WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 - Anna Dodson, vice chair of Virginia's Norfolk school board, has become chair of the Board of Directors of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of the nation's largest urban public school systems.

Dodson will head the national education policy and advocacy organization until next June, succeeding Manuel Nunez, a member of the board of California's Fresno Unified School District. 

Representing nearly 60 big-city school districts, the Council is led by a board composed of the superintendent and a school board member from each Council district.

Others elected officers of the Council are Superintendent Carlos Garcia of Clark County Public Schools in Las Vegas, who now serves as chair-elect, and Judy Farmer, a board member with the Minneapolis Public Schools, who becomes secretary-treasurer of the Council.   

Founded in 1956 in Chicago, the Council is the only organization in the nation that exclusively represents the needs of urban public schools.  "It's the voice of urban education," says Council Executive Director Michael Casserly.