Corvington nominated to head CNCS.

Patrick Corvington was nominated to be the next chief executive officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). The announcement came just one day (Oct. 2) after the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act provisions went into effect.

President Barack Obama's nomination of Corvington goes to the U.S. Senate for confirmation. Covington is a senior associate at the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation responsible for directing foundation grantees on topics such as leadership development and capacity building.

Corvington will not be made available to the media until after the confirmation process.

From 2003 to 2005, Corvington was executive director of Innovation Network in Washington, D.C. He also conducted policy research at The Urban Institute's Metropolitan Housing and Communities Center, also in Washington, D.C. He co- authored publications on the nonprofit sector, such as Ready to Lead: Next Generation Leaders Speak Out and Next Shift: Beyond the Nonprofit Leadership Crisis.

Corvington is on the board of directors for Echoing Green, the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers and the American Humanics Nonprofit Workforce Coalition advisory board.

"I think they could not have made a better choice in Patrick," said Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent Sector in Washington, D.C. "He is a vibrant leader. He is deeply connected to people in the nonprofit and philanthropic community. He is an inspiration to young leaders and extremely interested in leadership issues for young leaders. To me, it's almost a perfect match."

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Aviv explained that Corvington is a "big thinker," who would be able to show the importance of CNCS to Congress and partner with other institutions in the sector. "Patrick has a great humility about him and he doesn't think he knows it all," said Aviv. "And I think that the strongest leaders are the ones who understand what their skills are and what skills they don't have and then bring on partners to help them. And he knows how to do that for sure."

Steven Gunderson, president and CEO of the Council on Foundations, said Corvington's professional experience with The Annie E. Casey Foundation would help if Corvington became CEO of CNCS. "This is someone coming from philanthropy, who obviously knows philanthropy and understands it. So I think that's a signal for the partnership we are all looking for," he said. "What Patrick brings to this is really the history of bringing diverse voices together to achieve common goals and common focus."

Gunderson explained that even though Annie E. Casey has a nationwide agenda, the foundation implements strong partnerships at the local level. "The history, the culture and the prototype of how Annie E. Casey works is really incredibly important and parallel to how I think most people want the National Corporation to work," said Gunderson.

Corvington is a native of Haiti and grew up in Africa before immigrating to the United States as a teenager. He earned his B.A. in sociology from the University of Maryland, College Park, and then his M.A. in public policy from Johns Hopkins University.

This nomination comes after President Obama's first nominee, Maria Eitel, president of the Nike Foundation and a vice president at NIKE, Inc., withdrew her nomination citing an undisclosed health issue in May, just one month after being nominated. Former CNCS CEO David Eisner stepped down last fall and Nicola Goren, who has been with CNCS for 11 years, has been acting CEO during the transition.

The $5.7-billion Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act will expand the current 75,000 AmeriCorps members to 250,000 by 2017, as well as creating four new "corps" addressing energy conservation, healthcare, education and veterans' issues and a Social Innovation Fund to support the programs of successful, pioneering nonprofits.

CNCS also spearheaded the United We Serve initiative, President Obama's summer call to service for 81 days, that culminated on Sept. 11.

President Obama recently signed a continuing resolution to fund federal agencies and programs at Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 levels until the enactment of regular FY 2010 or Oct. 31, which ever comes first.

Acting CEO Goren explained in a statement that CNCS can't allocate funds for the Serve America Act initiatives without FY 2010 appropriations and the continuing resolution will affect timelines for Serve America Act new program implementation.

The FY 2010 budget process began in May with President Obama's budget re quest of $1.149 billion for CNCS, a $259 million or 29 percent increase over the FY 2009 enacted level. The House of Representatives included $1.059 billion for CNCS in the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill passed on July 24, which was followed a week later by the Senate Appropriations Committee's version of the bill at $1.157 billion.