From Foresight, Vol. 7, No. 3
published 2000
The seventh annual conference of the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center will feature a distinguished panel of Kentucky leaders who will assess the state’s progress toward the realization of a citizen vision for the future.
The panel discussion is slated for the morning of the Center’s one-day conference on November 14, 2000, at the Northern Kentucky Conference Center in Covington. This year’s conference is being held in conjunction with Kentucky Leaders for the New Century which will present a half-day session on the New Economy on the afternoon of November 13, at the same location.
The Center monitors the state’s progress toward a citizen vision for the future which was developed in 1994, along with 26 long-term goals to advance its realization. The vision statement was based on citizen input gathered in a series of town meetings held across the state as part of the Visioning Kentucky’s Future project. The Center publishes a biennial report on the 26 long-term goals, the most recent of which is Measures and Milestones 2000. Included in the report are results of a survey of Kentucky citizens about progress toward each of the goals and a comparison of the state’s status with the nation, the region, or surrounding states.
Members of the panel of leaders convened for the Center’s annual conference were drawn from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. They will respond to essentially the same question the Center posed to citizens in 1997 and 1999 statewide surveys, “Are we moving forward, standing still, or losing ground?” The results of those surveys will also provide a foundation for this discussion of the issues that matter to Kentuckians.
Panelists will include:
Walter A. Baker. A Glasgow attorney and current member of the Council on Postsecondary Education; a former member of the General Assembly; and a former Kentucky Supreme Court Justice.
Betty Bayé. An editorial writer and columnist for The Courier-Journal, prominent civic leader, and author of a nationally syndicated column, the novel The Africans, and numerous other works.
John Berry, Jr. A New Castle attorney, former member of the General Assembly where he served as Majority Floor Leader in the Senate, and former president of the Burley Tobacco Growers Cooperative, for which he now serves as counsel.
Paul Chellgren. Chairman of the Board and CEO of Ashland Inc., and director/trustee of, among others, PNC Bank, Medtronic, University of Kentucky, Centre College and the American Petroleum Institute.
Martha Layne Collins. Former Governor of Kentucky, now an Executive Scholar in Residence at Georgetown College; former President of St. Catharine College in Springfield, Clerk of the Kentucky Supreme Court, and teacher.
Gordon Davies. President of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, a former professor and the former director of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (1977-1997), which guides one of the nation’s most prominent university systems.
Wendell Ford. Retired U.S. Senator and former Governor of Kentucky, now a Senior Legislative Advisor to Dickstein, Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky, a lecturer at the University of Kentucky’s Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, and architect of an Owensboro education center that will encourage interest in government at all levels.
Nancy Jo Kemper. Executive Director, Kentucky Council of Churches, ordained Christian Church minister, and an activist on behalf of issues such as gun control, church-state separation, and death penalty abolition.
Kris Kimel. President and founder of the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation, formerly an Executive Assistant to Kentucky's Attorney General and Chief Administrative Assistant to the Lieutenant Governor.
James Klotter. Kentucky’s State Historian, Professor of History at Georgetown College, former Executive Director of the Kentucky Historical Society, and author of, among other titles, A New History of Kentucky and an associate editor of Kentucky Encyclopedia.
Sylvia Lovely. Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Kentucky League of Cities, an attorney and member of the Morehead State University Board of Regents.
Gerald Smith. An Associate Professor of History and Director of African-American Studies and Research at the University of Kentucky, author of Black Educator in the Segregated South and numerous other works.
Jane Stephenson. Founder, former Executive Director of New Opportunity School for Women in Berea, former professor, teacher, and prominent civic leader.