Ned Lamont to Keynote MLK, Jr. Day Breakfast & Food Drive

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, December 21, 2009
Contact: Anita Shipp
(203) 820-7684

PORTLAND, CT--Gary H. Collins, founder and CEO of the Collins Foundation, Inc., announced today that entrepreneur and public servant Ned Lamont will deliver the keynote address at this year's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Breakfast and Food Drive at the Crowne Plaza Cromwell on January 18, 2010 at 8:00 a.m.

"In the wake of persistent news reports regarding the skyrocketing costs of higher education, I can't think of anyone better suited to deliver this year's theme, 'From Dr. King to President Obama: How Higher Education Paved the Way to the Oval Office'", Collins said this morning. "Ned Lamont continues to stand out as one of the state's most articulate voices regarding the threat that the rising costs of education poses to our next generation of would be public servants--and the devastating effect that will ultimately have on our communities."

Lamont, a longstanding advocate for education reform, is a graduate of the Yale School of Management, he has served as a policy member at the Brookings Institution, a fellow at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and currently serves as a professor and chair of the Arts and Sciences Public Policy Committee at CCSU. His board service includes Teach for America CT, which focuses on education reform. As a volunteer teacher, Lamont has taught business classes to Bridgeport high school students.

Attendees of the breakfast will be making Dr. King's holiday a day of activism by both advancing the education of the Foundation's scholarship recipients (who will be honored at the event) and providing much needed food for the hungry.

Tickets for the event can be purchased by visting the Collins Foundation, Inc.'s website (www.collinsfoundationinc.org) or contacting Anita Shipp at (203) 820-7684 or info@collinsfoundationinc.org.