Anna Eleanor Roosevelt promotes corporate global citizenship at Press Lecture

RELEASED: May 8, 2009

DANVILLE, KY—Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, Vice President for Corporate Global Citizenship at Boeing, delivered the eighth annual Press Distinguished Lecture at Centre College's Norton Center for Arts on Thursday, May 7.

She told the Newlin Hall audience that "citizenship implies not only rights, but responsibilities," and said that "corporations have rediscovered this fuller role in society." She explained that this is part altruism, part self-interest, as businesses are becoming ever more aware that "what's good for the community is good for the company."

Ms. Roosevelt also told the many Centre students in attendance that they "are developing citizens of the world." She also told that "a liberal arts background and the ability to communicate will be critical to future employment success."

The interests of Ms. Roosevelt, granddaughter of President Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt, reflect the emphasis on global citizenship in Centre’s current strategic plan, CENTREForward. That plan established a “Center for Global Citizenship” designed to further internationalize the campus with increased international recruiting, additional student and faculty exchanges around the world, and curricular changes that enhance Centre’s global connections.

Ms. Roosevelt met with Centre students on the afternoon of May 7.

After earning a B.A. in art and art history from Stanford and a Masters in library science from UNC/Chapel Hill, Ms. Roosevelt spent eight years on the staff of the Kentucky Museum and teaching museum studies at Western Kentucky University.

After moving to Chicago, she was named executive director of Museums in the Park, representing the nine museums located on Chicago Park District land. She has also been active in the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, and the Chicago Sister Cities Casablanca Committee.

The Press Distinguished Lectureship was endowed several years ago by Lucille Caudill Little to honor Centre Board member and the first director of the Kentucky Governor’s Scholars Program Lillian Press and her husband O. Leonard Press, founder of KET. The lectureship is designed to bring to campus distinguished speakers who have made a difference for good in our civic and cultural life.

The first Press lecturer, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., lectured about the U.S. Vice Presidency just prior to Centre’s Vice Presidential debate in 2000. Other Press lecturers have included Helen Thomas, Bob Edwards, Arianna Huffington, Al Smith, and William Raspberry.

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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Consumers Digest ranks Centre No. 1 in educational value among all U.S. liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/

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