IEL is pleased to announce that Michael ‘Mike’ Sims has joined IEL’s Board of Directors. Mike is an accomplished financial professional, whose career has spanned over 18 years in accounting and finance. Half of his career has been dedicated to fulfilling the mission and financial stewardship of Scholastic, Inc., the beloved children’s publishing company. 

For the past 12 years, Mike has served at Scholastic, beginning as a business manager in the education segment, focused on supplemental materials for classrooms and  community-based organizations. As Mike noted, “education essentially is not just during the school hours. Education is something that transcends from the school building into your homes and aftercare institutions.”.

He felt at home at Scholastic due to its positive mission and personal connection to the work. “I was a Scholastic child – I was a part of various organizations – so it was a little bit of nostalgia for me. It’s like, wow, this is a great chance for me to come back to the organization that I remembered as a kid. And, I love that I can potentially give back know, and actually do something good.”

Having gone through multiple levels of leadership at his organization, Mike has seen all aspects of the education group, “from creating financial PNLs for new product development, to working on capital requests and taking a look at the entire profit and law statement… Fast forward to where I am right now in my corporate planning role, and I am now doing a lot of those things at the enterprise level. So now I get to take a look at the entire organization.”

Mike was first introduced to IEL during his time working in the education division at Scholastic. Mike wanted to understand IEL as a partner to maximize the benefit to both organizations. As he recalled, “Working with our non-traditional solutions team… I came about IEL. Doing a little bit of research taking a look at IEL, as they were people from that team going to the [National Community Schools and Family Engagement] conference, and talking about leveraging product and other things. That’s when IEL began to spark my curiosity…. And I read as well as heard about [IEL] from my colleagues….” He was further drawn to the organization due to his long-standing Scholastic partnership with IEL’s Board Chair, Dr. Karen Mapp. “I knew it was a solid organization from the beginning. And now as part of the Board, I just want to have an opportunity to do my absolute best and keep the mission moving forward.”

Mike was in particular impressed with IEL’s Education Policy Fellowship Program (EPFP), “What caught my attention with EPFP is that they provide leaders with tools to get engaged with policymaking, whether it’s at the local, state, or national level. You’re also building leaders within the community, which I think is important. These are communities that [Fellows] are actually coming from… It seems to be personal – you want to make sure that you are serving your communities the very best that you can do.” Mike also spoke about the strong networking aspect of EPFP, “It brings the leaders together. You have a network of collaborators, think partners, and a chance for everyone to get together to talk about some of the challenges and the things that you’re doing within your own community.”

Building on the themes of collaboration and network building, Mike reiterates that he was keen on joining IEL’s Board after seeing the wealth of knowledge that everyone brings to the table – wanting to help “take IEL to the next level.”

Looking ahead, Mike says IEL has a strong future. “The recipe that IEL has is solid. What I really wanna see is the expansion of IEL’s footprint.” To do that, Mike is looking forward to being a part of the creation of IEL’s next strategic plan, creating benchmarks to measure our success, and increase the number of communities we can reach.

When he’s not working, Mike loves spending time with his children, especially supporting their hobbies of basketball and swimming. “I spend my time with my little people and make sure that I can develop them ’cause I like to look at as myself and my wife being their first teachers. We get to model good behavior and other things for them so they can take it with them throughout the course of their life, as well as supporting what they learned through school, so we can make sure that they’re ultimately successful in life when their next up to bat.”

“I am excited that Mike will be adding to the unique perspectives and experiences of our diverse Board. His range of financial insights will help guide IEL as we expand our footprint further and reach even more communities. He is highly connected to the work that we do, having seen all angles of the education sector at Scholastic, an important partner of IEL’s,” said IEL President Eddie Koen.

“I’m thrilled to have Mike join the Board of IEL,” added IEL Board Chair Karen Mapp. “He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge that supports our strategic goals of advancing equity and enabling leaders to create opportunities for educational success in communities across the country. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing and working with Mike over several years, and welcome him with enthusiasm to the IEL family.”

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