KnowledgeWorks CEO to give commencement speach at Youngstown St.

Wick has been called one of the country’s outstanding education leaders.

YOUNGSTOWN — The president and chief executive officer of the KnowledgeWorks Foundation will be the guest speaker at Youngstown State University’s fall commencement Dec. 16.

Chad Wick of Cincinnati will also receive an honorary degree during the 2 p.m. ceremony in Beeghly Center.

With an endowment of approximately $200 million, the KnowledgeWorks Foundation is Ohio’s largest education philanthropy focused on research-based, education reforms dedicated to removing barriers to higher education for all Ohioans.

The Foundation is one of the nation’s leading partners with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, collaborating to implement the most comprehensive statewide high school transformation initiative in the country aimed at converting large, urban “factory model” schools into student-centered small schools within a school.

KnowledgeWorks and the Gates foundations support the Youngstown Early College at YSU, a high school on the YSU campus that allows high school students to enroll in and earn credit in university-level classes while attending high school.

Wick has been recognized by former U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley as “one of the outstanding education leaders in the country.” He serves on the boards of numerous organizations that work in education, the arts, and public health and has been recognized with the Friend of Education Award from the National Association of School Boards of Education, Ohio Education Association and the Ohio Federation of Teachers. He received the Ohio Philanthropy Award from the Ohio Grantmakers Forum and was honored with the Visionary Award by the Contemporary Arts Center of Cincinnati.

Wick earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Cincinnati and a master’s degree in international management from Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management.

Before joining KnowledgeWorks, Wick was president and chief executive of Rise Learning Solutions.