Commencement address to Simon's Rock College of Bard 2006 graduating class. Recorded 5.13.06 in Great Barrington, MA.
WBCR-LP, Locally Grown, Biotic
Doug Ahlers, a 1977 alumnus of Simon's Rock, is a Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. As a resident and business owner in New Orleans, Mr. Ahlers has also been in the forefront of the efforts to restore vitality to that city, and in his role at Harvard, Mr. Ahlers has been instrumental in applying the resources of the University to the redevelopment needs of New Orleans. After Katrina, he was appointed to mayor Ray Nagin's Bring New Orleans Back Commission's Economic Development Committee.
In January, he led a team of Harvard Business School students to help the Mayor's Commission draft the economic recovery plan for the city. The plan for New Orleans recovery was developed at the request of the White House. Mr. Ahlers has also launched the Neighborhood Empowerment Initiative in New Orleans. The Initiative involves volunteer students, faculty and staff of the graduate schools of Government, Business, Education, Law and Design at Harvard University. The Harvard volunteers have adopted a neighborhood in New Orleans and are applying their expertise in urban planning, education, and economic development to empower the neighborhood residents to develop their own plan for the recovery of their neighborhood. The community-based planning process is meant to serve as a model for other New Orleans neighborhoods to follow.
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