Executive on loan helps enrich and empower schools, shape future leaders
Marcia Page, TI Vice President and Executive on loan. |
When Marcia Page joined the Foundation for Community Empowerment (FCE) in February 2005 as a loaned executive from Texas Instruments (TI), she fulfilled a personal commitment to immerse herself in the community and make a difference in the lives of others. But her passion for shaping future leaders through student growth and educational achievement has gone beyond a personal mission. In addition to spearheading a program that has become the blueprint for improving schools in the Dallas area she has inspired TI to make even more tangible its own commitment to education in the form of a $1M grant to the Dallas Achieves school reform project.
As the FCE’s President and CEO, Marcia helps oversee the outlay of these monies as she continues to shape the foundation's strategic direction and the alignment and implementation of its core initiatives: community building, institutional and systemic change, and research. The $1M is already earmarked for the addition of 15 schools to the highly successful Dallas Achieves campus transformation project.
Marcia was instrumental in creating and implementing the pilot program on 26 Dallas Independent School District (DISD) campuses in South and West Dallas that was the basis for Dallas Achieves. It was focused on increasing the capacity and effectiveness of school principals, whose role she sees as critical. Within 18 months, significant improvements were seen, and the DISD decided to replicate the program across the entire district. Currently, Marcia heads up the project team supporting the districts Transformation Management Office. In this role, she has been tasked with general management oversight, including soliciting and hiring consultants, negotiating and signing contracts and raising funds.
“From a professional growth perspective, I have come to realize there is hope,” Marcia said of her experiences with the FCE and Dallas Archives. “Properly educating a child is a not a privilege – it’s a right. It is our responsibility to not pass judgment, but to get involved with the academic empowerment of all the children in our community."
Marcia keeps busy running the foundation while also working for TI as a vice president. She fills an important role as TI’s face to the community, particularly on subjects related to education. In this area, she shares TI’s commitment to educating the future leaders of the country as well as the future engineers of TI. She is often engaged as a speaker, talking about corporate support for education. Marcia also meets with principals involved in the Dallas Achieves program on a continual basis.
“Academic achievement is a complex issue that can be made less so by increasing the already pivotal role of the principal as the instructional leader,” said Marcia. “These are the men and women who select effective teachers and engage student. When they are empowered, they are a strong force for academic success of individual students and entire schools.”
Marcia has shown leadership and commitment to TI and educational achievement as a whole. She is passionate about shaping the next generation of leaders, and helps support this charge at TI.
“Marcia Page champions education reform strategies that will lift this entire region,” said Phil Ritter, TI senior vice president. “She is at the forefront of taking many of TI’s experiences in public education over the past 20 years and making them systemic in the community.”
She joined TI in 1995 as director of business excellence in the Semiconductor Group. Since then she has served as director of worldwide customer support, manager and then vice president for worldwide eMarketing, and vice president of marketing in the Educational & Productivity Solutions business.
Marcia received her B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska, Omaha and has completed executive education programs at Harvard University and the University of Indiana.
She is an active member in business and community organizations, including the Dallas Summit, Mid-Cities Texas Chapter of the Links, Inc, Menttium 100, the National Society of Black Engineers and the Executive Women’s Roundtable with the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. She is a current board member of the Children’s Medical Center of Dallas and the J. McDonald Williams Research Institute. Marcia is also an active member of the Friendship-West Baptist Church.
Page was awarded the 1997 Women of Color Technology Award in the category of Business Innovation sponsored by the U.S. Black Engineer and Information Technology magazine. She also received the High Achiever Award by the Black Employees Initiative of Texas Instruments, 1999 YWCA Women of Achievement Award, 1999 South Dallas Business and Professional Women’s Club Trail Blazer Award, the 2000 YWCA Women of Excellence Award and was named one of the top 100 African Americans in Technology in the U.S. in 2007.
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