Susan Stroud : Interview for the John W. Gardner Legacy Oral History Project
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Susan Stroud, a national leader in public service and education, discusses her early life, her long and productive career, and her interactions with John W. Gardner during the creation of Campus Compact, for which she served as the founding executive director. Stroud recounts growing up in a military family, studying English literature at Duke University and the University of Leicester, and later teaching in a low-income community on Martha’s Vineyard after graduation. She then talks about working for the College Venture Consortium at Northeastern University and at Brown University. Stroud fondly recalls working with Howard Swearer, who was president of Brown at the time, to start the Center for Public Service there. While at Brown, Stroud began to coordinate public service efforts with other universities, and she explains how this collaboration eventually led to the creation of Campus Compact. She discusses the challenges that the new organization faced, including the issue of diversifying its participants beyond elite institutions. Other topics in this interview include her contribution to the creation of AmeriCorps and Learn to Serve during the Clinton administration; her work for the Ford Foundation on overseas programs, including higher education in South Africa following the end of Apartheid; serving as executive director for Innovations in Civic Participation; and the creation of the Talloires Network through Tufts University. Stroud discusses the enormous impact that Gardner had on the people with whom he worked, including the presidents of prominent universities. She highlights the importance of his role as a strategic thinker and public intellectual, pointing to his books such as Self-Renewal and On Leadership. She also emphasizes Gardner’s belief in the responsibility that people have to serve society, regardless of their career or discipline.
Description
Type of resource | sound recording-nonmusical, text, still image |
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Extent | 1 audio file; 1 text file; 1photograph |
Place | Stanford (Calif.) |
Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Date created | April 18, 2018 |
Language | English |
Digital origin | born digital |
Creators/Contributors
Interviewee | Stroud, Susan | |
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Creator | Stroud, Susan | |
Interviewer | Abel, Suzanne | |
Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
Subject | Gardner, John W. (John William), 1912-2002 |
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Subject | Civil Society > United States |
Subject | Campus Compact (Project) |
Genre | Interview |
Bibliographic information
Biographical profile | From 1985 to 1992, Susan Stroud served as assistant to the president at Brown University and the founding director of the Swearer Center for Public Service and Campus Compact. It was in that capacity that she came to know John W. Gardner, who advised on both initiatives. After moving to Washington, DC, in 1993, Stroud served as the senior advisor to the director of the White House Office of National Service. The White House team led the creation of AmeriCorps and the Corporation for National and Community Service. At the Corporation, she served as senior advisor to the CEO, director of the Office of Federal Partnerships, and the first director of Learn and Serve America, a $43 million annual grants program that supports young people’s civic engagement. From 1998 to 2001, Stroud worked at the Ford Foundation on a special initiative to support the development of youth civic engagement policies and programs in South Africa, Mexico, Russia, China and other countries. From 2001-2014, she was the founder and Executive Director of Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP), a non-profit organization that supports the development of innovative, high-quality youth civic engagement policies and programs in the US and in other countries. ICP also serves as the Secretariat for the International Association for National Youth Service (IANYS), a global network of policymakers and practitioners with an interest in youth civic engagement. Stroud was the co-founder of the Talloires Network, a growing global coalition of 260 universities who share a commitment to education for civic engagement and social responsibility. In 2015-16, she was advisor on national service to the Peace Corps’ Associate Director for Strategic Partnerships, assisting in the development of programs and partnerships, including Let Girls Learn, a multi-agency initiative of Michelle Obama. |
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Transcript |
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Finding Aid | |
Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/mt100wj5144 |
Location | SC1355 |
Repository | Stanford University. Libraries. Department of Special Collections and University Archives |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Collection
John W. Gardner Legacy Oral History Project
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