NEWS ADVISORY CONTACT: Mikko Lindberg

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 404/633-1866

JULY 28, 2014

WEST VIRGINIA STATE LAWMAKER ELECTED COMMITTEE CHAIR
DURING SLC MEETING

(Little Rock, Arkansas) West Virginia State Senate Majority Leader John Unger II (D-Berkeley)
wasre-elected chair of the Education Committee of The Council of State Governments Southern office,
the Southern Legislative Conference (SLC). Senator Unger was first elected to serve as chair of the
regional education committee last year during the organizations annual meeting in Mobile, Alabama. The
Education Committee is one of six SLC standing committees. As part of its mission to foster and
encourage cooperation among its 15 member states, the SLC met in Little Rock, Arkansas, for its
68
th
Annual Meeting, bringing together nearly 900 delegates, legislative staff, and guests from across the
South. In addition to Senator Unger, Senator Dolores Gresham of Tennessee was elected vice chair of
this prestigious SLC Committee.

As chair of the SLC Education Committee, Senator Unger identifies pressing issues for discussion at the
conference and establishes research priorities for the committee during the conference year. During the
SLC meeting in Little Rock, the SLC Education Committee met twice for programs on three topics.
Among the topics and speakers featured at this years committee sessions were:

Creating Creative Designs in Education, with Gregory D. Bernas, Chief Engineer, Product
Development Office, Toyota Technical Center, Michigan, and Mark Schneider, President,
College Measures; Vice President, American Institutes for Research, Washington, D.C.;
Application of Neuroscience on Education Policy, with Mariale Hardiman, Ed.D., Director,
Neuro-Education Initiative, The Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, and Ronald E. Kalil,
Ph.D., Director, Neuroscience and Public Policy Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison; and
Early Education Policy, with W. Steven Barnett, Ph.D., Board of Governors Professor, Graduate
School of Education, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and Bruce Atchison,
Executive Director of Policy and Operations, Education Commission of the States, Colorado.

In the months ahead, Senator Ungers leadership of the committee will include setting research priorities
for education for the nonprofit research organization for the year and crafting an agenda for the
organizations 69
th
Annual Meeting, to be held in Savannah, Georgia.

The Southern Legislative Conference (SLC) of The Council of State Governments was established in 1947 and is composed of
the presiding officers and key legislators from 15 southern states. The SLC is a non-partisan, non-profit organization located in
Atlanta, Georgia.