|
|
Message from the Chairman
 On October 15, I experienced one of my proudest moments as Chairman of the FDIC. At a gala black-tie event in Washington, DC, Money Smart and the Community Affairs team that has worked so hard to bring financial education to more than 100,000 low- and moderate-income Americans across the country were presented with a Service to America Medal to honor their achievement.
As you will see elsewhere in this issue of Money Smart News, the Money Smart financial education program has received awards and recognition from groups and communities across the nation since its introduction a little over two years ago. The Service to America Medal only underscores the fact that Money Smart is helping our country by helping all of our citizens reach their full economic potential through education and the use of mainstream financial services.
The Service to America medals - a joint initiative of the Partnership for Public Service and the magazines Government Executive, National Journal, and The Atlantic Monthly - are designed to recognize the accomplishments of America's best public servants. The medals honor people who have shown a strong commitment to public service and have made a significant contribution in their field of government.
The nine 2003 awardees were chosen by a selection committee that included David Broder, national political correspondent at The Washington Post; Caroline Kennedy; U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK); Donna Shalala, President of the University of Miami; Arthur Sulzberger, Chairman and Publisher of The New York Times; and Llewellyn Wells, co-executive producer of NBC's "The West Wing."
In addition to the FDIC's Money Smart team, this year's awardees include a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) official charged with eradicating polio worldwide; the individual who helped build the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) from two employees to 60,000 in less than one year; a State Department employee who helped defuse an international crisis at the age of 28; a former astronaut and physician who created an innovative patient safety program for hospitals around the world; and an Energy Department official overseeing the cleanup and containment of the destroyed nuclear reactor at Chernobyl - one of the most technically complex engineering projects in the world.
With such company, you can see why the awards ceremony was such a moving experience for me. I'm proud of the work we do at the FDIC and I'm particularly proud of the FDIC Community Affairs Team, who continue to work tirelessly to bring the Money Smart program to communities across the county.
---Chairman Don Powell
Photo Essay: Service to America Awards Ceremony
|
