The Education Industry Association named Elliot Sainer the winner of the 2004 James P. Boyle Entrepreneurial Leadership Award at the Association’s annual conference in Evanston, Illinois on August 4. Sainer is cofounder and CEO of Aspen Education Group, the nation’s leading company providing educational opportunities for improving the quality of life for under-achieving youths and their families.
While working in leadership positions with behavioral health care companies during the 1980s, Sainer saw at-risk youth being treated in psychiatric hospitals and determined they would be better served receiving treatment in an educational environment. Created with the motto, “Help for today and hope for tomorrow,” Aspen now operates 25 programs in 12 states, offering a variety of learning/therapeutic environments: day schools, boarding schools, and outdoor experiential programs.
Based in Cerritos, California, Aspen has annual revenues of almost $100 million. In 2003, the company assisted more than 10,000 clients.
— G.C.
George Clowes is former Heartland senior fellow addressing education policy. He served as founding managing editor of School Reform News between November 1996 and January 2005.
