Story by Dwain Hebda
By the time Vincent McCaskill entered the Clinton School of Public Service, he was already well-versed in the world of community relations and philanthropy.
After earning his undergraduate degree in radio, TV and film from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1994, he began a career in broadcasting. After that, he spent more than a decade in public relations before founding SchoolSeed in 2009, an independent education foundation based in Memphis. Now president and CEO, he’s led the foundation to raise and manage more than $200 million for the local public school system.
Most people with that span of experience and accomplishment might consider that the school of hard knocks had done its job, but McCaskill saw it differently when the opportunity came to expand his horizons in Little Rock.
“SchoolSeed was serving the largest school system in Tennessee, bridging the gap between private philanthropy and impacting classrooms in schools. After doing this work for 15 years the opportunity was presented to participate in cohort five at the Clinton School.” he said.
“I was actually a little nervous because I had been out of school for 30 years. One of the things that I have always tried to do, though, is to stay humble and learn something new every day. I approached graduate work at the Clinton School as if I didn’t know anything so that I could grow. As a result, the Clinton School was able to connect the dots in ways that I really never imagined.”
Television journalism and nonprofit work may seem an ill-fit to most people but McCaskill sees it differently, calling them natural extensions of a servant mindset.
“I think what I was able to glean from being a journalist all those years was the work of serving the people,” he said. “Working in journalism you’re serving the public, obviously for profit, but you are their eyes and ears and you inform the community. In nonprofit work, public service work in general, you are also there to serve the public. You are there to be that ear, be that voice for the voiceless. It was a natural segue.”
McCaskill, who will graduate in May through Clinton School Online, completed a Capstone project dealing with homelessness amongst 18- to 24-year-olds in Memphis. He said the city has experienced a growing issue of homelessness and housing instability in this age demographic, commonly referred to as “opportunity youth.”
“I took a look at the current system that’s in place in Memphis called the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program,” he said. “It’s a system that allows individuals to be paired with what’s called a youth navigator and that navigator is there to help them figure out their next steps and navigate the various resources that are available to get them back to a place of stable housing.
“What we were able to identify is that there was a stabilization rate of about 40 percent of those who came through the program, meaning they’re in some form of transitional housing, they were able to find jobs and keep their jobs within this timeframe. There were over 222 individuals who came through the program and when you think about 40 percent of them stabilizing, that’s a pretty good number.”
With graduation in sight, McCaskill said his experience with the Clinton School of Public Service has equipped him with new skills as well as refined the talents he already possessed. He said this makes him better prepared to lead the foundation to new and greater future heights.
“It has inspired me and has informed me around the importance of data collection and the importance of research and evaluation,” he said. “One of the things that I was very weak in was program evaluation and the Clinton School has put me in a better position to really understand the programmatic aspects of evaluation, program development and being able to assess the effectiveness of what you’re doing. Those are some of the things I’ve hired other people to do in the past, however, as I sit in meetings now, I’m aware and can have a critical conversation around information.
“I also now have more of a global view, because not only were we looking at issues here in America, we were also looking at things from around the world. We could see similarities in different countries, whether it was in India or Africa or other places, and we would connect the dots to make us better informed. As a result, we became better able to execute the work that we each were going to be doing in our careers.”
Vincent McCaskill is the CEO of SchoolSeed Foundation in Memphis, Tenn. He is a 2024 graduate of Clinton School Online, and earned his degree in radio, television, and film from the University of Southern Mississippi.
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