MyBGSUBGSU EmailSearchAcademicsAdmissionsThe ArtsAthleticsLibraryA to Z LinksBowling Green State UniversityTaft will discuss “Values: Making a Difference” at 11 a.m. in the Lenhart Grand Ballroom of BGSU’s Bowen-Thompson Student Union. Her keynote address is free and open to the public. “
Make a Difference” is part of the theme of this year’s lecture series, which will focus on “Leadership and Civic Engagement in the Information Age.” Coordinated by University Libraries, the series will also feature: Dr. James G. Neal, vice president for information services and university librarian at Columbia University, who will address “Higher Education and the Public Interest: The Challenges of Public Information Policy Issues” on Dec. 2; Dr. Nancy Cantor, chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who will discuss diversity issues in “Exploring the Human Experience: Beyond Differences” on Jan. 26; and Erin Gruwell, a teacher and author, who will speak on “Overcoming Adversity: Achieving Academic Excellence” on March 2.
Taft, a member of President Bush’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, will speak at BGSU the day before the 13th annual Make A Difference Day—the most active day of volunteering in communities nationwide. She and Jim Tressel, head football coach at Ohio State University, are honorary co-chairs of the Ohio effort for Make A Difference Day.
The event was created by USA Weekend magazine and last year drew three million volunteers who performed service in communities across the country. At least two groups of BGSU students are participating in this year’s Make A Difference Day. Scholarship recipients affiliated with the Center for Multicultural and Academic Initiatives are donating teddy bears to Wood County Hospital for distribution to ill children, while the BGSUrve program will send students to work with senior citizens in Bowling Green.
Volunteerism is only one of the avenues through which Taft strives to lift up youth by strengthening their families and communities. She is a co-founder of several anti-drug organizations, including Ohio Parents for Drug Free Youth and the Ohio Alcohol and Drug Policy Alliance. Co-chair of Leadership to Keep Children Alcohol Free, she also serves on the National Advisory Council for the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Advisory Committee on the Treatment of Alcoholism and Drug Addiction. From 1998-2003, she was a member of the President’s Commission for Drug-Free Communities.
The First Lady is current spokesperson for Ohio’s Family and Children First Initiative, a partnership of government agencies and community organizations dedicated to enabling every child to succeed.
She has received numerous honors for her volunteer service in substance abuse prevention and treatment as well as in mental health. A 1966 graduate of Southern Methodist University, she has also received honorary doctorates from the College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati and from Cleveland State University. She and her husband, Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, married in 1967.