NYN Media Buzz: Dec. 11, 2017

New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, Betty Rosa, chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, and other policy makers and scholars will gather at Columbia University on Dec. 14 to discuss a new study from the Learning Policy Institute and the National Education Policy Center about how community schools can improve education in high-poverty areas.

Derek Ferguson, most recently of Revolt Media & TV, has joined the poverty-fighting nonprofit Robin Hood as its new chief operating officer. In that role, Ferguson will oversee a wide variety of initiatives that support food pantries, homeless shelters, job training centers and other programs throughout New York City. A Bronx native, Ferguson graduated from Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan before attending Harvard Business School and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He later worked extensively in the private sector at Urban Profile Communications, Bain and Company and BMG Special Products.

The Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project has a new board member. Caroline Conway, assistant general counsel and vice president of Sumitomo Mitsui Bank Corporation, received her appointment on Dec. 5 and will join more than a dozen others on the board, which oversees the 27-year-old project that provides free legal aid to low-income New Yorkers.