The potential new CEO of the CNCS was born in Haiti and grew up in Africa. He immigrated to the USA when he was a teenager. Patrick A. Corvington clearly has a life "backstory" waiting in the wings!He earned his B.A. in Sociology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and his M.A. in Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University, where he received the National Minority Leadership Fellowship from the Kellogg Foundation. His online resume also lists the Rabat American School.
Following his formal education, Corvington rolled up his sleeves and dived into some tough duty. He began his career traveling the East Coast migrant stream as a case manager working with migrant workers. He has also served as an advocate for adjudicated youth as Interim Director at the Sykesville Group Shelter Home and has worked as a patient advocate in a community-based HIV/AIDS clinic; and has volunteered his time working in an infirmary of a shelter for homeless persons. On his own linkedin profile, Corvington states he "has devoted his life to serving and empowering communities." His profile further states he "is a recognized expert on non-profit sector leadership and capacity issues, new and emerging philanthropy, and volunteerism."
The last sentence above was apparently lifted right out of the linkedin profile to become the first sentence in the White House Press Release!
We turned up quite a few links on Patrick during our preliminary Google Search. Right now, Corvington's linkedin profile has only 200 connections. How much do you want to bet that number increases dramatically within the next 24 hours?
We will continue to revisit this blog post, adding various material as we find it.
One thing of note, Obama's first nominee for the CNCS CEO had to withdraw for personal reasons. We've heard that Obama was looking for someone to shake up the CNCS. He hope he had found a suitable "shaker-upper" in Corvington. And, if so, we hope the nominee can survive the often grueling confirmation process. Meanwhile, here's a thought: the first nominee's was in charge of helping disadvantaged young girls worldwide. Corvington's current employer's website tagline is that they are "dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children." It would certainly seem that Obama has identified disadvantaged youth as a priority for the new head of CNCS.
As you know by now, Corvington currently serves at the Annie E. Casey Foundation as a Senior Associate responsible for guiding the foundation's grantees on issues related to leadership development, next generation leadership, and capacity building. He also acts as Senior Advisor to the Foundation's Executive Vice President, Ralph Smith, who is the Chair of the Council on Foundations. The Annie E. Casey Foundation certainly has an interesting pedigree. It was basically started by the founder of UPS! As near as we can tell, it has assets about $2.392-billion. A year earlier it was $3.442 billion. Looking at their financial statement, it looks like they lost over a billion dollars on their investments between 2007-2008! According to their website, they are distributing about $225-million a year.
