Advisory Board
John Wilson
John Wilson, recently retired executive director of the National Education Association (NEA), is chairman of Purple America. Wilson will lead a national campaign to Re-Imagine America® around the values that connect us and that form America's common ground.
“Our nation has a critical need for a meaningful and civil discussion about America’s future built around the values that have shaped our history and our character,” says Wilson. “As our nation struggles to correct its course, I look forward to engaging Americans from all walks of life in this dialog, including the teachers who build our nation every day by touching the hearts and minds of our young people.”
Wilson, a long-time special education teacher, led the NEA, the nation’s largest teachers union, for almost 11 years. He has chaired the Partnership for 21st Century Skills and was presented with the Educator 500 President’s Award in 2006 by the 3E Institute for being “a true entrepreneurial educator.” Wilson also has chaired the Learning First Alliance, a partnership of 18 leading education organizations with more than 10 million members. He has also served on the NEA Board of Directors and the NEA Executive Committee.
Born in Burlington, N.C., Wilson graduated with a B.S. degree in education and received a master’s degree in education from the University of North Carolina.
John Butte
John Butte has a long career in the television industry, having served as news director, station general manager and national production executive. Mr. Butte is currently the director of Telecommunications at Kent State University.
Rev. Dr. Calvin Butts III
Reverend Dr. Calvin O. Butts, III, is pastor of the nationally renowned Abyssinian Baptist Church in the City of New York, and president of SUNY College at Old Westbury. He is chairman of the Board of North General Hospital in Harlem and chairman of National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (NBLCA), as well as a founding member of the organization’s Board of Commissioners. He is also a member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA), and the boards of the New York Blood Center, the American Red Cross of Greater New York, New Visions for Public Schools, and American Baptist College in Nashville. Rev. Butts is the recipient of numerous commendations and honors, including the Man of the Year Award from Morehouse College Alumni Association; The Morehouse College Candle Award; The William M. Moss Distinguished Brotherhood Award; and The Louise Fisher Morris Humanitarian Award.
Ed Davidson
Ed Davidson is a consultant to the global relocation industry. Previously, Mr. Davidson was the founder and CEO of Cooperative Resources Services, a national relocation company.
William B. Doggett
William B. Doggett is senior vice president Public & Community Affairs for Eaton Corporation. He serves on a number of boards and committees for a range of non-profit organizations including The Cleveland City Club, the Greater Cleveland Partnership, Parkworks, Ohio Grantmakers Forum, and Invest in Children.
Sander Flaum
Sander Flaum is CEO of Flaum Partners, a consultancy focused on transformational thinking for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Additionally, Mr. Flaum serves as adjunct professor of management at the Fordham Graduate School of Business where he chairs the Fordham Leadership Forum. He is the former chairman and CEO of Robert A. Becker, Euro RSCG and chairman of Euro RSCG Life and serves on the boards of The Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business, Fordham Graduate School of Business, Monterey Institute of International Studies and Viasys Healthcare.
Avery Friedman, Esq.
Avery Friedman currently serves as the weekend legal analyst for CNN, reaching more than three million viewers every week. Mr. Friedman has lectured on federal civil rights law at major law schools and has been invited to appear by both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives as an expert on civil and constitutional rights. Mr. Friedman is the recipient of the Legendary Champion of Civil Rights Award by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Freedom Award by the NAACP and the Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial Human Rights Award.
Jen Gambatese
Jen Gambatese is an actress who has played leading roles in Tarzan, Hairspray and other major Broadway productions.
Phil Goldsmith
Phil Goldsmith has held senior positions in a broad spectrum of fields including law, journalism, government and banking. Most recently, he served as managing director of the city of Philadelphia, as well as executive director of Fairmount Park and CEO of the School District of Philadelphia.
Eric Gordon
Eric Gordon is the CEO of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, serving 44,000 students. Mr. Gordon was previously Chief Academic officer for the Cleveland schools and has served in executive roles in the New Orleans and Toledo, Ohio schools.
Brian Heller
Brian Heller is senior vice president of business development for GlobalSpec, Inc., a premier online resource for suppliers and buyers in the business-to-business industrial space. Prior to joining GlobalSpec, he served as vice president of business strategy and development for AOL.
Tom Hopkins
Tom Hopkins is senior vice president, human resources, for The Sherwin-Williams Company.
Greg Johnson
Greg Johnson, a high school choir director in Mustang, Oklahoma for over 26 years, is a member of the NEA Executive Committee.
Ken Lanci
Immediate past chairman of Purple America, Mr. Lanci is the founder of Consolidated Graphics Group In.c, and Consolidated Technologies Group. He has contributed to more than 70 non-profit organizations such as OneSight Cleveland, a worldwide program that provides eyeglasses to underprivileged schoolchildren to help them succeed in the classroom.
Peter Lawson Jones, Esq.
Peter Lawson Jones is an attorney, business consultant, and long-time elected official, as well as a professional actor, voice-over artist and public speaker. Most recently, Mr. Jones served as a member of the Board of Cuyahoga County Commissioners, and for three of those years as its president.
Charles Jordan, Jr.
Charles Jordan, Jr., founder of the Investment Manager, has more than two decades of experience in the financial services and investment management industry. He served on the management team at the New York Stock Exchange, where he was senior finance coordinator of the Exchange’s Member Firm Regulatory Area.
Marci Koblenz
Marci Koblenz is the president of The Center for Companies that Care, a Chicago-based non-profit organization that emplowers and recognizes companies that care about their employees and communities. She is also president of MK Consultants, a human resources consultancy.
Bill Lennon
Bill Lennon is the founder and CEO of Lokring Technologies. Mr. Lennon has been active in Republican Party causes with candidates across the U.S.
Bill Mason
Bill Mason currently serves at the prosecutor for Cuyahoga County, Ohio. He is the current chair of the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Agency Council for Cuyahoga County Justice System Reform.
Rev. Marvin McMickle Ph.D.
Rev. Marvin McMickle has served as the Senior Pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland since 1987 and is the Professor of Homiletics at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio, where he has served on the full-time faculty since 1996.
Gerald R. Molen
Gerald R. Molen, retired, is a high profile American film producer. Prior to his retirement, he had worked very closely with Steven Spielberg. Having produced five of his films, Molen most notably won an Academy Award for producing Schindlers List. Mr. Molen has appeared in small roles in several of the films he produced, including Rain Man, Days of Thunder and Jurassic Park.
Reverend Dr. Otis Moss, Jr.
Reverend Dr. Otis Moss, Jr, theologian, pastor, and civic leader, is pastor of Olivet Institutional Baptist Church. He currently serves as a national board member and trustee for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change. Rev. Moss is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Human Relations Award from Bethune Cookman College in 1976, The Role Model of the Year Award from the National Institute for Responsible Fatherhood and Family Development in 1992, Leadership Award from the Cleveland chapter of the American Jewish Committee in 1996, and an Honorary Doctor of Divinity from LaGrange College in 2004.
Sandra Roberts
Sandra Roberts is the director of the Paper Clips Project, a middle school tolerance and diversity project in Whitwell, Tenn., that is the basis for the award-winning documentary, Paper Clips.
Chris Ronayne
Chris Ronayne is the president of University Circle Inc., a premier urban district in Cleveland. Mr. Ronayne is Chairman of the Holden Parks Trust, a member of CEOs for Cities, the American Planning Association, and numerous local boards and foundations. He was the recipient of the Dean’s Distinguished Alumni Award for the Cleveland State University College of Urban Affairs.
Dr. Eugene Sanders
Dr. Eugene Sanders, retired, most recently served as CEO of the Cleveland Municipal School District. Dr. Sanders has received a number of prestigious awards such as recognition for Education Excellence for Ohio through the annual Dr. Martin Luther King observance; the Accomplished Graduate Award from his alma mater, Bowling Green State University; and the Ohio Superintendent of the Year honor by the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation. For his leadership in closing Toledo’s achievement gap, Dr. Sanders accepted the national NAACP’s Daisy Bates Award.
Frank Savage
Frank Savage has an acclaimed career in the financial services industry in the U.S. and internationally. He was board chair of Freedom National Bank, International Chairman of Alliance Capital Management and now serves as CEO of Savage Holdings, an International consulting firm. He is also the past chairman of Howard University and is on the boards of Lockheed, Verizon and Bloomberg.
Alan Schonberg
Alan Schonberg is the co-founder and chairman of Management Recruiters International (MRI), the world’s largest Executive Search firm. He is also the chairman of the Ohio Israel Chamber of Commerce, WorldBridge Partners and Redmatch, LTD.
Don Seymour
Don Seymour is the director of digital communications for U.S. House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner. Previously he served as press secretary and communications director of The Freedom Project.
Ronald Thorpe
Ronald Thorpe, vice president and director of education for WNET, oversees educational activities that enhance and extend the productions and broadcasts of WNET’s subsidiaries, THIRTEEN and WLIW21. He is the author of numerous articles and commentaries on education, technology, and philanthropy, and is the editor of The First Year As Principal (Heinemann, 1995).
Peter Tuttle
Peter Tuttle is the CEO of JobServe USA, a antional job board resource. He is a pioneer of the online job recruitment industry and founder of CareerBoard.com.
Jerry Wareham
Jerry Wareham is the president and CEO of Ideastream. He has worked in public television and radio for more than 20 years in Iowa, Maine, Virginia and Ohio.
Steve Wing
Steve Wing is the CEO of WINGS, LLC, a Washington D.C.-based consulting organization tthat works with corporations and large organizations that want to develop workforce solutions, creating partnerships between government agencies, non-profits, foundations, workforce investment entities, faith-based organizations, and educational institutions to create customized training programs to find qualified, skilled and talented workers. During Steve's 35 years with CVS Caremark, the country’s largest provider of prescriptions and related health care services in the nation, he built several profitable divisions and programs including CVS’s Workforce Initiatives Department.
Sheila Wyse
Sheila Wyse and her late husband, Marc, were advertising executives with Wyse Advertising. She is currently a community activist in Cleveland.
Fred Zeidman
Fred Zeidman, a national turnaround consultant, is the founder and CEO of XRoads LLC, the national chairman of State of
Purple America Co-Founder & CEO Stuart Muszynski
Stuart Muszynski, founder of Project Love-Purple America, has been a business and community leader in Greater Cleveland for more than 25 years. He co-founded Project Love, Remember the Children Foundation, with his wife, Susan Muszynski, Ph.D. in 1994, and is the author of the book Searching for Values: a Grandmother, and Grandson and the Discovery of Goodness (Hiram College, 2005) as well as numerous articles on education, character and values.
In addition to work with Project Love, Mr. Muszynski conducts “Goodness Through Grandparents” workshops soliciting grandparents’ life stories at middle and high schools, assisted living facilities, colleges, town halls, and other venues. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1976 and is the 2011 recipient of the National Cyberbully Day of Awareness Caring and Daring Award. He and Susan have been married for 30 years.
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