Dr. Shirl E. Gilbert II, a long-time educator and school administrator, was elected in July as the international director of Education for Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc. during the organization’s 97th Conclave in Atlanta.  Dr. Gilbert is the executive director for School Turnaround and Charter Schools for the East Baton Rouge Parish School System.  He is a former deputy superintendent for the Louisiana State Department of Education.

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity is an international organization of 200,000 college-educated and professional men who matriculate/d in colleges and universities throughout the United States, the Caribbean, Europe and Africa.  This historic organization, established in 1914 at Howard University, provides community service, civic support and assistance and advocacy programming for quality of life activities targeted toward youth and adults nationwide across its chapters to further its national programs of Education, Bigger and Better Business and Social Action.  Dr. Gilbert is a life member of Phi Beta Sigma, is the only member who has served as regional director of two regions and recently was honored by an induction into the Gulf Coast Region’s Distinguished Service Chapter.

As the fraternity’s international director of Education, Dr. Gilbert will be responsible over the next two years for developing and leading the implementation of educational initiatives throughout the fraternity, including:  institutionalization of the Sigma Beta clubs (Middle and High School Youth Groups focused on leadership training, mentoring, mock Congressional simulation experiences and civics, governmental and educational field experiences) throughout the fraternity; the connection to and support of full scholarships for the matriculation of high school seniors and college students enrolled as Sigma undergraduates at national colleges designated as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).   In addition, he will oversee the provision of assistance for HBCUs with recruitment and provide general competitive year-to-year and textbook scholarships for any Sigma members and high school graduates to any college or university. 

The office will assist educators in developing leadership skills in preparation for ascension from teachers to principals and from principals to superintendents and all positions in between; establish a presence for Sigma on the education agendas of American Association of School Administrators, the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development, the National Alliance of Black School Educators, the national associations of both Elementary and Secondary Principals and the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.  Finally, Dr. Gilbert will sponsor and partially subsidize quarterly conference calls and bi-annual national education workshops to allow training for aspiring education students, teachers and administrators and featuring national education spokespeople and Congressional and education leaders, as well as share policy perspective and hold lectures, debates and dialogs through small/large group discussion about the pressing issues that face education in America (especially issues affecting inner-city and minority students).

Professionally, Dr. Gilbert has served as deputy superintendent of Region II of the Louisiana Recovery District, a part of the Louisiana State Department of Education.  He began his career as a teacher and principal in the St. Louis Public Schools and previously has served as superintendent of schools in the cities of East Chicago Heights, Ill.; Petersburg, Va.; and Indianapolis and as deputy superintendent in the Clover Park (Tacoma) Schools, Wa.  In addition, he is the former West Region superintendent for the School District of Philadelphia school district.  Now he heads East Baton Rouge’s Turnaround Schools program, which is funded through an $8-million federal grant intended to target and improve the performance of students substantively in some of the local district’s poorest performing schools.

Dr. Gilbert holds education and administrative/leadership degrees from Harris Teachers College in St. Louis (B.S.); Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, Ill. (M.S.); and Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. (Ph.D.) with post-doctoral work at Harvard University in Cambridge.  He sits on the General Board of the fraternity and is one of  only 12 men elected by the international delegates at the fraternity’s Conclave who will set policy, propose amendments and make changes to the constitution and bylaws, oversee and approve all expenditures and generally run the organization through an executive director and staff over a two-year period.  Dr. Gilbert is a native of St. Louis.