Gary is a volunteer Strategic Advisor for the Rural Schools Collaborative (RSC) and consultant to The GRAD Partnership, a U.S. national initiative to increase high school graduation rates. He is the former Director of RSC, and before that was President & CEO of The Community Foundation of the Ozarks. Gary taught for six years in small town schools, and he and his partner, Jana, lived on a small Wisconsin farm for the better part of a decade. They now reside in Philadelphia near their daughter, Megan, but spend a lot of time in Wales visiting their son, Thomas, who lives in Cardiff.