Cradle to Career Champion Award recognizes dedication to student success
Cincinnati, Ohio — As a constant advocate for change, StrivePartnership Executive Director Greg Landsman is this year’s Cradle to Career Champion.
At its annual convening in Minneapolis, StriveTogether today announced Landsman as the 2015 Bill Henningsgaard Cradle to Career Champion Award recipient.
In Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, Landsman has helped build a community-wide effort to support a ballot initiative to provide two years of quality preschool for all Cincinnati’s children, and he forged a strong partnership with the local children’s hospital, which has helped bridge the gap between health care and education in the city.
Most recently, Landsman worked with partners to create a new kind of venture philanthropy fund that could transform traditional philanthropy. Every Child Capital uses private and public dollars to test, scale and sustain highly reliable, early literacy interventions.
“We have the privilege to inspire people to work differently together, determined to change outcomes,” Landsman said. “They know that when they work together, kids will do better. Thousands of children could have a better future because of what we do, how we do it, where we spend our money, our time, and whether we always strive to get better at our work.”
Landsman joined StrivePartnership in 2010, and under his leadership, has helped align more than 150 community partners and resources around practices, expectations and behaviors to improve outcomes for all kids throughout Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.
“Since assuming this role over five years ago, Greg has led the StrivePartnership to a new level of commitment in ensuring the success of all students,” said Leslie Maloney, senior vice president and education program manager of The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./ U.S. Bank Foundation and StrivePartnership Executive Committee chair. Maloney nominated Landsman for this award. “His leadership style — that of a servant leader — has led to significantly enhanced cross-sector collaboration in support of our work.”
Within the last couple of years, StrivePartnership has developed a strong partnership with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and Medical Center (CCHMC), which has helped in building a continuous improvement practice throughout the partnership. Because of the partnership, CCHMC also now considers third-grade reading to be a measure of children’s health.
“Greg has led a shift in how we think about data and continuous improvement and has maintained a vision that what’s worked in health care can be applied to education to have enormous impacts for kids,” said StrivePartnership Director of Operations Emily Lewis and StrivePartnership Director of Collaborative Continuous Improvement Melissa McCoy, who also nominated Landsman.
The award remembers Bill Henningsgaard for his work with Eastside Pathways, a StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network partnership in Bellevue, Wash. Henningsgaard, who died in 2013, advocated tirelessly for kids, rallying community partners to support every child throughout their education. The award is presented to an individual who embodies the passion, commitment and persistence in this work, as Henningsgaard modeled every day throughout his life.
The selection panel included leaders from throughout the StriveTogether Cradle to Career Network, from Phoenix, Ariz., to Albany, New York.
“Greg has been an incredible advocate for this challenging work nationally and a tireless leader locally,” StriveTogether Managing Director Jeff Edmondson said. “He helps keep the interests and needs of students front and center. We are thankful to him and all the partners in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky who are engaged actively in the work of the partnership every day.”
About StriveTogether
StriveTogether works with communities nationwide to help them create a civic infrastructure that unites stakeholders around shared goals, measures and results in education, supporting the success of every child, cradle to career. Communities implementing the StriveTogether framework have seen dramatic improvements in kindergarten readiness, standardized test results and college retention.