61 picked as 2016's leadership scholars

Two Arkansans were among 61 people chosen to be Presidential Leadership Scholars this year, according to the Clinton Foundation.

Over the next six months, they'll learn about leadership challenges faced by four former presidents -- Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush -- and will visit those presidents' libraries.

Kendra Johnson of Little Rock and John Forrest Ales of Fayetteville were selected out of more than 600 applicants. Both work on gay-rights matters.

Johnson is state director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil-rights organization.

Ales is on the board of the NWA Center for Equality, the largest local LGBT group in Arkansas. He's also a spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in Bentonville.

Johnson said her personal leadership focus during the scholarship program will be on youth homelessness among the LGBT community.

"Among homeless youth, about 40 percent are LGBT," said Johnson. "But in terms of their population in the general community, it's about 5 [percent] to 10 percent."

Johnson said such young people end up homeless in some cases because of conflicts with family members, but there are many other factors, including poverty and drug abuse in the family.

Johnson said data have been collected on youth homelessness among the LGBT community in large cities but not in Arkansas. She wants to begin her study by collecting data on youth homelessness in Little Rock, then expand the survey to other Arkansas cities.

"If nobody is collecting this data in Arkansas, we don't know how big the problem is," she said. "I'm interested in figuring out how kids end up on the street in Arkansas and working on a model whereby different agencies can work together to eradicate the problem."

Ales said his focus during the scholarship program will be on enabling the NWA Center for Equality to meet the needs of the growing population of Northwest Arkansas. He said that also would benefit his work with Wal-Mart's Pride Associate Resource Group, which is for LGBT employees and their allies.

"This is a really intense leadership program that's been thoughtfully designed," said Ales. "It's just an incredible thing to be a part of."

The scholars were in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to begin orientation. Today, they travel to Virginia to visit Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's plantation home.

Ales said orientation week will continue through Saturday. After that, the scholars will meet for one long weekend each month for six months.

They will visit the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock and three centers in Texas: the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library in College Station and the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas.

The program entails more than 100 hours of sessions and case studies, according to a news release from the Clinton Foundation.

Sessions and case studies include:

• Strategic Partnerships (German Reunification, George H.W. Bush Presidential Library)

• Vision and Communication (Balanced Budget Act of 1997, William J. Clinton Presidential Center)

• Decision Making (The 2008 Financial Crisis, George W. Bush Presidential Center)

• Influence and Persuasion (Voting Rights Act, Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library)

The class will graduate at the Clinton Presidential Center in July.

The first presidential scholarships were awarded in 2015. Two of the 60 scholars in the inaugural class were from Arkansas. They were Davy Carter, regional president of Centennial Bank in north Arkansas, and Hunter Phillips Goodman, executive director of development at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

Carter, a former speaker of the Arkansas House of Representatives, said former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush met extensively with the scholars at their respective libraries. Both were "very forthcoming" about leadership challenges they had to face, said Carter.

"There were a lot of very blunt conversations, so there were a lot of lessons learned there," said Carter.

The former presidents also took former members of their Cabinets and former aides to speak to the scholars.

The thing that impressed him the most, Carter said, was hearing former George W. Bush staff members say they wouldn't dare advise him to do what was most politically beneficial.

"If you ever brought up what was good for him politically, he would become irate," Carter said. "Everybody knew not to do that."

The scholarship program is about addressing difficult questions that don't have easy answers, Carter said.

Metro on 02/03/2016

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