COLLEGE PARK, MD-February 11, 2011-Marion Pines will speak at the Brown Bag Lecture Series sponsored by University of Maryland Research Park Affiliate, Optimal Solutions Group (Optimal) on Wednesday, February 16, 2011 from 12 to 1 p.m.

Ms. Pines will discuss lessons learned in the planning and implementation of large-scale initiatives in addition to the importance of and challenges associated with stakeholder collaboration. She will draw from her experience as the cofounder and co-operator of the Academy for College and Career Exploration (ACCE), an “innovation high school” opened in Baltimore in 2004. Ms. Pines partnered with the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Employment Development in the design and implementation of the school, which boasts a year-round academic calendar, longer school days, and a focus on college and career planning.

For almost 40 years, Ms. Pines has worked to improve the outcomes for at-risk populations, particularly for disconnected youth and ex-offenders. Having led city- and statewide initiatives on neighborhood revitalization and dropout prevention in Baltimore and other Maryland areas, Ms. Pines founded the Sar Levitan Center for Social Policy Studieswithin the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) at Johns Hopkins University in 1995. The center oversees a program of congressional, regional, and state policy seminars, provides training and technical assistance, and conducts and publishes its research.

Ms. Pines shares her experience developing and executing programs that involve multiple stakeholders, in her graduate-level class, “Program Planning and Implementation,” at IPS. 

Ms. Pines’ talk will be held at Optimal’s Headquarters in the M Square Research Park in College Park, Maryland; the location is accessible by University of Maryland Shuttle and Metro (Green Line station: College Park).

Time: 12 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

Address:

M Square Research Park

5825 University Research Court, Suite 2800 (2^nd Floor)

College Park, MD 20740
 

Website:
www.optimalsolutionsgroup.com/

RSVP to:
events@optimalsolutionsgroup.com

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Optimal Solutions Group, LLC

Founded in 2000, Optimal Solutions Group, LLC, is a nonpartisan public policy research and technical assistance firm that differentiates itself by its quantitative expertise and innovative approaches in order to provide rigorous, data-driven research and technical assistance to government agencies, corporations, nonprofit organizations, and philanthropic foundations. Located at the University of Maryland’s M Square Research Park in College Park, Optimal is a leader in driving real-time public policy research. Optimal has 60+ employees including multidisciplinary researchers that have backgrounds in economics, health policy, statistics, psychology, sociology, public policy, communications, education, urban planning, and business. Optimal has four research centers—Health; Education; Housing; Workforce Development and Social Policy.

Academy for College and Career Exploration

The Academy for College and Career Exploration was created in 2004 by the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Employment Developmentand the Sar Levitan Center of The Johns Hopkins University, Institute for Policy Studies and is located at 1300 W. 36^th St., Baltimore, Md.  It is a transformation public school for grades 6-12 headed by Principal Quinhon Goodlowe. The school’s mission isto help Baltimore youth develop a love of learning and give them a constructive direction for their lives and a belief in their own abilities to succeed.