Evergreen Educational Foundation
Our Founders
Faith Chao 赵耀渝 Co-Founder and First President
Dr. Faith Chao founded the Evergreen Education Foundation in 2001 and served as President until December 2017. Her vision is simple yet impactful – to inspire people to bring educational opportunities to children in rural China, especially through libraries. In 2004, Dr. Chao’s vision and leadership resulted in the China Evergreen Rural Library (CERL) Service Center receiving international recognition by winning the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Access to Learning US$500,000 Award. Dr. Chao also provided important advice to libraries and library staff: For example, due to EEF support for circulation automation and the addition of information services, including the e-reading room, Tongwei County Library received national recognition and a promotion to the second tier of public libraries in China. Dr. Chao also promoted staff development through many EEF programs: For example, in 2012, she personally led 30 rural Chinese teachers & librarians on a study tour to visit Libraries, educational, and cultural institutions in Taiwan.
Throughout the years, Dr. Chao expanded her vision. She was instrumental in promoting information literacy in rural China. As President, Dr. Chao provided leadership by initiating the following programs:
- Teacher Professional Development & Training Series (2002)
- Information Technology in Education (ITIE) Conference (2204)
- Project-Based (Problem-Based) Learning: 30-50 EEF supported projects annually (2009)
- Online Courses for Teacher Professional Development & Training (2011)
- Engaging Chinese public libraries in projects related to Local Culture and Oral History (2014)
- Makerspace projects and programs for EEF schools, teachers, and students (2014)
- EEF Project-Based Learning workshops for teachers in rural China Schools (2015)
- Creating Makerspaces in China Public Libraries (2016)
Additionally, while President, she promoted the programs and achievements of EEF through presentations at conferences, including:
- A model for expanding information resources to China’s rural communities, 2007 presentation at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Expanding information access to China’s rural communities: 2007 presentation at World Library and Information Congress: 73rd IFLA General Conference and Council, Durban, South Africa
- Benefits from NGO – School library cooperation: the China experience, 2008 Presentation at International Association of School Librarianship Conference, Berkeley, CA, USA
Eileen Tang 喻丽清 Co-Founder
Dr. Eileen Tang co-founded the Evergreen Education Foundation in 2001. She was actively involved in Evergreen Education Foundation from inception until she passed in 2017. When she visited Qinghai in 2001, seeing the needs of the students there and touched by their perseverance, she immediately started the Evergreen Foundation Scholarship Program after she came back from her visit by initially supporting 10 scholarship students in PingAn middle school where she toured. She championed 2000+ scholarships where they are provided to 700+ individual students from 17+ schools located in 9+ rural provinces.
Ruth Hafter Co-Founder
Dr. Ruth Hafter co-founded the Evergreen Education Foundation (EEF) in 2001; she also participated in organizing initial Evergreen workshops and conferences. She was the main presenter at the 2002 workshop in Xining with over 60 participants. This ground breaking workshop was an important beginning that set the tone for all of Evergreen’s future workshops and conferences. Ruth has held leadership positions in several academic libraries: Head Librarian, St. Mary’s U., Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, 1969-1975; Library Director, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California, 1978-1986; Dean of the Library, San Jose State University, 1986-1991and was Professor, San Jose State School of Library & Information Science, 1987-1999. In 1986, she published Academic Librarians and Cataloging Networks: Visibility, Quality Control, and Professional Status (Praeger). Ruth Hafter has a Ph.D. in Library and Information Studies, University of California, Berkeley; MLS, Columbia University; Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration (HRPBA) certificate; and BA in History and Economics, cum laude, Brandeis University.
