© 2024 WFAE
90.7 Charlotte 93.7 Southern Pines 90.3 Hickory 106.1 Laurinburg
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
An in-depth look at our region's emerging economic, social, political and cultural identity.

Freedom School Partners Taps Glenda Bernhardt As CEO And Executive Director

Freedom School Partners

Freedom School Partners announced Thursday that Glenda Bernhardt has been named CEO and Executive Director of the organization. Bernhardt most recently served as exective director of Temple Israel in Charlotte.

Bernhardt will succeed Freedom School Partners' founder Mary Nell McPherson. McPherson, who is retiring from the summer reading program, founded the organization 20 years ago.

"I'm so excited to become the  next CEO and executive director of Freedom School Partners, and I look forward to working with the board, staff, volunteers and partners to write the next chapter of this important community agency's story," Bernhardt said in a release.

Freedom Schools emerged from the Mississippi Freedom Summer of 1964. They're designed to build self-confidence and empowerment, along with reading skills. For children who might otherwise sit at home all summer, it's a six-week camp where they're introduced to multicultural books about children of color who confront real-life challenges.

Charlotte's organization came about when Seigle Avenue Presbyterian Church hired McPherson to run a summer and after-school reading program for children in the Piedmont Courts housing project and the Belmont neighborhood. Soon, Seigle Avenue Partners connected with the Children's Defense Fund's Freedom School program, and Freedom School Partners was born. 

Jodie Valade has been a Digital News and Engagement Editor for WFAE since 2019. Since moving to Charlotte in 2015, she has worked as a digital content producer for NASCAR.com and a freelance writer for publications ranging from Charlotte magazine to The Athletic to The Washington Post and New York Times. Before that, Jodie was an award-winning sports features and enterprise reporter at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, Ohio. She also worked at The Dallas Morning News covering the Dallas Mavericks — where she became Mark Cuban's lifelong email pen pal — and at The Kansas City Star. She has a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University and a Master of Education from John Carroll University. She is originally from Rochester Hills, Michigan.
Ann Doss Helms has covered education in the Charlotte area for over 20 years, first at The Charlotte Observer and then at WFAE. Reach her at ahelms@wfae.org or 704-926-3859.