{"id":15621,"date":"2011-11-09T23:51:10","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T04:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=15621"},"modified":"2014-07-14T13:13:19","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T18:13:19","slug":"ellen-gilligan-optimism-amid-big-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2011\/11\/ellen-gilligan-optimism-amid-big-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Ellen Gilligan: Optimism Amid Big Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

A wave of new leaders is one of the reasons to believe a new initiative to improve Milwaukee\u2019s overall level of educational success can bring progress, one of the most influential of those new leaders said Tuesday at Eckstein Hall.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s huge\u201d that people who weren\u2019t part of past events are now stepping into key roles, Ellen Gilligan, president and CEO of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, told Mike Gousha, the Law School\u2019s distinguished fellow in law and public policy in the last \u201cOn the Issues\u201d session for this semester.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gilligan is the key figure behind the recent launching of Milwaukee Succeeds, an effort that has brought together more than 40 key leaders and organizations with the goal of improving Milwaukee\u2019s record in moving children successfully \u201cfrom cradle to career,\u201d to use the effort\u2019s subtitle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked by Gousha how she responds to those who have been skeptical of what the effort can accomplish, Gilligan said she shows them \u201ca lot of optimism.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTiming is everything,\u201d she said. \u201cSometimes the stars align. Sometimes there are opportunities for certain things to happen that might not have happened 20 years ago.\u201d She thought Milwaukee was ready for an effort such as this one. One of the reasons? The election of Gov. Scott Walker and the aftermath of that election, which, for better or worse, she said, created a climate in which working together had a stronger draw to more people.<\/span><\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the new-leader factor. Gilligan came to Milwaukee a year ago from Cincinnati, where she was a top figure in that city\u2019s community foundation and where she was deeply involved in launching the Strive Partnership, an effort that is a model for Milwaukee Succeeds. She is one of several relatively new figures in major positions in Milwaukee. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am an eternal optimist and I don\u2019t think we have a choice,\u201d Gilligan said. \u201cThat\u2019s part of sending in new troops. You have fresh blood who view this situation differently, who are not beaten down by past history. I am not beaten down by the past history. I am optimistic that we can make a difference and that we have to make a difference. We don\u2019t have a choice.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Gilligan said she was not very interested in taking part between advocates for Milwaukee Public Schools and advocates for Milwaukee\u2019s private school voucher program. \u201cI\u2019m not sure it\u2019s terribly productive,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d rather focus on the children.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She said the concerns underlying Milwaukee Succeeds are matter such as whether third graders can read on grade-level, not whether they went to schools in MPS or charter or voucher schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

She told Gousha Milwaukee Succeeds is \u201ca process\u201d and not \u201ca program.\u201d No new initiatives were announced in launching the effort. Instead, participants are working on creating a list of key, measurable indicators that can show whether Milwaukee is making progress. Then, the focus will be on how to align efforts throughout the city to improve outcomes. She said it is an effort that will take years.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said she views herself as \u201ca collaborative leader.\u201d But she clearly is determined to \u00a0push forward<\/span><\/p>\n

To watch the video of the \u201cOn the Issues\u201d session, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A wave of new leaders is one of the reasons to believe a new initiative to improve Milwaukee\u2019s overall level of educational success can bring progress, one of the most influential of those new leaders said Tuesday at Eckstein Hall. \u201cI think it\u2019s huge\u201d that people who weren\u2019t part of past events are now stepping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,48,47,99,122,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-law","category-marquette-law-school","category-milwaukee","category-milwaukeepublicschools","category-public","category-speakers","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15621\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}