Right Woman for the Job
President Obama made a great choice in nominating Maria Eitel as the new CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). This next CEO will be inheriting the recently-signed Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act as well as partners like Mayor Bloomberg across the country. This is the biggest opportunity in the history of the service movement and the President has selected a nominee who has the potential to deliver.Maria Eitel is currently the President of the Nike Foundation. She is known for being smart, savvy and demanding. Just what the doctor ordered.
In addition to her general disposition, Ms. Eitel brings experience that is really well suited for the post. First, she comes from a corporate background. The Serve America Act and other government initiatives have been light on encouraging and supporting corporate investment in service. Ms. Eitel will hopefully help fill in this gap and move some of her predecessor's critical corporate initiatives, like Billion + Change, forward. Not only does she come from a world-class corporation, she understands that service needs to not be constrained to our national borders and through her work at Nike she understands the "girl effect". Supporting opportunity for girls around the world is one of the best investments we can make. Finally, Ms. Eitel is media savvy. The movement needs to continue to harness media to drive our objectives. Time magazine has been a large part of the recent media successes. MTV wants to get more engaged, and the big networks are working with the Entertainment Industry Foundation to do a primetime special this fall on service. She can take this interest and make it strategic.
Nice choice Mr. President.
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