The OTL Campaign welcomes Tina Dove as its new director

By Cassie Schwerner 
Guest blogger for the OTL Campaign

The Opportunity to Learn Campaign took a major step forward this month in its efforts to close the opportunity gap in public education by announcing its new campaign director, Tina Dove.

Tina takes the helm of the OTL Campaign after serving as the manager of public policy and advocacy for ASCD, which is a national nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., that works to improve learning for all students.

Today, the institution of public education is severely challenged, due to state budget cuts from California to New York and increasing pressures to simply blame our nation’s teachers. At a time like this it is critical that the Campaign has a leader who can help develop resources and strategies to strengthen public and political will to demand that every child is guaranteed the opportunity to learn.  Tina’s perfect for this role and we are fortunate to have her.

Her expertise in education is deep and wide. Tina began her career as a high school social studies teacher, working in the District of Columbia, Fairfax County, Virginia, and Redlands, California.

She launched her policy career on Capitol Hill, where she worked for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who represents Tina’s home state of California. She previously served as the advocacy liaison and intergovernmental coordinator for the National PTA, working with PTA members nationwide to strengthen grassroots efforts to increase parent involvement and to help schools.

Perhaps even more important, Tina brings great energy and enthusiasm to the job, which will be critical in her work with you, her outreach to our champions, and her efforts to build grassroots support for OTL campaigns.

Over the next several months among many priorities, Tina will be working on the next OTL Summit in Washington DC – please stay tuned for more details about OTL’s national convening.

There’s a good chance you will be hearing from her to learn more about your efforts. She also will want to hear about the challenges your communities face trying to ensure every child has an opportunity for high quality preschool, effective teachers, equitable policies and classroom resources, and college-preparatory curriculum.

Feel free to drop Tina a line to congratulate her and to share your ideas for how the OTL Campaign can better inform and support your efforts. She can be contacted at tnd@schottfoundation.org.

- Cassie Schwerner is Senior Vice President of Programs for the Schott Foundation for Public Education.