The Journey Begins Internet Radio, eFocus - An Exclusive Conversation with Carrie Billy, President of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium

Carrie Billy is an enrolled member of the Navajo nation and an attoney from Arizona, was appointed president of AIHEC in June of 2008. A graduate of Arizona and Georgetown Law Center, Billy has committed her life's work to public service and protecting and promoting the culture, welfare and being of the American Indian.

As President and Chief Executive Officer of AIHEC, which comprise of 36 tribal colleges and universities in the U.S. and one in Canada, Carrie guides the day-to-day operations of AIHEC central organization and Board of Directors to develop and implement AIHEC strategic position and overall organizational action plan.

Carrie served as the first Executive Director of the White House Initiative of Tribal Colleges and Universities, appointed to the position by former President William Clinton in 1998. In the position of Executive Director Billy coordinated a multi-faceted effort to intergrate tribal colleges into federal programs and strenghten partnerships with the private sector. During her tenure as Director, tribal colleges achieved tremendous gains. Highlights include: the largest funding increase ever received by Tribal Colleges in annual federal appropriations; first visit by a U.S. president to a Tribal College; established funding of new education and infrastructure programs in serval federal departments and agencies; and the Tribal College initiative.

An Exclusive Interview with Dr. Debbie Pushor on Parental Engagement

Dr. Debbie Pushor discusses the importance of parental engagement in the success of students during an interview with Michael Robinson host of Educational Gateway, which is heard on The Journey Begins, radio for the engaged parent and dedicated educator.

Debbie’s career began with Edmonton Public Schools in Alberta, Canada where she worked as a teacher, a consultant, a principal and a central services administrator.

Her experiences as a parent of school-aged children caused her to attend to the positioning of parents in relation to schools and prompted the focus of her doctoral work, A Storied Photo Album of Parents’ Positioning and the Landscape of Schools.

Debbie graduated from the University of Alberta in 2001 with a PhD in elementary education. She assumed an academic position at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada from 2001 to 2004, teaching in the BEd program and the MEd program in educational leadership. Debbie joined the University of Saskatchewan in 2004.

She is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum Studies in the College of Education, where she continues to teach both undergraduate and graduate courses. Debbie completed a major research project funded by the Dr. Stirling McDowell Foundation for Research into Teaching, which explored, with a team of co-researchers at Princess Alexandra Community School in Saskatoon, how schools can move from practices of parent involvement to practices of parent engagement and leadership.

Debbie was also engaged in research funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, in which she explored what parent knowledge is and how it is held and used. She is currently writing a book arising from this research. Debbie is a qualitative researcher who uses narrative inquiry as her research methodology.

Debbie is the mother of three sons. Cohen is 19 years old and attending his first year of university. Teague and Quinn are 15 years old (yes, twins!) and they are in grade 10.

Please feel invited to visit Debbie’s website to learn more about her research or to read her publications.

An Interview with Susan Shaffer, Executive Director of the Maryland State PIRC

Written by

Michael A. Robinson

Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing Susan Shaffer, Executive Director of the Maryland State PIRC at the conclusion of one the organization’s conference planning sessions with over 10 Maryland school districts.

The Maryland PIRC is an organization not known to many, but is one of the most effective organizations in the State of Maryland advocating for parental/family involvement in schools and communities to benefit student achievement.


Q. What is the Maryland PIRC?

A. The Maryland PRIC is the Maryland State Parental Information Resource Center. It is funded by the United States Department of Education and we provide services, direct services to parents and educators on issues related to family engagement and student achievement.

Q. How does the Maryland PIRC define Parental Engagement/Family Involvement?

A. That is a very good question. We want parents to be partners with schools and decision makers with schools; to be able to work effectively with their children at home; to be able to be advocates for their children and all the children that they work with within their communities. That is really what we would like. We want parents to have both advocacy skills as well as a sense of feeling empowered to help their children at home, so that the children can do better in school.

Q. How can Families find out about the services and programs offered by the Maryland PIRC?

A. They can find out by going on our website, which is http://www.mdpirc.org/
We have a hotline were parents can call in and we have people on staff who will answer their questions and if they can’t answer them the will put them in direct contact with someone in their County. They can find out about the PIRC through their Title 1 offices, through their family engagement offices and through the Maryland State Department of Education.


For the complete interview with Susan Shaffer, Executive Director of the Maryland State PIRC visit The Journey Begins, our 24 hour online radio station for the engaged parent and dedicated educator on Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at http://www.live365.com/cgi-bin/mini.cgi?station_name=mdavisro&tm=7566

You will also be able to download the entire interview beginning August 15, 2009 at http://education4and2parents.podbean.com/ our Podcast Resource Center for free.