Marian Wright Edelman to keynote ALSC President's Program

Contact: Laura Schulte-Cooper

ALSC Program Officer

312-280-2165

For Immediate Release

March 23, 2007

Marian Wright Edelman to keynote ALSC President’s Program

CHICAGO - Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), will be the featured speaker at the 2007 Charlemae Rollins President’s Program, sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), Monday, June 25, 2007, from 8 - 9:30 a.m.

The program is part of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Auditorium Speaker Series to be held during the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. Admission to the program is open to all ALA Annual Conference attendees.

Edelman, who will address the state of America's children in her keynote speech, has been an advocate for disadvantaged Americans for her entire professional life. Under her leadership, CDF has become the nation’s strongest voice for children and families. The Children's Defense Fund’s Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.

Edelman founded the Washington Research Project, a public interest law firm and the parent body of the Children's Defense Fund. For two years, she served as the director of the Center for Law and Education at Harvard University and in 1973 began CDF. She received the Robert F. Kennedy Lifetime Achievement Award for her writings, which include: “Families in Peril: An Agenda for Social Change”; “Stand for Children”; “Lanterns: A Memoir of Mentors”; “I'm Your Child, God: Prayers for Our Children”; and “I Can Make a Difference: A Treasury to Inspire Our Children.”

ALSC, a division of the ALA, leads the way in forging excellent library service for all children by supporting the profession of children's librarianship through education, advocacy and collaboration.