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Intellect

Annual BYU Cluff lecture to consider education and poverty March 29

Three BYU educators also to be honored

“Education: The Bridge out of Poverty” will be the topic for the 2007 Brigham Young University David O. McKay School of Education’s Benjamin Cluff Jr. Lecture, featuring Garth L. Mangum, Thursday, March 29, at 3 p.m. in the Varsity Theater.

Admission is free, and the public is welcome.

Mangum, the emeritus Max McGraw Professor of Economics and Management at the University of Utah, will discuss the reforms necessary to overcome low levels of parental education and poverty, which he says are two major obstacles to children’s educational success.

Immediately following the lecture, three BYU educators will be recognized for outstanding work in their fields. Receiving the 2007 Benjamin Cluff Jr. Excellence in Education Awards will be Joyce Nelson of the English Department, John Gardner of the Department of Integrative Biology and Nancy Livingston of the Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education and Schooling.

Mangum is a member of the board of directors of the National Council on Employment Policy. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from BYU, master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University and a juris doctorate from the University of Utah.

The author of more than 70 books and 150 articles on employment and poverty, Mangum has spent 20 years conducting research for the Welfare Services Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and for the past decade, has served as director of the Storehouse of Specialists for the LDS Salt Lake Inner City Project.

The Benjamin Cluff Jr. lecture and awards honor BYU’s first president, an academic innovator who presided over the university for 12 years. The McKay School of Education seeks to continue his tradition of inviting renowned speakers to enlighten the university community and honoring excellence in teaching.

For more information, contact Roxanna Johnson at (801) 422-1922.

Writer: Elizabeth Kasper

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Photo by Mark A. Philbrick/BYU Photo

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