Our Board

Managing Principal, Right Management Consultants, North Texas Region

 

Michael Giles is the President of the Lumin Education Board of Directors and is the 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.

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.

Executive Director, Montessori Institute of North Texas

 

Mary Caroline Parker is the Secretary of the Lumin Education Board of Directors. Currently the 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.

Supervising Librarian at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

 

John H. Fullinwider is a member of the Lumin Education Board of Directors and is a Supervising Librarian at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Executive Director of Common Ground Community Development Corporation, and a Board Member for Texas Low-Income Housing Information Service and the School for Community Organizing. He also taught in the Dallas Independent School District from 1994-2009.

 

He co-founded Lumin in 1978 along with Executive Director, Terry Ford. John earned a B.A. in English and Latin, with high honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Texas at Austin and earned a Masters of Library Science from Texas Woman’s University. John has numerous awards, including: DISD Teacher of the Year 1997-98, Excellence in Teaching Award in 1996, Volunteer of the Year Award in 1999, Equal Justice Award in 2003, and more. He has numerous published op-ed pieces, articles, and poems, as well as extensive press coverage of his community work and teaching. John has been a member of the Lumin Board of Directors since 1978.

Former Executive and current Civic Leader

 

Bob Marshall is a member of the Lumin Education Board of Directors. Bob’s professional career was in the computer software industry, having worked for Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Frito-Lay, and MarCon & Associates, Inc.

Bob graduated from the University of Texas in 1964 and has been involved in both private and public education throughout the city of Dallas for over 20 years. He has served on the boards of St. Philip’s School and Community Center, Educational Opportunities, Educational First Steps, and various other boards, finance committees, and foundations. He served DISD as Chairman of the $1.35 billion 2008 Bond Advisory Committee, as well as on the Future Facilities Task Force. Bob has been a member of the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts Advisory Board for over 10 years, serving as President, Chairman of the Site Based Decision Making Committee, and several other committees for the selection of the past two school principles.

Bob is currently on the 2015 Bond Advisory Committee, representing District 9 and the Board of Trustees for Parish Episcopal School and serves as the Vice-Chairman of their finance committee. He is a member of St. Michael Episcopal Church and has served two terms on the Vestry, as church Treasurer and as President and Treasurer of the St. Michael Foundation.