Distinguished Lecture Series: Thriving Children in Thriving Communities

Join the Centennial Institute for our March Distinguished Lecture from Ian Rowe, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Young people in disadvantaged communities face societal barriers and a cultural narrative that tells them they are victims. In addition to a personal conviction in their own potential, kids need the nurturing structure, the consistent discipline, and the moral direction that social institutions traditionally have provided. In particular, they need Family, Religion, Education, and Entrepreneurship—the very pillars that have crumbled in our most disadvantaged communities.

This event is co-sponsored by the CCU Social Sciences Department, School of Education, and the student-led AEI Executive Council.

Distinguished Lecture Series: Thriving Children in Thriving Communities
Ian Rowe
Monday, March 28, 2022
7:30pm – 9:00pm MT
Anschutz Great Room
Colorado Christian University
8787 W. Alameda Ave.
Lakewood, CO 80226
Register below to attend in-person or watch online here.

About Ian Rowe:

Ian V. Rowe is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on education and upward mobility, family formation, and adoption. Mr. Rowe is the co-founder & CEO of Vertex Partnership Academies, a new network of character-based, International Baccalaureate public charter high schools opening in the Bronx in 2022, and the chairman of the board of Spence-Chapin, a nonprofit adoption services organization that provides adoption and adoption support services. Rowe is a senior visiting fellow at the Woodson Center, and a writer for the 1776 Unites Campaign. He is a trustee at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and a senior advisor for the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR For All), Parents Defending Education, and the National Summer School Initiative (NSSI).

Mr. Rowe is widely published and quoted in the popular press, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, C-SPAN, the New York Post, the Washington Examiner, Education Week and Education Next. In addition to serving ten years as CEO of Public Prep, a nonprofit network of public charter schools based in the South Bronx and Lower East Side of Manhattan, he was deputy director of postsecondary success at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Rowe won two public service Emmys while serving as the senior vice president of strategic partnerships and public affairs at MTV. He was the director of the strategy and performance measurement at the USA Freedom Corps office in the White House and co-founder and president of Third Millennium Media. Mr. Rowe was also a senior staff member for Teach For America in its early days.

After receiving a high school diploma in electrical engineering from Brooklyn Technical High School, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science Engineering from Cornell University’s College of Engineering and then an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was the first black Editor-In-Chief of the Harbus, the Harvard Business School newspaper. Serving as an elected school board member, he resides in Pelham, New York, with his wife and two children.