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Theodore Hershberg

Theodore Hershberg is Professor of Public Policy and History and Director of the Center for Greater Philadelphia at the University of Pennsylvania where he has taught since 1967. Not content simply to write and lecture, Professor Hershberg has pursued real world applications of public policy with a focus on cities and regions.

After a brief leave of absence from the University to work as Assistant to the Mayor for Strategic Planning and Policy Development in the mid-1980s, Hershberg founded the Center for Greater Philadelphia, an applied policy unit at Penn whose mission is to promote regional cooperation in the metro-area.

Since then, the Center has actively worked with and convened regular forums for the region’s municipal officials, state legislators, corporate leaders, and non-profits. The Center was instrumental in conceptualizing and leading activities for the 1994-95 “Year of the Region,” which included the Peirce Report for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Most recently, the Center organized the Greater Philadelphia High School Partnership: Students United in Service, a unique effort that brings together over 600 students from 70 city and suburban high schools “to build personal bridges of trust and friendship over the barriers of race, class and politics that divide them” while they work cooperatively on community service projects. The Center’s New Standards in Education project helps build local coalitions in each school district to win the adoption of rigorous academic standards and assessments as the best long-term strategy to ensure the future competitiveness of the regional labor force.

Lecturer and author of numerous works on issues of regional cooperation, Professor Hershberg is also actively engaged and recognized on issues of diversity, workforce and human capital development, and standards-based school reform.

Speech Topics

The Case for Regional Cooperation argues that regions — not cities or suburbs — are the units of future competition in the global economy. How should regions mobilize to meet three key challenges: (1) develop human resources; (2) lower the cost of goods and services; and (3) make the best use of scarce investment capital? For Hershberg’s most up-to-date listing, click here for more on regional cooperation.

Human Capital Development — America’s Greatest Challenge. Because human resources will be the source of future comparative advantage, key changes must be made in all components of our human capital development system: K-12, post-secondary training, higher education, and on-the-job. Rigorous academic standards and assessments in our schools are the indispensable starting point. For more on new standards in education, click here.

Youth and America’s Diversity Challenge — In 2020, 45 percent of American children under 18 will be nonwhite, and in 2050, 47 percent of the entire population will be nonwhite. How can we help our youth meet the challenge of diversity despite the high degree of segregation by race and income that characterizes our metropolitan areas? For details of Hershberg’s “Philadelphia High School Partnership,” click here.

The Origins and Prospects of the Underclass — Today’s inner cities are characterized by hypersegregation and concentrated poverty. How did these conditions evolve, how are they fundamentally different from those faced by earlier urban immigrants, and what can be done to reverse these trends?

Recent Speeches

For the latest listing of Hershberg’s presentations on regional cooperation, click here.

For the most current catalog of presentations on new standards in education, click here.

September 18, 1999: Keynote Address, Leadership Cleveland, Annual Retreat.
Contact: Margot Copeland, Executive Director, 216-621-3300.

July 29, 1999: Keynote Address, School Superintendents, State of Missouri, Annual Retreat.
Jefferson City, MO.
Contact: Robert Bartman, Commissioner of Education, State of Missouri, 573-522-8311.

July 8, 1999: Keynote Address, Southern Regional Education Board, Atlanta, GA.
Contact: Dr. Gene Bottoms, Executive Vice-President, 404-875-9211

June 29, 1999: Keynote Address, School Superintendents, State of Maine, Annual Retreat.
Contact: J. Duke Albanese, Commissioner of Education, 207-287-5114

June 24, 1999: Keynote Address to New Jersey College and University Presidents and School Superintendents, Mid State Office of the College Board, Atlantic City.
Contact: Dr. Stephen Di Pietro, 215-387-7600.

April 8, 1999: Keynote Address, Berks County Elected Officials, Conference on Re-gional Cooperation, Labor Force and Education Reform.
Contact: Commissioner Randy Pyle, 610-478-6131

January 19, 1999: Keynote Address, Annual Meeting, Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce.
Contact: William M. Hallett, III, President, 334-433-6951

Select Readings

(Available with full information on Hershberg’s activities at the site for the Center for Greater Philadelphia)

“The Case for Regional Cooperation,” The Regionalist (Fall, 1995)

“Human Capital Development: America’s Greatest Challenge,” popularized version of an essay that appeared in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol.544 (March, 1996).

“Regional Cooperation: Strategies and Incentives for Global Competitiveness and Urban Reform,” National Civic Review (Spring-Summer, 1996).

Last updated November 30, 1999

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