June 26, 2002

Washington... President Patricia McGuire announced that the Trinity College Board of Trustees recently elected Dr. Peggy Hoffman O'Brien to serve as Chair of the Board for a three-year term. Dr. O'Brien is the executive director of Cable in the Classroom, where she leads the cable industry's non-profit public service organization whose mission is to improve teaching and learning for children in the classroom, at home and in their communities. Dr. O'Brien is a 1969 graduate of Trinity College, and is the former president of the Alumnae Association of Trinity College.

"We are very pleased to have Dr. O'Brien, with her exemplary leadership skills and professional expertise in education, at the helm of our Board of Trustees," said President McGuire. "Since she is the first lay alumna to be elected Chair of the Board of Trustees, this is an important milestone for Trinity College," added President McGuire.

Dr. O'Brien brings to the position a career in leading innovative education and technology initiatives. Cable in the Classroom is the only industry-wide philanthropic initiative of its kind and provides free access to cable content and new technologies to 81,000 public and private schools nationwide - more than three-quarters of all K-12 schools.

Dr. O'Brien was Chief Learning Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Kiko, Inc., an Internet education company. Prior to joining Kiko, Inc., Dr. O'Brien served as Vice President of Education and Director of Education Programs for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Her varied responsibilities there involved setting standards for all educational and artistic content of CPB-funded programming, leading public television's efforts in developing digital content, and directing the Ready to Learn initiative, an educational coalition of public television stations, preschool teachers, other community educators, national service organizations, television producers, and publishers of children's books. O'Brien was instrumental in developing Mobil Masterpiece Theatre's American Collection, nine films based on American literary classics and an extensive website created by middle school and high school teachers across the country.

As Head of Education for The Folger Shakespeare Library, and as founder and director of the Library's Teaching Shakespeare Institute, Dr. O'Brien developed the Library's educational department and its philosophy, which says that learning Shakespeare is possible for middle and secondary school students of every culture, economic level, and ability level, and that they learn best interactively, through the process of performing. Dr. O'Brien's Teaching Shakespeare Institute has become a nationally acclaimed teacher education program focused on scholarship, practice, leadership, and research, and promoting the accessibility of Shakespeare to all students.

In a lifetime dedicated to education, O'Brien has also been a librarian and a teacher of reading, writing, and English. She has also been a magazine publisher, a restaurant owner and manager, and continues to be a prolific lecturer, speaker, theatrical producer and director. She is a resident of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

After earning her bachelor's degree from Trinity College she completed a master's degree from the Catholic University of America in 1971. She later returned to education and earned her doctorate from The American University in1993. She has been awarded honorary degrees from Trinity College and Georgetown University.

Trinity College is a comprehensive university offering educational programs to students across the lifespan, continuing the historic emphasis on women's education in the College of Arts and Sciences, while offering professional and workforce-focused coeducational programs in the School of Professional Studies and School of Education. In the fall of 2002 Trinity will launch a new M.B.A. program, and a master's in information assurance. The Trinity Center for Women and Girls in Sports, currently under construction, will open in January 2002.

For more information, contact: Ann Pauley, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, 202/884-9725.