Gregg Roberts2009 State Supervisor of the Year
Gregg Roberts, World Language Specialist at the Utah State Office of Education, was recognized as State Supervisor of the Year at the annual meetings of the National Council of State Supervisors (NCSSFL) and the National Association of District Supervisors of Foreign Languages (NADSFL), in San Diego, California, in November, 2009.
Mr. Roberts is lauded for his capacity to bring key people together to implement change. Due to his energy, enthusiasm, political savvy and effective leadership skills, Utah experienced an impressive growth in world language learning in a short period of time. His work with Utah’s governor and legislature resulted in funding to initiate the state’s “Critical Languages Program” in 2007. Just two years later, 84 out of 220 secondary schools offered Mandarin Chinese. In order to build long, sequential language study, he strategically influenced elementary school administrators to develop 21 Mandarin, French and Spanish immersion programs.
Mr. Roberts has been described by colleagues as “someone with extraordinary vision, who also has the ability to bring together diverse groups of stakeholders and policy makers to create a ground swell of enthusiasm for language learning.” He has demonstrated this in the creation of partnership agreements with France, China, Spain and Mexico, by implementing several successful grants, and by organizing a statewide summit, which resulted in a Language Roadmap. As stated by one of his nominees, Mr. Roberts “inspired our leaders in government, business and education to support and promote world language education and dramatically changed foreign language learning in the state.”