Date: January 17, 2014 Speakers: Kate Brown, Oregon Secretary of State; Diego Hernandez, Co-Executive Director of Momentum Alliance & Reynolds School Board Member; Debi Faucette, Senior Director of Field Outreach at GED Testing Service; and Zeke Smith, Chair of the GED Research Committee. Moderated by Betsy Hammond, education reporter at The Oregonian. Oregon has a high school dropout crisis, but the state does not adequately support the primary tool to help young adults get back on track for college and career: The General Educational Development (GED) credential. It cannot be said that Oregon dropped the GED ball because the state never picked it up to begin with. Providing services for young adult dropouts who wish to earn a GED certificate has barely been an afterthought in statewide planning. A mix of under-funded, under-coordinated public and private providers have done their best to fill the gap. Oregon has a second chance with the launch of a revised GED exam in 2014. Join us to hear Kate Brown, Diego Hernandez, Debi Faucette, and Zeke Smith discuss how we can ensure 40-40-20 by 2025. Kate Brown has spent more than 20 years serving the people of Oregon-- in the Oregon House of Representatives and Oregon Senate, and now as Secretary of State. In her legislative career, Kate led efforts to create a searchable online database for campaign contributions and expenditures, and reformed Oregon's initiative process to reduce fraud and protect the citizen's right to petition their government. She was also instrumental in passing comprehensive civil rights and domestic partnership laws. Before running for public office, Kate practiced family and juvenile law, taught at Portland State University and worked with the Juvenile Rights Project. Kate Brown began her career in public policy working with the Women's Rights Coalition to pass Family and Medical Leave, making Oregon one of the first states in the nation to allow parents to stay at home with their sick children without fear of losing their jobs. Debi Faucette joined GED Testing Service in January 2011 to serve as the Senior Director of Field Outreach, charged to bring strategic direction in the interactions and relationships with key stakeholders in the field that comprise the GED network. Her current role follows an extensive and robust career in adult education at the local, state, and national level. She began as a local adult education program director, then became a Division Director for the Louisiana Department of Education. The opportunity to administer such a diverse group of programs to serve the underserved in our society prepared her to seek and offer solutions for adult learners at the national level. Betsy Hammond covers education for The Oregonian. She covered schools and other subjects at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for 12 years before joining The Oregonian in 1997. She covered Portland Public Schools from 1997 to 1999 and from 2010 until 2012. Her 2012 series about Portland's alarmingly low graduation rate won a national Education Writers Association investigative prize. She now covers statewide education issues, from early childhood through higher education. Diego Hernandez currently serves on the Reynolds School Board. Diego is the youngest and first Latino to be elected to the Reynolds School Board. He has a Master's in Social Work and extensive experience working with high school and college students and community based organizations. Diego is Co-Executive Director of Momentum Alliance, a youth-led nonprofit that emerged from the "Papers" documentary film project. Momentum Alliance's mission is to inspire youth to realize their power individually and collectively and to mentor future social justice leaders. In 2013, Momentum Alliance won Portland City Club's first Civic Leaders Award and the Bank of the West Innovation in Philanthropy award. As the Chief Impact Officer of the United Way of the Columbia Willamette, Zeke Smith leads the community impact strategy through grant making, volunteerism, community convening, and policy work. Previously Zeke served as the Chief of Staff to Portland Public Schools Superintendent Carole Smith from 2007-2012, as well as the Director of Community Engagement at All Hands Raised. He developed and implemented Connected-By-25, designed to connect every Portland teen and young adult to school, work and citizenship by age 25 through a coalition of public and private organizations. Zeke's prior work experience was in youth development and education, working for the Boys & Girls Clubs in Portland and Oakland, CA, the Youth Employment Institute- a local community-based alternative school, and Worksystems, Inc, the local workforce investment board.

• published: 07 Feb 2014
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