Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Tobacco and opioids continue to claim Hoosier lives. Last year in Indiana, more than 1,700 died from a drug overdose, an increase of 13 percent over 2016. And each year, more than 11,000 people die in Indiana due to smoking cigarettes. Addressing these two public health issues requires collaboration across sectors. This includes employers. Aside from inflicting harm on Indiana residents, tobacco use and opioid misuse cost employers, too. It’s estimated that, each year, tobacco costs the state $7.6 billion and opioids cost an additional $1.5 billion. Employers pay a share of this through higher […]

Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Most of us would agree that leadership matters — whether we’re talking about the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, the mayor of a city, or the coach of a football team. Leadership certainly matters when it comes to student academic achievement in K-12 schools. A rigorous 2013 study found that “highly effective principals raise the achievement of a typical student in their schools by between two and seven months of learning in a single school year; ineffective principals lower achievement by the same amount.” One of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation’s strategies in our Education focus […]