USF Sarasota-Manatee hires new Public Policy and Leadership Director

 SARASOTA, FL (September 7, 2007) – David Klement, long-time Editorial Page editor of the Bradenton Herald, will be the new director of the Institute for Public Policy and Leadership (IPPL) at the University of South Florida's Sarasota-Manatee campus.

 

Dr. Arthur M. Guilford, vice president and chief executive officer of the local campus, announced the appointment Friday, concluding a four month search. Klement fills the vacancy left this summer when the previous director, Dr. Donald C. Menzel, returned to academia. The appointment is effective on Oct. 1.

 

"Mr. Klement’s experience and background will bring exciting new ideas to the Institute for Public Policy and Leadership," Dr. Guilford said.  “The workshops and forums provided by IPPL are valuable to our community, and we look forward to Mr. Klement’s direction to further enhance our programs.”

 
Klement has directed the Herald's opinion pages for 30 years, writing most of the newspaper's editorials and chairing its Editorial Board, which sets the paper's editorial position on public policy issues. Prior to assuming the Editorial Editor's role he served as City Editor and News Editor of the Herald. He came to the Bradenton Herald from the Detroit Free Press, where he served in a variety of editing positions and shared a Pulitzer Prize awarded to the newspaper's staff in 1968 for coverage of the 1967 Detroit riots. He began his newspaper career at the Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City.

“I look forward to helping the IPPL gain a larger role and profile in public policy in the Manatee-Sarasota area as well as the larger Tampa Bay region,” said Klement.  “I believe that my 32 years of experience analyzing public policy as an editorial writer for the Bradenton Herald will enable me to react to policy making in a different venue and a different format.”

At USF Sarasota-Manatee, he will direct the Institute for Public Policy and Leadership established by former Congressman Dan Miller of Bradenton when he retired from Congress in 2002. The Institute's goal is to help shape the future social, economic, physical and government environments that influence the lives of citizens in the south Tampa Bay region. Last academic year it brought prominent speakers like Robert B. Semple, associate editor of the New York Times, and Dr. Bruce Russett, Dean Acheson Professor of International Relations at Yale University to the campus and sponsored forums and workshops on Medicaid and Ethical Decision Making.

 

Under Klement, the IPPL is expected to expand its participation in public policy issues of concern to Manatee and Sarasota counties as well as the larger Tampa Bay region.

 

For more information, visit www.sarasota.usf.edu.