[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 56 (Wednesday, April 13, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E446]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     HONORING DR. ROLANDO D. HERTS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENNIE G. THOMPSON

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, April 13, 2016

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a 
remarkable Black Professional, Dr. Rolando D. Herts, a resident of 
Cleveland, Mississippi.
  Dr. Rolando D. Herts is the Director of the Delta Center for Culture 
and Learning at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. The 
Delta Center serves as the management entity for the Mississippi Delta 
National Heritage Area, a partnership between the people of the 
Mississippi Delta and the National Park Service designed to promote 
understanding of the Delta's cultural heritage through education, 
tourism, and economic development. The Delta Center also oversees the 
International Delta Blues Project, a three-tiered initiative featuring 
an International Conference on the Blues, the development of an 
academic blues studies program, and a Blues Leadership Incubator for 
entrepreneurship and economic development, which aligns with Delta 
State University's goal of becoming a destination for blues education 
with GRAMMY Museum Mississippi.
  Previously, Dr. Herts was Associate Director with the Office of 
University-Community Partnerships (OUCP) at Rutgers, the State 
University of New Jersey. In this capacity, he helped to advance a 
learning organization model that integrates university-community 
partnership development, campus and community event planning and 
management, and campus and visitor information functions. During his 
tenure with Office of University-Community Partnerships, Dr. Herts 
collaborated with an array of local, regional, and state entities--
including the Greater Newark Convention and Visitors Bureau, Brick City 
Development Corporation, New Jersey Department of Travel and Tourism, 
the City of Newark, the Rutgers Center for Latino Arts and Culture, 
WBGO 88.3 Jazz FM radio, and the Newark Literacy Campaign--to help 
promote the university and the surrounding community and region as 
distinctive educational destinations. As a Leadership Newark Fellow, he 
was presented the Berkowitz Distinguished Service Award for his 
commitment to the Greater Newark community.
  Prior to working at Rutgers, Dr. Herts was a faculty member with the 
Fanning Institute, a public service unit at the University of Georgia 
where he was selected to participate in the Emerging Engagement 
Scholars Workshop of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium. He also 
served as program director of INSPIRE/TRIO Student Support Services, a 
top-funded federal retention and graduation program for first-
generation college students at the University of Arkansas at Pine 
Bluff. In addition, he completed a two-year teaching commitment with 
Teach For America in the Mississippi Delta region where he taught 
second grade at Carver Elementary School. He was awarded a 
``Certificate of Appreciation for Excellence in Teaching'' from the 
Indianola Association of Educators.
  Dr. Herts holds a Ph.D. Degree in Planning and Public Policy from 
Rutgers Graduate School-New Brunswick and the Edward J. Bloustein 
School of Planning and Public Policy. His dissertation From Outreach to 
Engaged Placemaking: Understanding Public Land-Grant University 
Involvement with Tourism Planning and Development examines university-
community tourism engagement as a destination promotion and economic 
development strategy. His reflective essay, ``Sacred Ground, Traveling 
Light: Personal Reflections on University-Community Tourism 
Engagement,'' won the prize for Best Treatise in Impressions, 
Ruminations, Treatises: Essays on Intersectionality, Praxis, and the 
Educational Arena, a collection published by the Institute For 
Recruitment of Teachers, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. Dr. 
Herts also holds a M.Phil. Degree in Planning and Public Policy from 
Rutgers, an M.A. Degree in Social Science from the University of 
Chicago, and a B.A. Degree in English from Morehouse College. His 
interests include university-community engagement and partnership 
development, community-based tourism planning, place branding/
marketing, community and regional development, and interorganizational 
collaboration. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Cleveland, 
Mississippi, which is an affiliate of Rotary International, a worldwide 
network of business and professional leaders dedicated to humanitarian 
service.
  Education, community engagement, public service and cultural heritage 
development have been prominent themes in Dr. Herts' family. His 
father, Dr. George E. Herts, earned a Doctorate in Educational 
Administration from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne, became 
the first African-American Superintendent of schools in the Arkansas 
Delta community of Eudora, and subsequently completed 30 years of 
service at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff in various 
leadership capacities, including Dean of the School of Education and 
Dean of Graduate and Continuing Studies. His mother, Dr. Ruth Simmons-
Herts, earned a doctorate in Educational Administration at the 
University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and served for several years as 
a public school central office administrator in Little Rock, Arkansas, 
and as Assistant Dean of the School of Education and the Director of 
Performance Based Education at Langston University in Oklahoma. For 
over 25 years, she has served in local, regional, and national 
leadership roles as a member of The Links, Incorporated, an 
international service organization of African-American women. She also 
was a member of the Rotary Club of Little Rock, the oldest and largest 
civic organization in Arkansas, and served on several community boards 
including the Arkansas Arts Center and Black Community Developers, 
Inc., which brought the internationally-renowned Morehouse College Glee 
Club to Little Rock for the first time in the singing organization's 
history during the younger Dr. Herts' tenure as tour manager of the 
Glee Club and as baritone member of the Morehouse College Quartet.
  Dr. Herts is dedicated to building upon the exemplary legacy of 
service established by his predecessors. His great uncle, Harrison 
Douglass, was a contemporary of Booker T. Washington during his 
undergraduate years at Tuskegee University during the early 20th 
century, and studied and worked in agricultural extension at Iowa State 
University. He taught at Tuskegee, Grambling, and Southern universities 
and established Douglass High School for African Americans in his 
northern Louisiana hometown. Dr. Herts acknowledges Harrison Douglass, 
as well as his grandparents Mr. Archie and Leola Simmons and Mr. Hermon 
and Shelley Herts, as key sources of inspiration for his parents and 
himself as they completed higher levels of education and committed 
their lives to serving communities of diversity. Dr. Herts is promoting 
and preserving this family tradition by encouraging the next generation 
to learn about and celebrate their heritage. In particular, he is 
dedicated to sharing heritage-based educational opportunities with his 
sisters, nieces, and nephew.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizing an amazing 
black professional and community landscape innovator.

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