Hall of Leaders

Jonathan Sessions served on the Columbia Public Schools Board of Education from 2010-2020, where he served as vice president of the board

During his tenure on the school board, he was a leader of the ten-year facilities plan to eliminate trailers as classrooms. He championed innovations at the Columbia Area Career Center and advocated for creation of the Boone County Nature School. He also played an important role in bringing innovative educational opportunities for students, including the student exchange with Japan, the early college initiative in partnership with Moberly Area Community College, and the integration of STEAM curriculum in schools. As chair of the policy committee, he led the work to include non-discrimination protections for historically marginalized students and staff.

In addition to his service on the school board, Jonathan has served as a volunteer on city commissions, led city youth programs and choirs, and has been a member of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce.

Jonathan is the head of information technology for Meet the People, managing operations, IT staff and technology needs for numerous locations. A lifelong Columbia resident, Jonathan attended Russell Elementary, Smithton Middle, West Junior and Hickman High Schools. He has a bachelor’s degree in elementary music education from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Maureen Doyle has a long background in education, including teaching preschool in St. Louis and Kansas City, Mo. She also taught first grade in Texas, where she learned to speak Spanish, and kindergarten in Colorado, where she helped establish the preschool program at the school. She has taught first grade at parochial school. Closer to home, she taught early childhood special education in Jefferson City for four years.

Maureen has a master’s degree in guidance and counseling. She has worked as a case manager at New Horizons and as a children’s therapist at the Rape and Abuse Crisis Service, all in Jefferson City. She moved to Columbia to work at the St. Francis House, a former shelter for homeless men.

Maureen also has worked as an interpreter for the Columbia Public Schools. She continues to be an interpreter to this day, while also volunteering as a teacher working with students in the English Learners’ program at Douglass High School.

Janet Tilley has worked in public education for more than 45 years, including 29 years with the Columbia Public Schools.

During her time at CPS, Janet was an English teacher at West Junior High School and at Hickman High School. She also worked as the K-12 language arts coordinator at CPS for five years. Janet has also served as a literacy consultant. Since 2013, she has been the senior director for training and research for the Missouri School Boards’ Association, instructing new and veteran school board members from around the state about the intricacies of school board work, meeting protocols, budgets and laws that govern school districts.

During her career, Janet earned National Board Certification for Secondary Language Arts and fellowships with the National Holocaust Museum and Memorial and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. She has published several articles in both state and national journals on teaching poetry and reading to adolescent. Janet also has presented research and training sessions at the national level. She holds bachelor’s degrees in English and theater from Missouri State University and a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Mary Korth-Lloyd retired from Columbia Public Schools in 2014, after a 31-year career as an educator. Throughout her career, Mary has served as a mentor to countless educators and administrators across the district.

Mary began her CPS career as a classroom teacher at Mill Creek Elementary and, while there, also was a Fellows Mentor. During her time at CPS, she also was a literacy coach for several schools. She served Rock Bridge Elementary as the assistant principal and then as the principal for 12 years. As principal, she chose to go back to the classroom to teach first grade for a year, affording her a deeper understanding of the evolution of the teaching role. She retired when those first graders graduated from fifth grade. Since retirement, she has served as an administrator substitute for CPS for the past 12 years, stepping in to serve as acting principal when a school has the need. She has worked as acting principal at Rock Bridge, Shepard and Locust Elementary Schools, as well as interim principal at Derby Ridge Elementary.

Mary is a member of Up to Good, serving as the liaison for the Links to Learning awards, is a substitute driver for Meals on Wheels, and a member of the Missouri Retired Teachers Association.

Tom Hart is a 1992 graduate of Rock Bridge High School and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Tom was inducted into the Rock Bridge Hall of Fame in 2014.

Tom is an Emmy award-winning play-by-play commentator on the SEC on ABC package and ESPN’s national coverage of college football. He spent nine seasons as the lead voice on SEC Saturday Night, the franchise that features SEC Network’s marquee college football game each Saturday. He is the lead play-by-play voice of regular season college baseball and SEC basketball and is one of the main voices on ESPN’s coverage of the NCAA Baseball Tournament. In addition, he calls select games and events for ESPN Radio, including MLB, NCAA football and the NBA.

Tom joined ESPN with a wealth of experience, having called more than 1,200 professional baseball games. He continues to work for the Atlanta Braves on television and radio play by play. He has previously worked at the Big Ten Network, Fox Sports Radio and CBS College Sports.

Emily Cantwell is a 2003 graduate of Rock Bridge High School, where she was a member of student government and on the varsity basketball, tennis, track and cross country teams.

Emily is a commercial litigator at Lathrop GPM LLP, with a focus on financial services and real estate litigation. She is the first woman to serve as the Partner-in-Charge of the firm’s St. Louis office, and began her first term on a firm-wide Executive Committee in 2025. Emily serves all types of clients, focusing on mid-market to Fortune 500 companies.

She is a trustee for the Missouri Historical Society, a corporate council member of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, chair of the Women in the Legal Profession for the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, board member of the Women’s Foundation of Greater St. Louis and president of the Clayton Chamber of Commerce.

Emily has a bachelor of arts in political science and a bachelor of science in public relations from the University of Florida, and a juris doctor degree from St. Louis University, where she was a member of the law journal and trial competition team.

Carissa Havens has served as a volunteer at Ridgeway Elementary and Jefferson Middle Schools since 2017. She also has worked as a substitute teacher for the Columbia Public Schools since 2021.

A mother of three CPS students, Carissa has volunteered and been a part of the PTSA at both Ridgeway and Jefferson Middle. During her time at Jefferson Middle, she worked to create a dedicated space for nursing mothers to welcome a teacher back from maternity leave and gave the teacher’s lounge a facelift. Whether it’s serving on the PTSA, helping with events and field trips, organizing school fundraisers, showing love to teachers and staff, or working behind the scenes planning meaningful experiences, Carissa shows up and makes things better for the students, teachers and school.

Carissa also volunteers with the Show-Me Central Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build project and serves on the committee for Coyote Hill’s fundraising event.

Susan Maglich retired from the Columbia Public Schools in 2008 after teaching for more than thirty years. Susan served as a first grade teacher and Title 1 reading instructor at Blue Ridge Elementary, and as a building team leader and first grade teacher at Grant Elementary. As a literacy leader, she has used her skills to teach countless CPS students how to read.

Susan also spent her career mentoring other teachers in literacy instruction as a Title 1 team leader, as a grade level leader, as a mentor of student teachers, and as a developer of literacy curriculum.

After retiring from Columbia Public Schools, Susan led the Rollins Reading Group Double Dose Reading Program at Grant Elementary. The program’s goal was to develop and implement extra reading instruction for young students reading below their grade level. Susan built the program from scratch, developing the curriculum and teaching children.

Throughout ten years of implementation, more than 450 students participated in the program, and its graduates continued to read and score at or above their expected grade level.

Susan has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Stephens College and a master’s of education degree in special reading and learning disabilities from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She has been honored as the Outstanding K-3 Elementary Educator by the Columbia Fund for Academic Excellence and as the Columbia Teacher Association’s Elementary Teacher of the Year.

Linda Harlan retired in 2011 after a teaching career with the Columbia Public Schools spanning more than three decades. She began her career at CPS teaching English and Humanities at Rock Bridge High School when it first opened in 1973.

As an original member of the Rock Bridge High School faculty, she was a leader in the development of all of the programs, activities and curricula at the school. Linda served as the first sponsor of the school newspaper, “The Rock.”

For twenty-two years, she team taught Humanities at Rock Bridge with Conrad Stawski, founder of the Humanities program in the Columbia Public Schools. Their Humanities program was recognized statewide. Linda frequently took students on field trips and brought in guest speakers like music legend Chuck Berry. After Conrad Stawski retired, Linca continued to teach Humanities, with Mr. Stawski as a frequent guest.

When Hickman High School needed a Humanities teacher, Linda agreed to teach at both Rock Bridge and Hickman. She taught Humanities and film studies at Hickman High School, where she also sponsored the Film Club and co-sponsored the school’s Amnesty International chapter.

Linda has a bachelor’s degree in English and secondary education, cum laude, from Central Methodist University. She is a member of the Missouri Retired Teachers Association and the Boone County Retired Teachers Association. Among her honors, she is the recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English Center of Excellence Award for Humanities curriculum.

Beverly Borduin retired in 2011 after serving as principal of Grant Elementary for six years. During a nearly thirty-year career with Columbia Public Schools, her previous roles included serving as the assistant principal at West Boulevard Elementary, teaching grades 2-5 at Grant Elementary, and teaching grades 1-2 at Blue Ridge Elementary.

As principal at Grant, Beverly developed partnerships with the community, wrote and received numerous grants for the school, and continued to publish and present at conferences. She was known for her child-focused style of leadership and was beloved by teachers, students and families alike. After a fire decimated a mobile classroom, she joined with community volunteers to build the EcoSchoolhouse to take its place. Since retiring, she worked to establish a partnership with the Rollins Company to create a Montessori preschool at Grant, providing early childhood education and literacy to young students across the economic spectrum, a Double Dose Reading program serving 450 children, and a Books N Bags program distributing more than 7,500 books to kindergartners at Title 1 schools.

Among her honors, Beverly was recognized with both the Outstanding Administrator and the Outstanding K-3 Teacher Awards from the Columbia Fund for Academic Excellence.

Beverly received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as well as a master’s in elementary administration and an education specialist’s degree in educational leadership and policy analysis, both from the University of Missouri-Columbia.