Labor & Employment Law

Peinovich Takes Reins as Labor College Interim President

By Mike Hall

Dr. Paula Peinovich has been appointed interim president of the National Labor College (NLC) by the school’s Board of Trustees.

She succeeds William Scheuerman, who announced his retirement last week after serving as NLC president since February 2008.

Peinovich holds a Ph.D. in higher education policy from the University of Pennsylvania and has devoted her career to increasing access for underserved learners.

The NLC is the nation’s only fully accredited institution devoted to educating working families and labor activists. It recently announced a major initiative to offer a broader curriculum online to millions of union members and their families across the nation.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says Scheuerman

did an outstanding job as NLC’s president helping to streamline existing programs and working to develop new initiatives related to online education and green jobs.

Peinovich has served as both provost and president of Walden University, a distance education graduate university based in Minneapolis. Previously, she spent more than a decade as vice president of academic affairs at Excelsior College, another online institution based in Albany, N.Y. A former college English instructor and AFT local union officer, Peinovich says:

I very much want to help the college to continue in its role as the West Point of the labor movement while developing programs that reach an even wider pool of union members.

Trumka says the NLC was “fortunate” to find someone “with the background that Dr. Peinovich brings to the table.”

Her experience will help the college to grow and serve our current students.

A national search will be conducted later this year for a permanent replacement for Scheuerman.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on January 26, 2010 (boomark / email).