| Dr. Robert
H. Becker |
Director
Strom Thurmond Institute |
Dr. Robert Becker is Professor of Policy Studies and Director
of the Strom Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs at
Clemson University. He has served as director since January 1992. He
earned his BS degree from Penn State University and the MA and Ph.D.
degrees from the University of Maryland. Prior to joining the Clemson
faculty in 1981, Becker served as associate director for social sciences
and economics of the Water Resources Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He teaches and conducts research in the areas of community and regional
development, and natural resource policy.
| Cynthia H.
Cothran |
Director,
SC Bar Law Related Education Division |
Cynthia H. Cothran is a native of Columbia. Ms. Cothran
is a summa cum laude graduate with a B.A. in business from Columbia
College. She has her Master's from USC in Hospitality, Retail, and Sport
Management with a focus on meeting planning. Ms. Cothran has been with
the SC Bar Law Related Education Division since 2002 primarily implementing
We the People: Project Citizen and Middle School Mock Trial throughout
the state. Ms. Cothran conducts trainings on law related education programs
throughout the state. In January 2006, Ms. Cothran became the Director
of the SC Bar Law Related Education Division.
Ms. Cothran has been married for fourteen years and also
enjoys the company of three lovely Welch Corgis (her “children”).
In her spare time, she enjoys music, painting, sewing, cooking, reading,
church, and being with her friends and family.
| Camilla F.
Hertwig |
Strom
Thurmond Institute |
Camilla Hertwig, works in the area of research and implementing
of special projects focused on improving the workforce, education and
building a better business climate in SC. Ms. Hertwig has a background
in education and small business entrepreneurship and has spent much
of her professional life in the area of improving workforce development
through building business and education opportunities.
Previously Mrs. Hertwig was the economic development liaison
between the SC Department of Education, the SC Department of Commerce
and the Governors office. She promoted developed and maintained a flow
of information and data to the business leadership in SC. Mrs. Hertwig
developed projects and relationships with government agencies, chambers
of commerce and business organizations for quality workforce and job
creation; developed and coordinated a 22 million dollar federal grant;
provided technical assistance to economic developers: and analyzed and
made recommendations for policy and operations focused on economic development
and workforce readiness.She served as the Coordinator of Quality Management the
Coordinator of Community Involvement with responsibility for developing
a foundation and innovative programs that focused in workforce development.
In addition she served as the Director of Business Education Partnerships
in Greenville, SC and was the education representative to recruit business
and industry to Greenville, SC. She has also been a small business owner
since 1980. Over the last 25 years she has developed and owned several
small businesses.
As a civic leader, she serves on the SC Workforce Investment
Board, Palmetto Partners for Science and Technology, United Way Board
of Directors of Greenville, SC, Community Impact Agenda Board of Greenville,
Chairman of St. Francis Hospital Foundation, Chairman, MidAtlantic Affiliate,
American Heart Association, National Advisory Committee of AHA, Chair
of SC Advocacy AHA
Previously served the state as a member of: SC Economic Development Agency Advisory Board
SC Technical College Board, representing the SC Department
of Education
Governors School to Work Advisory Council
World Affairs Advisory Board
SC World Class Partnerships
SC Business Education Partnership
| Paul A. Horne,
Jr. |
Director
of Curriculum and Program Review for the Education Oversight Committee |
Paul A. Horne, Jr., is the Director of Curriculum and
Program Review for the Education Oversight Committee of the state of
South Carolina. Educated in the public schools of North Carolina, Dr.
Horne earned BA degree in History from Davidson College where he was
active in the Philanthropic Debate Society and Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity.
After graduation from Davidson, he entered the University of South Carolina,
earning and MA and Ph.D. in history, with concentration in Colonial
American and Legal history. While working on his doctorate, Dr. Horne
began teaching at Dreher High School in Columbia, South Carolina, where
he also coached the debate team and several athletic teams. In 1989,
he became the social studies supervisor for Richland County School District
One. In1997, he became an assistant principal at A.C.Flora High School
in Columbia, a post he held until taking his current position in 2000.
Dr. Horne is the author of numerous publications, including
several textbooks on South Carolina history. He has worked as a consultant
for many organizations, including the Southern Center for International
Studies; Holt, Rinehart, and Winston; South arolina Educational Television,
and the Law Related Education Division of the South Carolina Bar. He
currently serves as the Executive Director of the South Carolina Council
for the Social Studies and previously served as the Secretary-Treasurer.
He recently completed a term as chair of the Steering Committee for
the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and as a member of
the Board of Directors. He is also a former member of the FASSE Board
and a former chair of the Curriculum Committee of NCSS.
Dr. Horne is married with two children. He is an active
member of Eastminster Presbyterian Church and numerous professional
and civic organizations.
| Allen Fretwell |
Assistant
Solicitor |
len Fretwell is an Assistant Solicitor for the Thirteenth
Judicial Circuit where he prosecutes primarily arson, drug, and murder
cases and serves as Cold Case Liaison to the Greenville County Sheriff’s
Office. As a Palmetto Legal Scholar, Mr. Fretwell received his Juris
Doctorate in 1999 from the University of South Carolina School of Law
as a member of the John Belton O’Neal Inn of Court and qualifying
for the Order of the Wig and Robe. Mr. Fretwell was graduated magna
cum laude from Bob Jones University in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science
Degree.
Mr. Fretwell coaches middle school, high school and college
mock trial and was the attorney coach for the 2004 National High School
Mock Trial Champions. He was named Prosecutor of the Year by the Greenville
County Sherriff’s Office in 2005 and was involved in the creation
of the Youth Court program in Greenville. In 1998, Mr. Fretwell was
awarded the Order of the Palmetto by South Carolina Governor David M.
Beasley. Mr. Fretwell sits on the Board of Directors for the Roper Mountain
Science Center Association and is a member of both the South Carolina
Bar House of Delegates and the Committee for Law Related Education.
He and his wife, April, live in Greenville, South Carolina.
Bruce Ransom is professor of political science and chair
of the interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Policy Studies at Clemson
University. He is also an assistant to President Barker. He completed
his B.A. (1971) in political science at Hampton University and earned
his M.A. (1974) and Ph.D. (1981) in Government from the University of
Virginia. Bruce is also a graduate (2003) of the South Carolina Executive
Institute.
Bruce is a former political science faculty member and
faculty associate at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University
in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He is also the founding executive director
of the South Jersey Center for Public Affairs at Richard Stockton College
in New Jersey. In 1994, Bruce joined the political science faculty at
Clemson University.
His professional experience also includes assignments
as staff director of the New Jersey Governor’s Advisory Commission
on Gambling during the administration of Governor Tom Kean and senior
policy advisor in the Office of the Governor during the Jim Florio administration.
He also served as vice chairman of New Jersey Future, a statewide organization
monitoring land use planning and growth management policies. Bruce continues
to serve as a member of the board of directors of the New Jersey Public
Policy Research Institute, a public policy research unit located in
the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University.
He has published on a variety of topics, including community
economic development policy, electoral politics, gambling and public
policy, local government administration and public policy, federalism
and intergovernmental relations, and related topics.
During the 2000 presidential election, Bruce was a consultant
and on-air political analyst for WYFF-Channel 4, the NBC television
affiliate in Greenville, South Carolina.
| Ada Louis Steirer |
Research
Associate |
Ada Louise Steirer is a research associate at the Strom
Thurmond Institute of Government and Public Affairs at Clemson University.
As team leader of the institute’s community and economic development
program, she edited the Community Leader’s Letter, a newsletter
circulated to 16,000 South Carolinians and provided information and
technical assistance to local governments and nonprofits and private
organizations. She recently coauthored citizen’s guides on funding
state government, home rule in South Carolina, and financing education.
Her most recent publication, the Historical Development of the South
Carolina State and Local Revenue System, covers the evolution of state
finance from colonial days to the present. For eight years, she participated
on the board of the state’s recently completed Turning Point process
to transform and strengthen the state’s capacity to protect and
improve public health. She has had experience as an appointed and elected
official at the local, regional, and state levels. Her public service
includes the Clemson Zoning Board of Adjustments, Clemson City Council,
the Planning and Economic Development Committee of the Appalachian Council
of Governments, and Gov. Richard Riley’s Council on Natural Resources
and the Environment.
| Joseph Stewart,
Jr |
Professor
and Chair, Dept. of Political Science / Clemson University |
Joseph Stewart, Jr. (Ph.D., University of Houston, 1977)
is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Clemson
University. His research interests include education policy, racial
and ethnic politics, and public policy, and his work in these areas
has been published in various political science, education, public policy,
and public administration journals and in four co-authored books—Race,
Class, and Education (Wisconsin, 1989), The Politics of Hispanic Education
(SUNY, 1991), "Can We All Get Along?" Racial and Ethnic Minorities
in American Politics (4th ed., 2006)—each of which has won a Gustavus
Myers Award for an “Outstanding Book on the Subject of Human Rights
in the United States”—and, Public Policy: An Evolutionary
Approach (West, 2nd ed., 2000), which was published in Chinese editions
in 2001 and 2004.
Stewart’s works with the Center for Civic Education
in their “We, The People: The Citizen and the Constitution”
and “Project Citizen” programs. In those capacities he has
judged “We, The People” state finals in both New Mexico
and South Carolina and the national competition in Washington, DC and
worked with teachers at all levels to try to improve civic education.
In addition, Stewart has served as the Chief Faculty Consultant to the
Educational Testing Service and the College Board for the Advanced Placement
(AP) Government & Politics exam. In that capacity, he consults with
high school teachers throughout the country on the teaching and grading
of AP courses. Related to those efforts, Stewart received an Advanced
Placement Special Recognition Award from the Southwestern Regional Office
of the College Board in 2000.
Among the positions Stewart has held is as a Culpeper
Fellow in the Social Sciences at Rice University, a National Assessment
of Education Progress (NAEP) Scholar at the Educational Testing Service,
President of the Southwestern Political Science Association, and President
of the Southwestern Social Science Association. He is currently Vice-President-Elect
of the Southern Political Science Association.
Bruce Yandle is Professor of Economics Emeritus at Clemson
University where he has been a faculty member since 1969. Bruce has
served in Washington on two occasions. He was a senior economist on
the President’s Council on Wage & Price Stability during the
Ford and Carter administrations and was Executive Director of the Federal
Trade Commission during the Reagan administration. He teaches in George
Mason University’s Capitol Hill Campus in Washington and is a
Senior Associate with the Property and Environmental Research Center
in Bozeman, Montana. Author/editor of a dozen books on regulation, Dr.
Yandle has served as board member and as chairman of the S.C. State
Board of Economic Advisors. He is chairman of the board of trustees
of Spartanburg Methodist College and writes a quarterly newsletter on
the economy for Clemson’s Strom Thurmond Institute. Prior to pursuing
a career in university teaching, Dr. Yandle was in the industrial machinery
business for 15 years. He received his MBA and PhD degrees from Georgia
State University.
