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ROANOKE,
VA (December 1, 2006)
Shenandoah
Life Insurance Company is pleased to announce that Board of Directors’
member, Ralph B. Everett, has been appointed to serve as President and Chief
Executive Officer of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies,
effective January 1.
Mr.
Everett will lead the Joint Center at an important time for people of color
in America, with the number of black elected officials in the U.S. having
grown to more than 9,500 and as African Americans prepare to assume the
leadership of key committees in the new Congress.
“Having
worked with the Joint Center from my days as a young Capitol Hill staffer
nearly 30 years ago, I can tell you this appointment is a dream come true for
me,” said Mr. Everett. “In this information-seeking environment, I see a wealth
of opportunities for the Joint Center to use its knowledge and influence to
drive public policy and improve the quality of life for African Americans and
for all who pursue the American dream. It is an honor to be chosen to lead
this distinguished organization.”
Mr.
Everett has worked since 1989 as a partner at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky &
Walker LLP, a leading international law firm with more than 1,000 attorneys
in 18 offices throughout Europe, Asia and the United States. The first
African American to receive a partnership at the firm, he has served as
Managing Partner of the Washington office and is a member of the Policy
Committee and Co-Chair of the Firm’s Federal Legislative Practice Group.
While at Paul Hastings, Mr. Everett has specialized in matters pertaining to
the legislative and executive branches, as well as independent regulatory
agencies. He has particular experience in telecommunications and
transportation policy issues.
In 1982,
Mr. Everett became the first African American to head a U.S. Senate committee
staff when he was appointed by Senator Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC) to be the
Democratic staff director and minority chief counsel of the Committee on
Commerce, Science and Transportation. When Democrats won majority control of
the Senate in 1986, Mr. Everett was named Staff Director and Chief Counsel of
the full committee. There, he played a significant role in major legislation
considered by the committee, including cable, broadcast and common carrier
legislation, and regulatory reform of the airline, truck, rail and bus
industries.
“Ralph
Everett is a man of enormous energy who has the experience and the vision to
lead the Joint Center into an exciting future,” said Elliott Hall, chairman
of the Joint Center’s board of governors. “We are delighted that he will be
putting his extraordinary networking and coalition-building skills to work
for the nation’s foremost policy research institution on African American
issues.”
The
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies was established in 1970 to
provide training, assistance and research to newly-elected black officials.
Today, its signature research focuses on disparities in health care,
improving the socioeconomic status of black Americans and expanding their
effective participation in the political and public policy arenas. Opinion
leaders, academics, government officials, business leaders, community
activists and the media utilize the Joint Center’s research and analysis to
improve the lives of African Americans and other minorities.
In
addition to his law practice, Mr. Everett has been active in national and
community affairs, including six years of service on the board of the
National Urban League and more than ten years on the board of the Center for
National Policy, where he served as Secretary of the organization. He has
served as a member of the President’s Board of Advisors on Historically Black
Colleges and Universities, as Vice Chairman of the Commonwealth of Virginia
Waste Management Board, and he is currently a member of the Economic Club of
Washington, the Board of Trustees of the Virginia Science Museum and Alpha
Phi Alpha Fraternity.
Mr.
Everett currently serves on the boards of directors of Cumulus Media Inc. and
Shenandoah Life Insurance Company. He is also a member of the Board of
Visitors of Duke University Law School and has served as Chair of Board of
Trustees of the historic Alfred Street Baptist Church, the oldest African
American congregation in Alexandria, Virginia and one of the oldest Baptist
churches in the United States.
In 1998,
President Clinton appointed Mr. Everett as U.S. Ambassador to the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference in
Minneapolis, and that year he led the U.S. delegation to the ITU’s second
World Telecommunication Development Conference in Malta, where he was elected
Vice Chairman of the conference attended by representatives from more than
190 nations.
Mr.
Everett is admitted to practice law before the United States Supreme Court
and is admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia and in North Carolina.
A native
or Orangeburg, South Carolina, Mr. Everett is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of
Morehouse College and has a juris doctor from Duke University Law School,
where he was an Earl Warren Legal Scholar. He began his professional career
as a lawyer in the North Carolina Department of Labor in Raleigh. In 1977, he
moved to Washington to work as a legislative assistant in Senator Hollings’
office.
Mr.
Everett resides in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife, Dr. Gwendolyn Harris
Everett. They have one adult son, Jason Gordon Everett and a daughter-in-law,
Heidi Jackson Everett.
Mr.
Everett will succeed Dr. Margaret C. Simms, who has been serving as interim
President and Chief Executive Officer.
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