ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell Public Service Center has announced the selection of two fellows for the third annual Cornell Civic Leaders Fellowship Program to work on projects that address community-identified needs.

The Cornell Civic Leaders Fellowship Program enables outstanding community leaders involved in economic and community development efforts to join the Cornell community of scholars as both learners and teachers for an academic year. It was established to help expand and improve university-community collaborations.

During their time at Cornell, the fellows will work to advance their proposals to have a lasting effect on their communities. The opportunity for community leaders, college students and faculty to learn from each other is rare but invaluable and enriches the education of all involved, program administrators say. A committee with representation from the community and the university selected the fellows.

The two new fellows are listed below, with descriptions of their proposals.

LeGrace Benson, Ithaca -- Benson is a longtime resident of Tompkins County who has actively participated in public service as a board member for a variety of organizations. She has served as an ESL (English-as-a-second-language) tutor, a Kreyol-English translator, a member of the Tompkins County Board of Representatives and as a full professor and an associate dean for the State University of New York Empire State College. Currently she is serving as the vice president of the Ithaca Hours board. As a representative of this organization, Benson submitted a proposal that seeks to identify and implement ways for lower-income populations in the county to utilize Ithaca Hours -- an alternative currency system backed by skilled services. She will be collaborating with the Consumer and Financial Management Program and the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program at Cornell Cooperative Extension to identify and implement ways for lower-income populations to participate in the Ithaca Hours program, while seeking to expand the places where Ithaca Hours can be used, based on the needs of this population.

Jean McPheeters, Brooktondale -- McPheeters is well-known throughout the community for her commitment to and passion for Tompkins County and its residents. She has served on the boards of many local organizations including the United Way of Tompkins County, the Community School of Music and Arts and Tompkins Cortland Community College. She has served as a union leader at the Ithaca Post Office, coordinator of community education at TST BOCES (Board of Cooperative Educational Services) and, for the past three and a half years, as president of the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce. Her proposal seeks to enhance collaborations between Cornell and the economic development community and utilize the work of Richard Florida, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who writes that communities can transform themselves by appealing to the "creative sector." (Florida's thesis is that successful communities require talent, technology and tolerance to attract and retain creative companies and individuals.) McPheeters plans to develop a working group that consists of Cornell faculty and staff and members of the local economic development community to discuss, research and assess Florida's work. She and the group will research several communities, identified by Florida, that have been successful in using new technology to enhance their economies. The group will then establish written goals to begin developing and working toward a successful economic development strategy for this region.

The Public Service Center, the Cornell Department of City and Regional Planning and the Community and Rural Development Institute of Cornell are the sponsors of the Cornell Civic Leaders Fellowship Program. To learn more about the Cornell Civic Leaders Fellowship Program or the Cornell Public Service Center, visit the center's Web site at http://www.psc.cornell.edu or call the center office at (607) 255-1148.