Senior Ashbrook Director Confirmed by Senate to serve on Federal Agency Board

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – The U.S. Senate recently confirmed Victoria Hughes, Senior Director at the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). Victoria was among a group of distinguished leaders from the nonprofit, civic, and corporate sectors who will oversee the agency’s work.

CNCS, the federal agency that administers AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, the Social Innovation Fund (SIF), and other national service programs, was established in 1993 with a mission to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering. As the nation’s largest grant maker for service and volunteering, CNCS plays a critical role in strengthening America’s nonprofit sector and addressing our nation’s challenges through service. CNCS supports continued civic engagement, leadership, and public service careers for program participants and community volunteers as well as the use of service-learning in schools to establish volunteerism as life-long habits and as a means of fostering civic engagement.

Roger Beckett, Ashbrook’s Executive Director said, “It’s an honor to have a leader of Ashbrook confirmed by the Senate to sit on this board. Victoria brings a distinguished level of expertise to this role, both through the focus of the work we do at Ashbrook to underscore to the importance of civic knowledge and through her career-long dedication to improving civic education across America.”

Prior to joining Ashbrook, Mrs. Hughes was Vice President for Development at the Reason Foundation and Executive Vice President of A.C. Fitzgerald & Associates from 2010 to 2012.  She was Founding President and Senior Advisor at the Bill of Rights Institute from 1999 to 2010.  From 1994 to 1999, she was Vice President for Grants at the Charles G. Koch, Claude R. Lambe, Fred and Mary Koch Foundations and Director of Corporate Philanthropy at Koch Industries, Inc.

She began her career as a classroom teacher in Cincinnati, Boston, and Washington, D.C. and currently serves on the Board of Trustees at the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts. Mrs. Hughes received a B.S. from the University of Dayton.

At the news of the confirmation, Hughes commented: “This opportunity to serve on the Board of Directors for the Corporation for National and Community Service is truly a privilege for me. CNCS echoes the ideals of our founders through its commitment to build a culture of citizenship, service and responsibility. I am delighted to work with an organization that cultivates the spirit of American service and makes positive contributions to our great nation.” The new board members recently assumed their positions at the August board meeting.

The Senate’s official confirmation of Mrs. Hughes’ nomination is available online at https://www.congress.gov/crec/2015/07/14/CREC-2015-07-14-pt1-PgS5088.pdf

Personally dedicated by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, the Ashbrook Center, an independent center at Ashland University, restores and strengthens the capacities of the American people for constitutional self-government through its educational programs for teachers, students and citizens. Ashbrook’s teacher resource website, TeachingAmericanHistory.org, which includes information about Ashbrook’s educational programs for teachers, offers over 2,000 primary source documents and interactive teaching tools that teachers can use at no cost.