune in May, 1998.
He was executive editor and vice president of The State newspaper, Columbia, S.C., from 1990 to 1997. The Society of Newspaper Design in 1996 named The State one of the three best, American, midsize papers on content and presentation.
From 1987 to 1990, Thelen was editor and executive vice president of The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C. The American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1990 named The Sun News as one of 10 examples of excellence among small newspapers.
Thelen served in a number of assistant editor positions at The Charlotte Observer from 1978 to 1987, the last as assistant managing editor for news. He was also a Washington correspondent from 1966 to 1978, first for the Associated Press, then Consumer Reports magazine and finally the Chicago Daily News.
He is a graduate of Duke University and did postgraduate work at Cornell University. He teaches often at colleges and universities, is an active member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and has been a Pulitzer Prize juror. He is chairman of ASNE's education committee, was chairman of the ASNE Change Committee in 1995-96, served on the Journalism Values Institute and is a member of the ASNE Credibility Project.
Gil is married to Cynthia Struby, and they have four children.
Robert Kingston is a Senior Associate of the Kettering Foundation. He grew up in England, was educated at Oxford, and first came to this country (of which he is now a citizen) as a professor of Shakespeare at the University of Michigan.
A former president of The College Board, Kingston served as Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities in the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations, and was executive director of Public Agenda in its formative years.
At Kettering, Kingston is editor of the Kettering Review; executive producer of the annual television program, A Public Voice; assists in the developing of collaborative projects with other organizations — like the international “Deliberative Democracy Workshops” and the “National Issues Convention” (with McNeil/Lehrer Productions and the Center for Deliberative Democracy at Stanford); and he has contributed in the planning of virtually all of the foundation’s operating programs.
Dick Molpus
Dick Molpus is currently President of The Molpus Woodlands Group, LLC (MWG), a timberland investment management organization headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi.
In 1980, he was Governor William Winter's first appointee and was selected as Executive Director of the Governor's Office of Federal-State Programs. In 1983, he became Secretary of State of Mississippi and was re-elected by significant margins in 1987 and 1991. In 1993, he was elected President of the National Association of Secretaries of State, where he founded Project Democracy, an effort chaired by former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter to increase voter participation in the United States. Dick Molpus and his wife, Sally, were the founders of Parents for Public Schools, which now has chapters in 25 cities in 15 states across the United States. He was also Co-Chairman of the successful 2006 Jackson Public School Bond Campaign that brought $150MM in renovations and new schools to Jackson. In 2007 he became the founding Chairman of the United States Endowment for Forestry and Communities, a $200MM endowment funded by the U.S./Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement. The endowment is focused on improving forest health and assisting timber-reliant communities in the U.S.
Dick Molpus has been married to the former Sally Nash of Corinth, Mississippi for 37 years and are the proud parents of two children, Nash and Rich.
C. Kent McGuire
C. Kent McGuire is the Dean of the College of Education at Temple University. He also serves as Director of the Center for Research in Human Development and Education, a university-based research organization focused on the study and demonstration of effective strategies for educating poor and minority youngsters. Dr. McGuire is a tenured Professor in the Educational Administration Program, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Temple University.
Prior to joining Temple University Dr. McGuire was senior vice president at the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, where his responsibilities included leadership of the education, children and youth division. In 1998 through 2001, Dr. McGuire served in the Clinton administration as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, where he was the senior officer for the department's research and development agency. As the education program officer for the Philadelphia-based Pew Charitable Trusts from 1995 to 1998, he managed Pew's K-12 grants portfolio. From 1991 to 1995, Dr. McGuire served as Education Program Director for the Eli Lilly Endowment.
Earlier in Dr. McGuire’s career he was an assistant professor at the University of Colorado in their School of Education. Prior to this, Dr. McGuire worked for the Education Commission of the States, where he rose from policy analyst to senior policy analyst and director of the School Finance Collaborative.
Dr. McGuire is active in a variety of professional and civic associations. He currently serves on the following boards: Moorestown Public School; Institute for Education Leadership; Jobs for America’s Future; The New Teacher Project; Parents for Public Schools; Wachovia Regional Foundation; and Free Library of Philadelphia Foundation.
Dr. McGuire received his Ph.D. in public administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1991, his M.A. in education administration and policy from Columbia University Teacher's College in 1979, and his B.A. in economics from the University of Michigan in 1977.
Jane Prancan
Jane Prancan currently serves as the Senior Director for Resource Development and Public Education for the American Indian College Fund, a national organization providing support for the nation’s 32 tribal colleges/universities and their students. She also is a principal in the consulting firm, Community Ventures Plus, which provides services to corporations, foundations and nonprofit organizations. She retired as the president of the Qwest Foundation in 2000. She was the founding executive director of its predecessor, the U S WEST Foundation, and headed that organization for 18 years. Prior to her work at U S WEST, she was a program officer with the Piton Foundation.
Jane has a Master’s degree from the University of Colorado and a B.A. from the University of Denver.
Jane serves on a number of community and business boards, including, vice chairman of Bellco Credit Union, treasurer of the Harwood Institute, and chairman of the Denver Community Corrections board. She also serves as a board member of the Jack and Marilyn MacAllister Foundation, Osage Initiatives, and PHAMAL (Physically Handicapped Amateur Musicians and Actors League) and is an emeritus board member of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Metro Denver.
Deborah Alvarez-Rodriguez
Deborah Alvarez-Rodriguez joined Goodwill Industries as President and CEO in March 2004. Known for her dynamic leadership style, and with 15 years of executive management experience spanning the non-profit, philanthropic, public and private sectors, Ms. Alvarez-Rodriguez has a track record of catalyzing change within organizations and leading them toward greater innovation, accountability and responsiveness.
Throughout her career Ms. Alvarez-Rodriguez has consistently aimed to advance disadvantaged individuals and communities by promoting and implementing new policies, services, and business opportunities based on cross-sector collaboration.
Prior to joining Goodwill, Ms. Alvarez-Rodriguez was Vice President of Silicon Valley's Omidyar Foundation, the family foundation created by the founder of E-Bay, where she developed community building, human services and grant making strategies. Previously, as the Director of San Francisco's Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF), she helped build one of the most comprehensive early childhood education and care systems in the nation and launched one of California's most comprehensive working wage and workforce development initiatives for childcare workers.
Before joining DCYF, Ms. Alvarez-Rodriguez specialized in evaluation, strategic planning and health system redesign at the Lewin Group, an internationally recognized health care consulting firm. Previous to that position, she was Founder and CEO of San Francisco's Every Child Can Learn Foundation, Executive Director of Intergovernmental and School-linked Services at the San Francisco Unified School District, and Assistant Director for Budget and Planning for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Ms. Alvarez-Rodriguez is a graduate of Harvard-Radcliffe College.
Gil C. Thelen
Gil Thelen is Publisher and President of The Tampa Tribune, a 240,000 circulation daily paper in Tampa, Florida. Thelen was a consultant to KnightRidder on newsroom development prior to joining the Tribune in May, 1998.
He was executive editor and vice president of The State newspaper, Columbia, S.C., from 1990 to 1997. The Society of Newspaper Design in 1996 named The State one of the three best, American, midsize papers on content and presentation.
From 1987 to 1990, Thelen was editor and executive vice president of The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, S.C. The American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1990 named The Sun News as one of 10 examples of excellence among small newspapers.
Thelen served in a number of assistant editor positions at The Charlotte Observer from 1978 to 1987, the last as assistant managing editor for news. He was also a Washington correspondent from 1966 to 1978, first for the Associated Press, then Consumer Reports magazine and finally the Chicago Daily News.
He is a graduate of Duke University and did postgraduate work at Cornell University. He teaches often at colleges and universities, is an active member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and has been a Pulitzer Prize juror. He is chairman of ASNE's education committee, was chairman of the ASNE Change Committee in 1995-96, served on the Journalism Values Institute and is a member of the ASNE Credibility Project.
Gil is married to Cynthia Struby, and they have four children.