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Two More from Penn to Obama Administration
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April 21, 2009, Volume 55, No. 30

Glenn Cummings: Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Vocational & Adult Education

Cummings

Glenn Cummings, former Speaker of the House in the Maine House of Representatives and current student in Penn GSE’s Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Management, has been selected as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Vocational & Adult Education, in the Obama administration. He was offered the post, which begins early next month, by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Mr. Cummings will help administer and coordinate programs that are related to adult education and literacy, career and technical education, and community colleges. The programs and grants managed by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education support a wide range of activities that help prepare young people and adults for further education and successful careers. These investments total approximately $1.9 billion annually.

“Education is a vital issue at a vital time,” Mr. Cummings said. “I’m excited about helping create pathways and passages for American students to succeed in higher education as it’s central to their own success and to the success of our country.”

As Maine Speaker of the House, Mr. Cummings led a bi-partisan effort to increase higher education appropriations. In his time in the legislature, he also chaired the Maine Legislature’s education committee, sponsored legislation to create the state’s community college system, and advocated for a policy by which every Maine high school graduate must fill out a college application.

He will be leaving his post as dean of advancement at Southern Maine Community College where he also founded the Entrepreneurial Center. He had served as co-chair of the Obama for Maine campaign.

Mr. Cummings holds a BA from Ohio Wesleyan University, an MA in teaching from Brown University and an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He began his career in education as a history and economics teacher at Gorham High School in Maine.

Thomas McLellan: No. 2 Drug Czar

McLellan

President Barack Obama recently announced his intent to nominate Dr. A. Thomas McLellan—one of the nation’s leading experts on addiction and substance abuse—as Deputy Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy. Dr. Thomas McLellan is currently an adjunct professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and CEO of the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia, a not-for-profit institute dedicated to reducing America’s dependence on alcohol and drugs. Dr. McLellan was the principal developer of two of the most widely used methods for assessing addiction severity and treatment success. His Addiction Severity Index, which gauges the characteristics and the severity of substance abuse in patients, and his Treatment Services Review, which measures the effectiveness of treatment services, have been adopted around the world and have revolutionized the delivery of treatment to substance abuse patients.

His work, which includes 25 years at Veterans Administration Hospitals, has been focused on promoting a better understanding of the factors that lead to treatment success, increasing understanding that addiction is a disease, reducing the stigma associated with addiction, and providing the means for earlier intervention and prevention. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, and has published more than 400 articles on addiction research. He has been an advisor to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the World Health Organization, the Partnership for a Drug Free America, and the American Psychiatric Association among others.

He received a Life Achievement Award from the American Society of Addiction Medicine in 2003, and in 2004 was named Innovator of the Year by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Dr. McLellan holds a BA from Colgate University, an MS and PhD from Bryn Mawr, and received postgraduate training in psychology at Oxford University in England.

 

Almanac - April 21, 2009, Volume 55, No. 30