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Convention speakers

Dr. Rita Pierson
aha! Process, Inc., Houston Texas
An experienced and popular educational consultant, Dr. Pierson has presented hundreds of workshops for aha! Process, Inc. since 1997 for parents, staff, teachers, and school administrators. Known for maximizing and building on a person’s strengths, she has been a professional educator since 1972 as an elementary regular and special education teacher, junior high school teacher, counselor, assistant principal, director, testing coordinator, and consultant.
She has an established record of successful educational leadership and management experience, particularly in curriculum and instructional development, community relations and personnel supervision. Dr. Pierson, a licensed professional counselor, was responsible for the development and implementation of a school community involvement program for a large urban elementary school, as well as the initiation, organization and training of an in-school crisis team for students in need of immediate intervention.

Dr. Phillip Boyle
President, Leading & Governing Associates, Inc., Carrboro, North Carolina
Dr. Boyle is president of Leading and Governing Associates, a governance education and consulting practice that works with elected and appointed officials. He has taught in graduate programs in public policy and administration, leadership, and ethics for Regis University and the University of Colorado.
His articles about public decision making, the role of elected boards, public engagement, and strategic navigation have appeared in Public Management, Nation’s Cities Weekly, Popular Government, American School Board Journal, ICMA’s IQ Report, and the Journal of Public Affairs Education. Dr. Boyle received a bachelor’s degree from Monmouth University, a master’s degree from Columbia University, and a doctorate from the School of Public Affairs at the University of Colorado in Denver.

Dr. Adolph Brown, III
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Dr. Brown (a.k.a. ‘Doc,’) overcame an upbringing of extreme poverty, violence, welfare, and fatherlessness to become a popular media personality, noted author, award-winning educator, trained anthropologist and psychologist, columnist, business consultant, coach, husband, and father of seven. A sought after motivational speaker, he uses15 years of experience as a tenured educator, administrator, business owner, psychotherapist, trainer and speaker to entertain with humor and wealth of information.

Greetings speaker
C. H. “Sonny” Savoie
President, National School Boards Association, Alexandria, Virginia
C.H. “Sonny” Savoie, a member of the St. Charles Parish school board in Louisiana, is president of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) and has been a member of the NSBA board since 2002. A 23-year veteran school board member, Savoie has held various board offices including president and served as president of the Louisiana School Boards Association in 2001.
Savoie worked for more than 32 years in the oil and gas industry for Chevron/Texaco as well as an independent consultant, including a superintendent search consultant for several years. Savoie has been a HOSTS (Help One Student to Succeed) middle school math mentor for 10 years and for the past nine years has taught Junior Achievement to third graders. He and his wife, Merle, have two daughters and four grandchildren. They reside in Paradis, LA., where he is actively involved in numerous church and community activities.