Effective Strategies for Increasing Graduation Rates Dr. Jay Smink has been the Executive Director of the National Dropout Prevention Center located at Clemson University since 1988. He is a Professor of Education in the College of Health, Education, and Human Development. He also serves as the Executive Director of the National Dropout Prevention Network, a professional organization of 3,000 individual and institutional members representing education, business, and community leaders who are concerned with school dropout issues. He earned his M.Ed. in Industrial Education and D.Ed. in Educational Administration from Penn State. His B.S. is in Industrial Arts from Millersville State College (PA). Dr. Smink began his career as a teacher in the Halifax Area School District (PA). He was director of marketing and dissemination at the National Center for Research in Vocational Education at The Ohio State University. He served in the Pennsylvania Department of Education as director of the Bureau of Research and Evaluation and as the director of the Research Coordinating Unit for Vocational Education. Dr. Smink has conducted many national and regional workshops for administrators, teachers, and community leaders on a wide range of key educational issues and is a frequent guest on television and radio talk shows. His latest book published in 2004, Helping Students Graduate: A Strategic Approach to Dropout Prevention, identifies the fifteen most effective strategies to reduce the dropout rate. Dr. Smink is recognized as a national leader and authority on dropout prevention, school reform, mentoring, service learning, alternative schools, school-to-work, education marketing, and program evaluation. (Javascript is required to view Mediasite content)