Teachers College Trustee has Supported Arts and Education in New York

Laurie M. Tisch, a Teachers College trustee and current chairwoman of the Center for Arts Education, will serve as board chair for the newly launched Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Tisch previously chaired a two-year strategic planning process at Teachers College that led to the creation of the Campaign and the adoption by the College of a new mission focused on eradicating the gap in educational opportunities and achievement between the nation's most and least advantaged students. A graduate of the University of Michigan who studied elementary education there, she also serves on Teachers College's board's Executive Committee and Development Committee.

"Chairing the Campaign for Educational Equity is a natural evolution for me, because I've spentmost of my adult life working on education issues," said Tisch, who has overseen an infusion of more than $70 million by the Center for the Arts into the New York City public schools to support its arts curriculum. "Teachers College is an extraordinary institution, but I've always felt that there should be a way for the College to go even further to bring about change in our society. And that's what really has got me fired up about the Campaign: its goal is to make things happen. We're going to take all the great thinking that goes on inside the walls of Teachers College - and a great deal more that goes on elsewhere - and we're going to turn it into policy recommendations, program models, legislation. We're going to make kids' lives better, not some day, but now or in the very near future."

Tisch has set an ambitious first-year fundraising target for the Campaign of $12 million and vowed to rapidly assemble "a board made up of enlightened business people, educators, policy makers who will bring added expertise, perspective and energy to our efforts.

"Oftentimes people who give money to good causes don't get to make a visceral connection between their dollars and the people who benefit from them. So when I recruit people for our board, I'm going to tell them that with this project, they will get to see the fruits of their time, energy and dollars in some of the most under-served schools and communities in the city." 

Tisch is President of the Laurie Tisch Foundation and Vice President of The Tisch Foundation. She is a trustee of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; a trustee of the Whitney Museum of Art; a Council Member of the New York State Council on the Arts; a member of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's New York City Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission. She previously was chairwoman of the Children's Museum of Manhattan, and remains honorary chairman of that institution.

Published Wednesday, Jun. 8, 2005