Tar Heel born and bred, John Edwards returned to blue heaven in 2005 and began the UNC Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity.
Edwards, a former vice-presidential candidate and U.S. senator for North Carolina, pledged to engage students in his efforts and to spark discussion about American poverty.
"We are going to be looking at the whole range of ideas for impacting poverty and the cycle of poverty and trying to find creative models that work," Edwards said when he announced his intention to start a center Feb. 4.
Some questioned Edwards' true motives, seeing the center as a steppingstone to further his political career.
"He doesn't have an office right now, and he clearly still has the ambition to be president," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
Political gain from heading up the new poverty center might not come in votes but in the more lucrative currency of experience and policy know-how.
Ferrel Guillory, director of UNC's Program on Southern Politics, Media and Public Life, said Edwards' increased involvement with the University probably will make him an intellectually stronger candidate.
"His experiences at UNC could lead him to - a deeper appreciation of the condition of American people," Guillory said.
"It isn't campaign time," he added. "It's learning time."
