Public service for a knowledge economy has to look differently. Sage Leadership Partners is going to set the benchmark for this new and different kind of public service. It will be transformational, using the internet, new media, and college students to empower learners to discover their education passion and explore it deeply in a context that has direct relevance to their own lives. Learn more about our work from the following articles, Information Inspiration (June 2009) and Straight from the Source (Winter 2008).
Art Fuller, Founder & Chairman
David Sevier, Ed.D., Founder
The founder and chairman of Sage Leadership Partners, Inc. is Art Fuller, Executive Administrative Assistant and Fiscal Budget Officer for the Tennessee State Board of Education. Art has served in the field of education for fifteen years holding public policy, project management, professional training, information technology, digital media, and teaching positions. Art's work as a classroom teacher has been profiled in FamilyPC Magazine (November 1999, p. 156) and The New Yorker Magazine (January 24, 2000, pg. 59). Several of his editorials on education have been published in the The Tennessean. David Sevier, Ed.D., is a founder of Sage Leadership Partners and Deputy Director for the Tennessee State Board of Education. Dr. Sevier has over fifteen years of experience in K-12 education including serving for five years as a physics teacher, five years as a music teacher, and five years as an assistant school administrator for one of the state's highest performing comprehensive high schools and one of the nation's highest performing High Schools That Work schools. In 2007, Dr. Sevier was recognized by the National School Boards Association as "20 People to watch for the next 20 years in Instructional Technology".
Judith Pennywell, Ed.D., Vice Chair, Executive Director, International Initiatives, University of Houston, Clear Lake Campus
The Board of Sage Leadership Partners consists of two vice chairs. Judith Pennywell, Ed.D., is the newly appointed Executive Director of International Initiatives for the University of Houston, Clear Lake Campus and Lecturer in Educational Leadership. Prior to joining the University of Houston, Judith served four years as the Director of International Student and Scholar Services at Vanderbilt University. In 2003, Judith was selected as a Fulbright Scholar, receiving an international education administrators award. Judith earned Bachelors and Masters Degrees from Indiana University, completing her Doctorate in Higher Education Leadership and Policy at Vanderbilt University. Mike Dishman, J.D., Ed.D., also serves as vice-chair. Mr. Dishman is a partner of McLocklin, Murphy & Dishman, L.L.P. For the past decade, Mike’s practice has consisted almost exclusively of the representation of public school districts. In addition to the representation of schools, Mike has considerable academic interests in educational law, previously serving as an assistant professor of education law at the University of Alaska and presently serving in that capacity at Kennesaw State University. Mike’s areas of practice include federal and state labor and employment law and litigation, on which he has extensively written and spoken. Mike holds B.A. and J.D. degrees from the University of Mississippi and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy from Vanderbilt University.
Mary Catherine Sevier, J.D., M.Ed., President, Sage Leadership Partners, Inc.
Thomas Ford, M.Ed., M.I.T., Board Director, CEO Mirror Image Productions, Inc.
Matt Asay, J.D., Board Director, Vice President, Business Development, Alfresco
Scott Corlew, MD, MPH, Adviser to the Board, Chief Medical Officer, Interplast
Yi Cui, Ph.D., Board Director, Assistant Professor, Computer Engineering, Vanderbilt University
Marina Leight, Board Director, Vice President, Center for Digital Education
Rich Haglund, Founder, Athademic
The Board of Sage Leadership Partners is also comprised of five additional voting members. Matt Asay, J.D. has been involved with open source since 1998, and is one of the industry's leading open source business strategists. Asay currently manages sales and business development activities in the Americas for Alfresco, the open source leader in Enterprise Content Management. Prior to Alfresco, Asay co-founded Novell®'s Linux Business Office in 2002 and was an early agitator and architect for the company's shift to open source. In 2003 Asay founded the Open Source Business Conference, the industry's premier open source strategy event, and has served as an Entreprenuer-in-Residence for Thomas Weisel Venture Partners, focusing on open source investment opportunities. Asay earned his Juris Doctorate degree at Stanford Law School, spending two of his three years studying software licensing and innovation, and specifically the GNU General Public License, under Professor Larry Lessig. He also holds Masters and Bachelors degrees from the University of Kent (Canterbury, UK) and Brigham Young University, respectively. Yi Cui, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Vanderbilt University. Professor Cui's research focuses on networking systems and streaming media technology. He currently holds two patents in distributed streaming media systems and networks. Yi has also received a five year National Science Foundation grant focused on specifally tracking and monitoring user behavior to streaming media. This research project will undergird our forthcoming partnerships with schools, cities, and states / ministries of government throughout the world. Thomas Ford, M.I.T., M.Ed., is the Chief Executive Officer of Mirror Image Productions a digital media production and marketing company. Prior to his role as CEO, Thomas served as a Strategic Account Executive for Pearson Achievement Solutions, focused on large scale partnerships that integrate effective instructional technology and professional development strategies in districts throughout the nation. He is an experienced project manager, organizational leader, and professional trainer. He has serviced the needs of major metropolitan urban districts for over a decade. Before joining Pearson Achievement Solutions, Thomas was selected as teacher of the year for Broward County Florida (1997), one of the country's largest school districts.Marina
Leight is Vice President of the Center for Digital Education heading up its
strategic planning, relationships, events, research, and publications. Leight
is also Publisher for Converge Magazine, a quarterly publication focusing on
strategy and thought leadership. Converge launched as a print publication in
1999, and was an award-winning trade publication discussing technology's role
in transforming education. It was converted to a digital format in 2003, and is
now back in print, as of Feb 2006. A writer and former teacher, Leight has
appeared on National Public Radio and is a frequent speaker on the importance
of preparing students to work in a knowledge economy. She also served as
executive director of Government Technology Executive Events, sister division
of the Center, specializing in public sector technology topics for nearly
twenty years.
Mary Catherine Sevier, J.D. is the President of Sage Leadership Partners, Inc. Mrs. Sevier served for three years as Vice President and Legal Counsel for a corporate retailer before deciding to devote her professional focus to the mission of education and quality teaching in middle and secondary schools. She has thirteen years of experience in teaching the Language Arts, inclusive of six years serving as a system-wide teacher of gifted and talented students (grades 6 - 12). Mrs. Sevier also has served as an independent contractor for the Tennessee Department of Education, providing training to teachers on best teaching practices related to improving student performance on Tennessee's High School Exit Exam. Mrs. Sevier has an earned Bachelors of Arts in English with honors, magna cum laude from ConverseCollege (1986), a Juris Doctorate from VanderbiltUniversity (1989), and a Masters of Education focused on Gifted and Talented Education (1998) from BelmontUniversity.
Scott Corlew, M.D., MPH is an Adviser to the Board and the chief medical officer for Interplast
, a global network of medical professionals focused on empowering
international communities with year round access to medical treatment
for congenital deformity or injury. Scott
has over fifteen years experience as a reconstructive surgeon and is a
graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health, Emory University
Medical School, and Vanderbilt University.
Rich Haglund is the Deputy to the Board. In this capacity, he acts on behalf of the Founder and Chair in regards to securing systemic citywide partnerships and overseeing Sage Leadership's national outreach to Academic All-Americans and Sports Management Executives. Rich recently led his Tennessee State Board of Education colleagues in a complete rewrite of the State Board?s Master Plan for PreK-12 education in the State. Access to rigorous, relevant curriculum, delivered by skilled educators, is important to Rich for two reasons: (1) his children will soon begin their formal education (including Charlie, pictured above), and (2) Rich knows that the capacity to be a lifelong learner is the key to him succeeding in the smorgasbord of jobs he expects to have before reaching his ultimate career goal: Commissioner of Major League Baseball. An avid Ultimate player, Rich believes that philosophy, relationships and life in general are best explained through sports metaphors (see., e.g., his article on Title IX and college football).
