CPA News Releases, Advisories, and Editorials

Washington, DC ﾖ The Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) has selected 46 outstanding state legislators from across the U.S. and across partisan lines to participate in the Flemming Fellows Leadership Institute training program for emerging leaders. Flemming Fellows Leadership Institute programs help state elected leaders work on issues with their counterparts across traditional boundaries such as race, party or region. The Flemming Institute includes for the first time a separate program dedicated to leadership training for elected officials from states with term limits.

Flemming Fellows are chosen for their commitment to civic activism and leadership and their commitment to making government ﾑpart of the solutionﾒ to the challenges confronting society. Participants are in their first or second term of state elected office. Over the next year, Fellows will participate in a series of workshops designed to build decision-making skills, help them use individual values to explore the role of state government, apply these values to specific public policy initiatives at the state level and work for political consensus across racial, gender, geographic and partisan boundaries.

“Particularly as we see more responsibilities and powers shift from the federal government to the states, it becomes critically important to give state leaders the tools they need to do their jobs well," said CPA President Linda Tarr-Whelan. "We are very excited to work over the coming year with the policy makers and activists who will be leading our country into the next century."

The 1997-98 Classes of Flemming Fellows are a politically and racially diverse group of leaders: of the 31 Fellows from the regular class, six are African American, six are Hispanic and one is Native American. The 1997-98 Flemming Fellows are (members of the term limited class are marked with an asterisk):

The Flemming Fellows Leadership Institute is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and graduated its first class of Fellows in 1994. The Institute is named for the late statesman Arthur S. Flemming, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, who served in five presidential administrations, headed the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and was president of three universities before his death in 1996.

The Center for Policy Alternatives is the nationﾒs leading non-profit public policy and leadership development organization dedicated to community-based solutions that strengthen families and communities. CPA links leaders across the 50 states with private and non-profit sector leaders in the search for common ground, new ideas and resources to build solutions that work.