Sandra Day O’Connor’s Non-Profit Appoints Local Teacher To Its Teachers Council For Immediate Release WASHINGTON, DC – iCivics, Inc., the nation’s leading civic education program founded by retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to improve the civic literacy of American students, is pleased to announce the appointment of Suzanne Ensmann, Director of Program Effectiveness for Indian River State College’s Adult Education, to its National Teachers Council. After retiring from the Supreme Court in 2006, Justice O’Connor came to realize the nation was facing a civic education crisis: a staggering number of students in middle school and high school did not have a basic understanding of our system of governance or the importance of citizen participation, threatening the security and vibrancy of our democracy. Inspired to address this knowledge deficit, Justice O’Connor dedicated herself to the mission of restoring civic education, believing that civic education is a responsibility that resides in our nation’s public school system. Justice O’Connor stated, “By design, government and the democratic process belong to each and every citizen… if a single child is not learning about civics, then all of our lives are the poorer.” Recognizing that teachers, the backbone of her civic literacy mission, are already stretched thin when it comes to time and resources, Justice O’Connor and her team developed a set of educational materials, consisting of exciting video games, inventive simulations, curriculum units, and lesson plans, to help teachers engage and prepare 21st century students for knowledgeable citizenship. According to Justice O’Connor, this has been and continues to be her most important work. As one of 24 teachers selected in a competitive process from across the country to join the Teachers Council, Ms. Ensmann will assist in the development of a professional community in which educators dedicated to teaching civic knowledge and skills can support one another. The creation of this network is part of iCivics’ enhanced focus to provide teachers already utilizing iCivics with heightened service, and to assist new teachers as they integrate these innovative curricular resources in the classroom. In addition, Council Members will provide iCivics’ leadership with product feedback, shaping the not-for-profit’s long-term direction, and will aid in the training of digitally savvy civics and social studies teachers. This will be a difficult a task, says iCivics’ Director of Outreach Erin Braun, but one that could not be more important. “It was the vision of our teachers that helped create iCivics, and helped place it into almost half the middle schools in the United States. And its time that we provided that community of 65,000 educators the support they deserve. We are thrilled to have this talented group of educators help us design the next phase of iCivics’ community outreach.” For more information about iCivics, please visit www.icivics.org/about. Contact: Erin Braun, Director of Outreach, [email protected], 812-573-1780.