Leslie T. Fenwick, dean emeritus and professor of educational policy and leadership at the Howard University School of Education, will deliver the 29^th annual Benjamin E. Mays Lecture on Feb. 21 at 6:30 p.m. in Georgia State University’s Speaker’s Auditorium (55 Gilmer St. S.E., Atlanta).

Fenwick will give a presentation entitled “Looking Behind the Veil of Urban School Reform.”

This event, hosted by the Alonzo A. Crim Center for Urban Educational Excellence, is free and open to the public. A reception will be held from 5:30-6:30 p.m.

A nationally known education policy and leadership scholar and former urban kindergarten-to-12^th -grade teacher and administrator, Fenwick is co-founder of the Howard University-American Association of School Administrators Urban Superintendents Academy and a past member of the Harvard University Principals Center Advisory Board. She is the 2011 recipient of the W.E.B. DuBois Award for Higher Education Leadership and is a member of the scholarly advisory committee for the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture. Her op-ed articles about education, the economy and urban development have appeared in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Education Week, Huffington Post and Diverse Issues in Higher Education.

“If anyone can help educators and the general public understand what is really going on with so-called ‘urban school reform,’ it is Dr. Leslie Fenwick,” said Joyce King, the Benjamin E. Mays Endowed Chair for Urban Teaching, Learning and Leadership. “I follow her work closely to stay informed and to stay ahead of the game. I’m so pleased this formidable scholar and courageous leader will be with us for the 29^th Annual Mays Lecture.”

Benjamin E. Mays was a minister, educator, sociologist, social activist and president of Morehouse College in Atlanta from 1940 to 1967. He also was president of the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education and supervised the desegregation of Atlanta’s public schools. The annual Mays Lecture encourages the discussion of issues facing urban educational leaders, honors the memory of Mays and promotes his philosophy of excellence in the education of those typically least well served by the larger society.

For more information about the lecture, e-mail [email protected] or call 404-413-8070.