On a westbound American Airlines flight this week, I was surprised to see Waiting for “Superman,” the tough-minded documentary about the failure of our public schools, on the drop-down screens.  For those of you who fly a lot, you’ll know that you are far more likely to be forced to sit through Grown Ups or The Other Guys or any other film stocked with recognizable stars and comfortably devoid of content than you are to be confronted with a movie that actually addresses a subject that could make people locked into a jumbo-sized cigar tube even a little bit nervous.

Waiting for “Superman” can and should make you nervous—if not angry.  By the director of An Inconvenient Truth, this documentary catalogues the manifold failings of public schools in districts across the nation, and avoids offering any simple or easily digestible answers.  We’re in crisis, it says, and we’re not serious about the solution.  Both American Airlines and Participant Media should be congratulated for the work they did to get the film on in-flight screens—and the latter, in particular, should receive extra kudos for what they are doing in terms of stimulating and organizing a response through their “take action” website.  Participant Media is also working with longtime Lipman Hearne ally Active Voice, who has pioneered techniques for using the power of documentary storytelling to nudge public opinion on issues from HIV/AIDS to immigration to food justice.  With Superman, Active Voice is developing community discussion guides that can be used to mobilize parents and grassroots organizations around the fact that “every neighborhood needs a great public school.”  Details about upcoming screenings are available from info@activevoice.net, and other avenues for engagement can be found at the Participant Media “Superman” link above.

Maybe I’m a bit more attuned to the importance of making this issue visible because of our work with the Gates Foundation, and other organizations that are addressing the problem, but the endemic problems in our schools can’t just be wished away.  So click in, get involved, and fly American—my return in-flight feature on United on the same West Coast loop was just more of the usual pabulum.

- Rob Moore, President and CEO

Céad míle fáilte: While the Irish greeting for “100,000 Welcomes” hasn’t translated exactly to  that number of new client relationships in 2010, we have had quite the busy first two quarters at Lipman Hearne establishing new partnerships. We are proud of, and excited by, the collaborations that are underway and would like to take a moment to properly welcome the following nonprofit organizations:

Advocate Health Care
Alverno College
American Medical Association
California State University, Northridge
Council for a Strong America
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
George Washington University
National Defense University
Northwest Area Foundation
Rhodes College
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Schoolnet
Seton Hall University
Society of Actuaries
University at Buffalo
University of Alabama in Huntsville
University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business
University of Virginia Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy

One aspect of CCA’s mission is its Alliance of States.  These states’ governors and leaders in higher education have pledged to make college completion a legislative priority by setting completion goals, creating a plan to reach those goals, and publicly reporting progress.  The Alliance has 17 member states now, but its ranks continue to grow.

Clips resulting from the launch currently number over 300 in media around the country, in the Alliance states, in national print and broadcast outlets, and in higher education trade publications.

In addition to coordinating the launch, Lipman Hearne designed CCA’s new visual identity, stationery suite, a temporary landing page (to house materials for the media before the launch), and CCA’s new website.  Impressive comments about the site and the CCA’s work are already rolling in.

One early site visitor praised the website for “delivering  a great and powerful new tool that combines the voices of students demanding reform together with powerful state- and campus-level data.”

And from Stan Jones, Complete College America’s President, comes this recommendation:  “I know everyone is busy but take a minute and watch at least the first video on the website.  It is an excellent reminder of why we do this work.”

Sample Press Coverage:

• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
• The Miami Herald
• The Boston Globe

But there’s one place where optimism is rampant.  Staff members at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan are upbeat about their institution and proud of the contribution their work makes to the region.  Maybe it’s because their mission and range spread beyond the urban core with its many challenges.  Maybe it’s because they’ve managed to sustain one of the top children’s hospitals in the nation even in the face of economic challenges.  Maybe it’s because great pediatricians and researchers continue to choose to do their work at CHM.

But I think it’s because of the kids.  They come in every day – maybe a little afraid because it’s “the hospital,” maybe tired, maybe fussy.  But they find a place that’s built for them, where people know that kids just want to feel good, play, learn, and grow up healthy.  They find a place with a smile and an open heart.  They find hope, treatment, and – in the great majority of cases – a lasting cure.

All parents want absolutely the best for their children – and a top-quality children’s hospital is a bet on the future, a bet on our families.  After all, if we give up on kids’ health, we’re giving up on hope.  And our kids just won’t let us do that.

- Rob Moore, Managing Partner

Woody was an original thinker, an outstanding writer and demanding editor, and a tireless supporter of the causes he took to heart.  Ellen Schneider, Executive Director of Active Voice perfectly summarized the Woody we all knew in her message to friends and colleagues:

“Most of you already know that we lost a mentor, an ally and a true media visionary on Sunday.”

“What you might not know is that without Woody Wickham, Active Voice would probably not exist. During the first years of  POV he firmly grasped the power of independent storytelling and how to leverage it. Early in Television Race Initiative’s planning phase he called me and asked, “I don’t suppose it would be helpful if we funded your station partners so that they could fully participate in this…?” (That idea galvanized TRI’s system change agenda. And those were the words, in italics, that he always used when making a generous and highly strategic suggestion.)  He saw promise in institutionalizing what we were learning, and took a risk with a multi-year grant to start up Active Voice. Yet he would never, ever take any credit for any the substantive work he helped spark over so many years.”

“Along the way, Woody became a good friend.   He had a way of listening – lips pursed thoughtfully, eyes narrowed, nodding – that I will remember always.  He cracked Nell up when she was a baby. He even improved the way I cook eggplant (more olive oil, less heat). When I asked him what he wanted to do during retirement he replied, without a moment of hesitation, ‘Well, I’d like to get a job where I can use films to put human faces on public policy, of course.’ The perfect deadpan.”

“Woody was a great man in every sense of the words. I already miss him.”

Woody was a good friend to all of us.  While we’ll be able to summon his spirit sitting in the butterfly garden he endowed at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Garden, it won’t be the same as hearing his voice or reading his crabbed scrawl in the margins.  But we’ll do our best to live by the standards he set.

“This book has been floating around Lipman Hearne for a few months now, because it provides a wealth of insight into what defines today’s global cities—namely the rise of the creative class.  In many cases, it describes the important role intellectual and cultural engines like universities and community organizations play in making those cities both powerful and livable.

“Related to this, Florida seeks to ascribe personality dimensions or cultural orientations to some of the most promising “meta-regions” in order to make the case that where one decides to live is a critical decision that impacts employment, partner selection, opportunity and ultimate personal satisfaction. In short, it’s not one to be taken lightly.”

Who’s Your City? How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life
- by Richard Florida