To provide leadership in education initiatives for West Virginia educators and students, providing educators and families of rural West Virginia with a support system that addresses educational problems, sustains school improvement and provides positive growth in all educational factors.

Among the initiatives of the Center is the Marshall University Statewide 21st Century STEM Academy (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) to deliver standards-based staff development throughout the state, Effective Schools Project, delivery of foreign language and virtual honors classes in upper level mathematics and English and professional development opportunities for educators through interactive videoconferencing. The Center sponsors the June Harless 21st Century Learning Demonstration Site at Kellogg Elementary in Wayne County, a kindergarten through fifth grade school, created through the collaborative efforts of James “Buck” Harless, Marshall University, WVDE, Wayne County Schools and Verizon. Videoconferencing capabilities provide educators and teacher candidates the opportunity to observe these research-based classrooms in which teachers are modeling 21st Century best practices, accommodating even the most rural schools in the state.

In 2001, the Center was opened and named in honor/memory of the late wife of “Buck” Harless, June Montgomery Harless, one of southern West Virginia’s most avid supporters of education and medical research.