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James F. Patterson Land-Grant University Leture

May 2, 2013, 11:30am - 1:00pm

The 10th Annual James F. Patterson Land-Grant University Lecture will take place in the Performance Hall of the Ohio Union. Guest speaker for this lecture is Sterling K. Speirn, President and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. 

Sterling Speirn is president and CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Mich., one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Since he assumed his role in 2006, Speirn has led the organization through a comprehensive review of its mission, vision and program priorities. The foundation’s strategic framework seeks to integrate three core program areas, Education and Learning; Food, Health and Well-Being; and Family Economic Security while emphasizing the promotion of Racial Equity and Civic and Community Engagement as core approaches to its mission to work with communities to create the conditions of success for vulnerable children.
 
As a result the foundation has placed a special emphasis on dual generation strategies that promote whole family and whole child development from birth to age eight. It seeks to increase the number of children who are born healthy, who enter kindergarten ready to learn, who are successful and proficient by the end of third grade, and as a result are on their way to high school graduation and career and college access. In addition, the foundation has identified priority places to concentrate an increasing portion of its annual grantmaking: Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans in the United States, and in Mexico and Haiti for its Latin America and Caribbean programming.
 
The James F. Patterson Land-Grant University Lecture honors former Board of Trustees member Jim Patterson and the cause to which he is most committed, a vibrant University fulfilling its land-grant mission in an ever-changing world.  The lecture brings to campus annually a prominent figure to speak to the range of challenges facing land-grant institutions in the 21st century and beyond. Mr. Patterson served on the University’s Board of Trustees from 1994 - 2003 and served as Chair of the Board 2002-03. This annual lecture is hosted by Ohio State Outreach and Engagement.