Encore Fellow Leslye Louie. Photo by Rachel Myrow/KQED.

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Leslye Louie, a former Hewlett-Packard executive now working with Partners in School Innovation in San Francisco, explains how the Silicon Valley Encore Initiative helped her make her encore transition, in this piece from KQED's "California Report"

(Editor's note: NPR's Morning Edition ran the piece as well. Here's the link.)

The Encore Fellowship model - one-year, paid positions that help set up individuals for longer-term encore careers - is gaining traction, both in California and nationwide. The new Serve America national service legislation authorized 10 Encore Fellowships in each state, though funding has not yet been appropriated.

In the report by KQED reporter Rachel Myrow, H-P's Yvonne Hunt praises the program as "a nice innovative model." Karen Baker, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's cabinet secretary for service and volunteering, says she is keen to see the program expand statewide as a way to bring much-needed management talent into the underfunded nonprofit sector.

Louie, 49, describes how she had to adapt to nonprofit culture, using words like "results" and dropping words like "profit." She was eventually asked to serve as interim CEO and is now helping Partners in School Innovation develop a performance management database to increase its effectiveness. She has concluded there is a "huge field for contribution" from corporate veterans such as herself.

Here's the promotional blurb from KQED's Web site.

The "Serve America Act," which Congress passed earlier this year, is intended to draw more Americans into public service. Tucked into that legislation is a commitment to expand a pilot program developed right here in California. The Silicon Valley Encore Initiative pairs retired corporate executives with nonprofits who could use their business expertise. Reporter: Rachael Myrow