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Riley Institute program links politics, public policy, leadership
May 20, 2010
A June 3 program at the Columbia Convention Center will highlight the accomplishments of Midlands leaders, including Dr. Myriam Torres of the Arnold School of Public Health, who were selected for the Diversity Leadership Initiative of the Richard W. Riley Institute of Government, Politics, and Public Leadership.
The institute, affiliated with the Department of Political Science at Furman University, is named for Richard Riley, the former governor of South Carolina and U.S. Secretary of Education. Participants selected for the institute undergo a program that comprises politics, public policy, and public leadership.
As part of her studies with the Institute, Torres is working on a project that will link youth groups with programs for senior citizens. Youth participating in this activity will help seniors with yard work and small home repairs, or youth may also deliver meals and help take care of pets. A Web site is being established for the project.
“The Institute has been an opportunity to meet wonderful people in leadership positions in South Carolina. Since I am the only Latina in the group I have been able to share information about the Hispanic/Latino community in the state and in the United States,” said Torres, director of the Consortium for Latino Immigration Studies and a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School.
Since its inauguration in 1999, the Riley Institute has developed programs, symposia, and conferences to promote discussion and analysis of the dynamics of important public policy issues ranging from Social Security to national security policy.
In 2003, the Riley Institute established the Diversity Leaders Initiative (DLI) for the Upstate region of South Carolina. The Initiative now has expanded statewide. Participants are chosen from nominees who have been asked to apply. More than 400 community leaders -- including CEOs of corporations, mayors, city and county council members, legislators, educators and school superintendents, pastors and rabbis, non-profit leaders, and chamber of commerce directors -- have graduated from the program.
