Iris Dooling

Former Teach For America and Indiana Reading Corps member Iris L. Dooling has been named 2010’s Eli Segal Fellow.

The Eli Segal Fellowship annually brings former AmeriCorps members to the headquarter offices of the Corporation for National and Community Service in Washington, DC, to serve in the Office of the CEO. The fellowship is named for Eli Segal, the first CEO of the Corporation and its board founded the fellowship in 2006, the year Segal died.

According to today’s announcement from CNCS:

A native of Hobart, Indiana, Dooling, 26, started her AmeriCorps service with the Indiana Reading Corps-AmeriCorps at DePauw University, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude in English literature and French in 2006. While at DePauw, she founded the Putnam County Pride Project, an elementary student writing project designed to develop community pride and encourage improved community-college relations. Her Teach for America AmeriCorps service was at Crestworth Middle School in Baton Rouge, La., in 2006-07, where she led 92 low-performing students to master an average of 70% of the English curriculum and 80% of the grade-level writing skills. She also spent the summer of 2007 as a National Leadership Fellow with Breakthrough/Summerbridge New Orleans, where she trained and supported 30 student teachers to instruct and mentor at-risk, low-income middle school students. From 2007 until 2009, Dooling ran the Louisiana State AmeriCorps program for Habitat for Humanity.

“I’m honored to have been chosen for this fellowship,” Dooling said. “Serving in AmeriCorps set me on the path to a career in service. My goal as the Eli Segal Fellow is to continue the service I started with AmeriCorps and to make a difference in the lives of AmeriCorps members—and those they serve.”

The competitive year-long fellowship offers a stipend of around $27,000, health and retirement benefits, and leave.

Congratulations, Iris!