Arnold F. Fege is the Director of Public Engagement and Advocacy for the Public Education Network (PEN), representing 88 community based local education funds in urban school districts that focus on improving educational opportunities for poor and disadvantaged children. Arnold represents PEN on the Hill, interacts with key education and parent organizations at the national level, and is known nationally as one of the leading proponents of community and parent involvement in education. He is a board member of the Education and Policy Leadership Center.
Arnold has gained a wealth of experience from several different careers, having served as a public school teacher and administrator, a staff member for Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and a journalist covering urban problems and education for the Chicago Sun-Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He also was a Vietnam War correspondent for the Associated Press. He also led the National Coalition for Public Education comprised of 60 member associations organized to defeat federal tuition tax credit and private school voucher proposals. He was involved in the drafting and passage of the original Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965, and a Title I director in a Michigan school district.
Arnold is presently on the Board of Directors for Children’s Hospital, Washington, DC; Turning the Page; the Youth Policy Institute; the Home-School Institute; the Center for Research in Educational Assessment and Testing; DC Voice; Parents for Public Schools; and the Center for School and Family Connections. He has degrees from Hope College, Oberlin College and Teachers College, Columbia University.
Fege was the recipient of the 1969 Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Peace Award, the 1970 United Nations Journalism Award for Excellence in Analytical International Newswriting, a 1983 Roosevelt Center Congressional Child Advocacy Award, the 1991 Jefferson Foundation Religious Liberty Honor, the 1998 National PTA President’s Recognition for Outstanding Child Advocacy, and the 2000 Nelson Mandela Award for International Education Leadership and Social Justice.
Board of Directors:
- Jim Buckheit
- Ronald R. Cowell
- David J. Sallack
- Stinson Stroup
- Sheila Dow Ford
- Colonel (retired) Charles D. Allen
- Michael Churchill
- Dr. Morton Coleman
- Edward Donley, Emeritus
- Dr. Judith S. Eaton
- Arnold F. Fege
- Karl Girton
- William H. Isler
- Dr. G. Terry Madonna
- Clyde Mills McGeary
- Dr. Peggy Siegel
- Dr. Harris Sokoloff
- Dr. Betsey Useem
- Dr. Robert Wilburn
- Dr. Gerald L. Zahorchak
- Roberta M. Marcus
