This spring we celebrate the achievements of Jill Korsok, our chief elected officer of the LERN Board of Directors for 2024 – 2025.
Ms. Korsok is a recreation professional with, and Director of, Orange Community Education and Recreation in Pepper Pike, Ohio. She showed, once again, how professionals with Recreation Departments have created initiatives and innovations that then become adopted by programs in other settings.
Here’s five of Jill Korsok’s accomplishments as Chair:
1.Print newsletter renewed.
With the pandemic your LERN print newsletter was suspended because we did not know your home addresses. Jill was instrumental in advocating for the print newsletter’s value and return.
2.Articulating your program’s value.
Korsok initiated a whole new exploration of both articulation your program’s value, AND research into the multiple financial contributions you make to your institution, contributions that are, in large, not measured and not counted by your central administration.
3.Summer Camps program expanded.
The annual summer camps training was strengthened and expanded. Recreation departments excel in this programming and with LERN help train others.
4.In-Person Conference reinvented.
From San Diego to San Juan, Puerto Rico, Jill attended LERN’s in-person conferences and provided support for its new format for the 21st century.
5.Nurturing staff.
Cutting edge practices in nurturing staff emerged from local recreation programs under Jill’s leadership. Nurturing staff, now essential in recruiting, retaining and rewarding employees, is a pioneering breakthrough for the field that will be highlighted in sessions at the 2025 LERN Annual Conference November 17-20, 2025.
Jill led the LERN leadership with:
* New ideas,
* Loyalty to LERN and the field of lifelong learning, and
* Prompted several major new initiatives and strategies for LERN and the field.
“It is with great gratitude that we recognize the work and leadership of Jill Korsok in lifelong learning programming,” noted William A. Draves, LERN President. “Jill went beyond the norm in her contributions making LERN one of the most influential organizations in lifelong learning in North America today.”
