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 […]

Alex Cohen is the Director of Learning and Evaluation for the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death nationwide. In Indiana, which has among the highest smoking rates in the U.S., an estimated 11,000 people die each year from smoking. While smoking-related illnesses generally occur in older ages, smoking starts much earlier. When kids turn 18—or their friends turn 18—and they have access to cigarettes, it’s easy to start and get hooked. It’s unsurprising then that nearly 90 percent of current adult smokers first started the habit before they turned 19. One solution that’s being tested in more than 270 cities and counties in 18 […]