Philadelphia D.A. Seth Williams Wins 2011 Eisenhower Fellowship, Going To Australia

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams and cable executive Brigitte F. Daniel on Wednesday received prestigious Eisenhower Fellowship awards to travel and study abroad.

Williams plans to travel to Australia and Ireland to examine community policing and other crime-fighting and -prevention programs in those nations.

Daniel, an executive vice president at Wilco Electronic Systems Inc., the city’s largest privately owned African American cable provider, plans to travel to India to study new technologies and business practices that serve the low-income marketplace. They were among seven USA Fellows named Wednesday.

Williams said he was encouraged to apply by Pedro Ramos, a high school classmate who has served as city solicitor and managing director, and was himself an Eisenhower Fellow.

Williams said he planned to network with his overseas counterparts and explore the connections among economic development, education, public health, and public safety. “It’s all about seeing what we can possibly replicate from other places in Philadelphia,” he said.

Williams said he planned to spend two weeks in each country, breaking his travel into two trips. He said that being away from the city for those stretches would be challenging, but that he believed he could stay connected with his office through technology.

He has practice being away from the office. A major in the National Guard, Williams served two weeks on active duty this summer.

“There probably weren’t any fewer e-mails from me to people here during those two weeks,” he said.

The Eisenhower Fellowship program, created in 1953 to honor President Dwight D. Eisenhower, is based in Philadelphia and chaired by Colin Powell, the retired general and former secretary of state.

Williams called Powell “one of my heroes.”

“You get to meet him,” he said. “That’s a great thing – a chance to sit down and talk to him.”

Source: Philly.Com, http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20100909_Seth_Williams_and_Philly_cable_executive_named_Eisenhower_fellows.html

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