Public service for a knowledge economy

Sage Leadership Partners, Inc. is focused on the institutionalization of open source teaching, the new form of public service for a knowledge economy.

The founder and chairman of Sage Leadership Partners, Inc. is Art Fuller, Executive Assistant and Fiscal Budget Officer for the Tennessee State Board of Education. Art has served in the field of education for fourteen years holding public policy, project management, professional training, information technology, media consultant, 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. He is a candidate for the Ashoka Fellowship, a global fellowship for social entrepreneurs with ideas that will serve as the reference for systemic change. David Sevier, Ed.D., is a founder of Sage Leadership Partners and a policy adviser 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".

The Board of Sage Leadership Partners is also comprised of four 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 Southeast. Mr. Ford 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, Mr. Ford 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 Converse College (1986), a Juris Doctorate from Vanderbilt University (1989), and a Masters of Education focused on Gifted and Talented Education (1998) from Belmont University.

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, J.D., 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).