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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release July 18, 1995
           PRESIDENT NAMES HARRIS WOFFORD AS CHIEF EXECUTIVE 
         OFFICER AND ELI SEGAL TO THE BOARD OF THE CORPORATION 
                          FOR NATIONAL SERVICE
                                    
     The President today announced his intention to nominate Harris

Wofford as Chief Executive Officer, and Eli Segal as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National Service.

"No one has dedicated more time and energy to helping others through public service than Harris Wofford. I am extremely pleased to name him to this position today," the President said. "I look forward to working with him and my old friend Eli to build on the progam's proven success."

As the Corporation for National Service nears its third year of operation, the President is increasing national service's resources by pairing Harris Wofford, who brings decades of leadership in the service movement and a distinguished career in public service, with Eli Segal, the first Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation.

The Corporation for National Service was created nearly two years age to foster service as a solution to community problems. Its oversight includes well-established programs such as Foster Grandparents, Senior Companions, and the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (which together compose the National Senior Service Corps and involve a half million Americans), as well as Learn and Serve America (which provides funds to states and institutions of higher education to integrate service activities with classroom education and involves more than a half million students).

Under President Clinton's leadership and bipartisan Congressional authorization, the Corporation established AmeriCorps, a network of service programs operates by non-profit organizations, largely selected and monitored by states, and coordinated nationally. Currently, 20,000 AmeriCorps Members serve in more than 350 programs in communities around the nation, earning education awards to help pay for college or job training. AmeriCorps reflects core American values such as responsibility, citizenship and opportunity; embodies a decentralized, reinvented government; and provides real help to hard-pressed communities and hard-working American families. AmeriCorps includes VISTA and the National Civilian Community Corps, both created under earlier legislation.

In its first year of operations, the Corporation launched AmeriCorps; assisted Governors in the formation of state commissions for service and conducted the competitive selection of AmeriCorps programs; established the rules and structure necessary to launch AmeriCorps on September 12, 1994; and merged two existing federal entities and integrated their service initiatives into a new form of government corporation.

During its second year of operations, the Corporation saw 20,000 AmeriCorps Members serving on the front lines of relief efforts after forest fires, floods, earthquakes and other disasters; backing up law enforcement officers in big cities and rural areas; teaching and tutoring in many of the nation's most challenged schools; clearing streams and trails in national parks and removing lead paint in city apartments -- in hundreds of different ways, achieving significant results for communities. The reach and impact of the National Senior Service Corps and Learn and Serve America also expanded during this second year.

Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania served as a United States Senator from Pennsylvania from 1991 to 1994. Since helping to launch the Peace Corps in 1961, he has been in the forefront of the effort to bring that idea home to America. In the 1970's, he formed and chaired the Committee to Study the Idea of National Service, which in 1978, produced the landmark report Youth and the Needs of the Nation. In 1987, as Pennsylvania Secretary of Labor and Industry, he established and led Governor Robert Casey's Office of Citizen Service, known as PennServe, which promoted school-based service and learning throughout the Commonwealth and managed the Pennsylvania Conservation Corps.

While in Governor Casey's cabinet, Mr. Wofford worked with the Governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton, on a National Governors Association Task Force on National Youth Services, and came to Washington to assist the bi-partisan group of Senators who drafted the National and Community Service Act of 1990, signed into law by President Bush. In 1991, as a newly-elected Senator, Mr. Wofford joined Senator David Boren of Oklahoma in initiating and securing bi-partisan support for a demonstration of a National Civilian Community Corps, also signed into law by President Bush. In 1993, Senator Wofford was a key member of the bi-partisan group of legislators who worked with President Clinton in enacting the National and Community Service Trust Act that established the Corporation for National Service.

Previously, Mr. Wofford served in three national administrations. From 1958 to 1959 during the Eisenhower Administration, he was counsel to the Rev. Theodore Hesburgh on the first U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. From 1961 to 1962, he was Special Assistant to President Kennedy and chair of the subcabinet group on civil rights. While on the White House staff, he helped Sargent Shriver plan and organize the Peace Corps, and in 1962, became the Peace Corps Special Representative to Africa and director of its large Ethiopia program. In 1964, during the Johnson Administration, he became the Peace Corps Associate Director.

Mr. Wofford served as President of Bryn Mawr College from 1970 to 1978 and was an Associate Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School from 1979 to 1980. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Force. Mr. Wofford earned a B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1948, and LL.B. from Yale Law School in 1954. He and his wife, Claire, have three children and four grandchildren.

Eli Segal was a Boston-based businessman prior to joining the Clinton Administration as Assistant to the President in January, 1993. His business career included ownership of several consumer product companies, GAMES Magazine, and a direct mail marketing company.

Mr. Segal's civic involvement included serving on the boards of several non-profit organizations; teaching government and the law both in the United States and abroad; and assisting numerous political campaigns. He served as Chief of Staff of the Clinton-Gore 1992 Presidential campaign and Chief Financial Officer of the Presidential transition in 1992.

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Mr. Segal received his bachelor's degree from Brandeis University in 1964 and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School in 1967. His wife, Phyllis, serves as Chair of the Federal Labor Relations Authority. The Segals have two children.

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