PHILADELPHIA -- Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, has agreed to serve on the ServiceNation Summit Leadership Council, joining a group of influential individuals from diverse sectors of American life, including media, business, government, education, entertainment and philanthropy who endorse a comprehensive new proposal for enhancing service opportunities across the country.

The goal of the ServiceNation campaign, sponsored by Be The Change Inc., is to unite leaders from all sectors of American society with hundreds of thousands of citizens to champion the passage of a new National Service Act during the first year of the next presidential administration. By creating a new era of service and citizenship in America, the next president and Congress could take national service to a new scale with meaningful service opportunities focused on critical issues facing the nation.

This movement will begin with the ServiceNation Summit Sept. 11-12 in New York, where this group of leaders will partner with Sept. 11th families to redefine 9/11 from a day of tragedy to a day of service and patriotism. The summit will also include a Presidential Candidates Forum, to which both John McCain and Barack Obama have been invited.

Plans also call for a 12-month grassroots campaign, to be launched Sept. 27 to bring thousands of people together for a quantum leap in national service.