Chair's Message: An Outstanding Year for The Council

Led by Chris McFadden, manager of program services, and funded by a grant from Kaiser Permanente, The San Diego Council on Literacy embarked on a study to identify the needs of individuals whose health care is affected by communication obstacles created by literacy demands, cultural differences, and language barriers. Through the Health Care Literacy Project, the Council is helping to reduce health care disparities and health care costs.

Conceived and funded by National University, The Council has launched a project to incorporate literacy instruction into video games. The Council is working closely with the talented faculty of National University to create video game situations that teach reading while making instruction more entertaining, engaging and effective.

Continuing education in the literacy field was a passion of the late Jane Johnson, our longstanding president, visionary and supporter. Through the generosity of the Fieldstone Foundation and the University of San Diego, The Council launched the Jane Johnson Scholarship Fund. This fund provides scholarships for college study in the field of adult literacy. Priority is given to the personnel of the Literacy Network.

The annual Chairman's Circle campaign, which represents a large percentage of The San Diego Council on Literacy’s funding, broke a record for donations received. This past year, $204,000 was generated through the Chairman's Circle campaign. The Chairman's Circle is made up of donors who contribute to The San Diego Council on Literacy at an annual amount of $1,000 or more.

The Union-Tribune Race for Literacy and Kids Magic Mile events were, as always, a tremendous success. These events took place May 5 and 6 and, once again, The Union-Tribune staff worked its magic for literacy.

Since 1989, The San Diego Council on Literacy has received all proceeds from The Union-Tribune race events.

Thank You to The San Diego Union-Tribune, the race volunteers, and, of course, all Race for Literacy and Kids Magic Mile walkers and runners.

Our leadership team was significantly strengthened during the year with the addition of two new staff members to The San Diego Council on Literacy:

  • Jose Cruz joined us as chief executive officer. Cruz has dedicated his 22-year professional career to the pursuit of literacy. He was the first executive director of the Southern California Library Literacy Network, served for three years as the statewide director of coalition and member development for California Literacy. Previously, he was the Council's associate director for 14 years.
  • Chris McFadden, who served as our Interim CEO, stays with us in an expanded role as manager of program services. McFadden has 36 years of experience in education, having taught elementary, junior high, high school and adult education students. He was the founding literacy program administrator of READ/San Diego, the adult program of the San Diego Public Library, We are truly fortunate to have the depth of experience and passion of these two professionals to lead The Council into its third decade.
  • We completed a strategic business plan that reviewed the interactions and relationships among The Council and its Literacy Network partners. This was a long and intense process. The Council has identified specific goals to serve its primary customers, the Literacy Network.

It was an outstanding year! As I have closed out my two-year term as chair of The San Diego Council on Literacy, I wish to take the opportunity to thank our staff, Literacy Network partners, fellow board members, tutors and generous benefactors for their contributions; it has been a true pleasure getting to know so many people who have helped so many others.

Sincerely,

David J. O'Brien