Our Board

Board of Directors (2024-2025):

Michael Giles, President

Managing Principal, Right Management Consultants, North Texas Region

Michael Giles is the President of the Lumin Education Board of Directors and is the former Managing Principal of the North Texas Regional offices of Right Management Consultants. He offers over 25 years of firsthand experience in career transition and management development, encompassing the not-for-profit sector, Fortune 500 level marketing, and successful entrepreneurial and consulting services.

Michael’s background includes operational effectiveness design and implementation, team-building, management and supervisory development, and culture integration. He has a diverse background in marketing, administration, manufacturing, and distribution, with experience in both product and service sales and delivery.

Michael holds an M.B.A. in Management from the University of Dallas. His bachelor level studies in Human Sciences were completed at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. Michael has been a member of the Lumin Board of Directors since 2010.

Jeff Sullivan, Vice President

Mike Birrer, Treasurer

Partner at Carrington Coleman

Mike Birrer is the Treasurer of the Lumin Education Board of Directors and is a partner in Carrington Coleman’s employment and litigation sections. His practice focuses primarily on issues related to labor, employment, and employee benefits. In addition to litigation, Mike provides training, counseling, and advice regarding workforce matters.

Mike has been named by D Magazine as one of the “Best Lawyers in Dallas” for 2012; and from 2004 through 2007, he has been named by Texas Monthly magazine as a “Rising Star” in Texas law. After graduating from Hendrix College, magna cum laude, in 1989, he went on to Vanderbilt University where he earned a J.D. in 1992. While at Vanderbilt, Mike was Associate Editor of Order of the Coif and a board member of the Vanderbilt Law Review. He is a member of the Dallas Bar Association, the Dallas Bar Foundation, the Texas Bar Association, the Texas Bar Foundation, and the American Bar Association. Mike has been a member of the Lumin Board of Directors since 2009.

Mary Caroline Parker, Secretary

Executive Director, Montessori Institute of North Texas

Mary Caroline Parker is the Secretary of the Lumin Education Board of Directors and former Director of Development of the Montessori Institute of North Texas (MINT), a teacher training center affiliated with AMI (Association Montessori Internationale), she is a former member of the international board of AMI in the Netherlands, and a former member of AMI’s Educateurs sans Frontières organizing committee, in which capacity she has organized international assemblies in Dallas, Thailand, and India.

Mary Caroline was the School Director at Lumin East Dallas Community School from 2001-2009, and has been a member of the Lumin Board of Directors since 2011. She holds the AMI Primary diploma from Centro de Estudios de Educación in Mexico City, a B.A. in Latin American Studies from Smith College, a M.Ed. in Montessori Integrative Learning from Endicott College, and a J.D. from American University in Washington, D.C.

John H. Fullinwider

John Fullinwider is the co-founder of Lumin, along with founding Executive Director Terry Ford. He is an educator and community organizer, with more than 40 years’ experience in Dallas, working on a wide range of issues ranging from lead pollution to homelessness. He has served on the boards of the National Coalition for the Homeless, National Low-Income Housing Coalition, Low Income Housing Information Service, and Institute for Community Economics. Fullinwider is the co-founder of Common Ground Community Economic Development Corporation(1982-2020), the first community development corporation in Dallas, Mothers Against Police Brutality, Dallas Peace & Justice Center, and Friends of the South Dallas Cultural Center. He is board president of Teatro Dallas. John taught for 15 years at Otto Fridia Alternative High School in Dallas ISD; he won the district’s highest honors, the Excellence in High School Teaching Award and the “Golden Apple” Teacher of the Year Award. He taught at Southwestern Christian College, a HBCU in Terrell, Texas. John has testified as an expert witness in Congress, the Texas Legislature, and in federal court on the issues of housing, homelessness, and community development. For his community work, he is the recipient of numerous awards including the Equal Justice Award from Legal Aid of Northwest Texas, the Martin Luther King Jr. Center Neighborhood Improvement Award, and the Dallas Urban League President's "Bridge Builder" Award. From 2015-2020, John was a key organizer of the successful movement to take down Confederate statues and monuments in Dallas.

Rosa M. Hernandez

Civic and Educational Leader

Rosa M. Hernandez is a member of the Lumin Education Board of Directors. She is a longtime resident of Old East Dallas, and has been a powerful advocate for community engagement, crime prevention, and early childhood education for more than 40 years. Rosa was educated in Del Rio, Texas and studied Early Childhood Education at Dallas’s El Centro College. She is also certified by the HighScope Educational Research Foundation at the University of Michigan.

Rosa worked for the Bois D’Arc Patriots in the late 1970’s, teaching residents of troubled neighborhoods how to prevent crime, and also translated the organization’s newspaper into Spanish, allowing the publication to communicate with the majority population in the neighborhood more effectively. In addition, Rosa has served, in volunteer or professional capacities, at organizations such as Bois D’Arc Patriots, Dallas IDS, Mi Escuelita, and Lumin Education. She has also served as President of the neighborhood school’s PTA and managed the Anita Martinez Recreation Center.

As one of East Dallas Community School’s Founding Families, Rosa and her husband, Lupe, contributed thousands of hours of critical service during the school’s fledgling years painting, refurbishing Montessori classroom materials, constructing teaching equipment from scratch, cleaning classrooms, and more.

Carolyn Sells

Ericka Ventura

Board of Advisors:

Virginia Buckley

Larry Cooper, Ph.D.

Andrew Emerson

Stan Ferguson

Barbara Gordon

Anne Johnson

Clay Johnson

Jan Davis Mallett, Ph.D.

Cencelia M. Pierre, CPA