Profile, Bio

Gary Marx, CAE, APR

President, Center for Public Outreach

1831 Toyon Way, Vienna, Virginia 22182, USA

Phone 703-938-8725, Fax 703-938-8726, Email gmarxcpo@aol.com

            Gary Marx, CAE, APR, is president of the Center for Public Outreach, an organization he founded in 1998, which provides counsel on future-oriented leadership, communication, education, community, and democracy. 

            Marx served for nearly 20 years as a senior executive for the American Association of School Administrators.  His responsibilities ranged from serving as executive director of the association's Leadership for Learning Foundation to providing direction for all communication programs and leading numerous initiatives.

            During his professional career, Marx has combined his knowledge and expertise in education and communication to become an international leader in both.  He has been called "an intellectual entrepreneur, who constantly pursues ideas," and "a deep generalist." 

            Prior to joining AASA, Marx served as executive director of communications for the 82,000-student Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado and the then 10,000-student Westside Community Schools in Omaha, Nebraska.

His two latest books include Sixteen Trends…Their Profound Impact on Our Future, published by the Educational Research Service (ERS), and Future Focused Leadership…Preparing Schools, Students, and Communities for Tomorrow’s Realities, published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).  As a futurist, Marx has also directed studies such as Preparing Students for the 21^st Century (1996), Preparing Schools and School Systems for the 21^st Century (1999), and Ten Trends…Educating Children for a Profoundly Different Future (2000).  All became influential books. 

Marx is a frequent speaker, workshop leader, and advisor on futures issues for school systems; colleges and universities; civic, community, and career and technology educators; business, professional, community, and government leaders; and state, national, regional, and international organizations, including the World Future Society, which has included him in its directory of futures thinkers.  His presentations, books, articles, and counsel on trends and other issues stimulate thinking about how organizations and individuals can stay ahead of the curve as they move into the future. 

Marx, who has visited nearly 70 countries, has done energizing, future-focused presentations in all 50 U.S. states and on six continents, including North America, Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, and Europe.  He has provided counsel to organizations worldwide. 

            In recognition of his career-spanning contributions to education and leadership, Marx was presented the coveted Presidents’ Award by the National School Public Relations Association and the Distinguished Service Award by the American Association of School Administrators.  Both recognize his lifetime achievement.  He is one of a few people in the nation to be accredited by the American Society of Association Executives, the Public Relations Society of America, and the National School Public Relations Association.

Marx has advised numerous organizations on an array of issues, facilitated planning, and conducted a number of communications audits.  Among the several projects he has directed is Schoolhouse in Red, a benchmark 1990s study of school facilities that, for the first time, called attention to nearly $100 billion in deferred maintenance of school buildings.  Marx has served as advisor for a project devoted to finding the scientific link between indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and student and staff performance. He has also facilitated energy management and IEQ seminars involving the education, hospitality, healthcare, and security industries.  Marx provided direction for two Studies of the American School Superintendency for both the 1980s and 1990s.  In the mid-90s, he collaborated with USA Today's Pat Ordovensky to produce a publication titled, Working With the News Media.  In 1999, he was on the scene in Colorado to advise on strategy in the wake of the tragedy at Columbine High School.

While at AASA, Marx served as executive editor of all association publications, including periodicals such as The School Administrator (magazine) and Leadership News (newspaper), as well as more than 150 AASA books and video programs.  He instituted an online service for the organization long before that type of communication became commonplace.  In addition to those previously mentioned, Marx is author or coauthor of other books, such as Excellence in Our Schools…Making It Happen, Building Public Confidence in Our Schools, and Public Relations for Administrators.  He has written numerous articles on a variety of subjects.

Internationally, Marx is a member of the Steering Committee for Civitas International, which spearheads efforts to strengthen democracies in several parts of the world.  He has met with Civitas colleagues at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France; served as a visiting scholar in Taiwan; devoted time in Sarajevo to helping strengthen civic education and democracy in Bosnia and Herzegovina; spoken to a Western Hemisphere conference on democratization held in Mexico City and presented a series programs in four Mexican cities; spoken in the People's Republic of China; consulted with representatives of five Central Asian nations on democratization and civic education during a meeting in Almaty, Kazakhstan; keynoted conferences in Australia addressing societal trends and leadership; spoken to civic educators in Northern Ireland; made presentations and conducted consultations on trends, issues, civic engagement, and on visualizing preferred futures across Argentina; met with and addressed international civic education leaders in Moscow; Budapest; Amman; Warsaw; Buenos Aires; and Casablanca and Ifrane, Morocco; spoken to educators in the Department of Defense School System in Germany, Italy, and Japan; keynoted a conference in Singapore for the Ministry of Education; addressed educators and other community leaders in Riga, Latvia, and Vilnius, Lithuania; conducted evaluations of key civic education programs in Senegal (Dakar, Ross Bethio, Kaolak, Louga) and Eastern Russia (Vladivostok and Petropavlovsk); and during the Civitas World Congress in Palermo, Italy, learned how that city is fighting crime and corruption.  Marx is external evaluator for the Civitas International Civic Education Exchange Program which involves numerous countries and U.S. states.  He is a member of the United Nations Association of the USA, has initiated international projects with support from the Longview Foundation, and has appeared on television and radio broadcasts worldwide aimed at strengthening civil society or responding to a variety of far-reaching issues.   

            For many years, Marx has served as a primary contact and counsel for the news media.  He has made frequent appearances on television and radio news and talk programs and has been quoted on a broad span of issues that impact society.  His leadership has extended to media education, and he has been both a founder and member of significant groups that have advised producers and networks on children's television and other educational programming.  Marx has been a member of the PBS Education Advisory Board, NBC's "The More You Know" Advisory Board, and the Emmy Awards Selection Committee.  During 2007, he served on a twelve-member Washington Post Project 2025 Panel, conceiving of possible scenarios for the Washington, D.C., Metro Area.

Early in his career, Marx was a television and radio broadcaster and owner of a radio station.  He has been the announcer for numerous commercials and public service announcements, some heard on hundreds of stations nationwide.  As a narrator, Marx has voiced many soundtracks and narrated symphony concerts.  He regularly serves as announcer/emcee for the Presidential Scholars program in the Concert Hall or Eisenhower Theater at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. 

A veteran local community leader, Marx was a founder and chair of a community improvement organization, the Keystone Community Task Force, which aims at making democracy work effectively at the local level.  The organization, which continues to provide leadership in the Omaha area, was named the leading community development program of its type by the state of Nebraska.  As a public official, Marx has held positions on public bodies such as the Omaha Parks and Recreation Board and the Omaha-Douglas County Urban Growth Policy Advisory Committee.  He is a current member of both the Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society and the Harvey Dunn Society Boards of Directors.

            Marx, also a board member of the Horace Mann League, is one of the founders of the National Superintendent of the Year program and has served as a member of the Selection Committees for the National Teacher of the Year program, Disney's "Salute to the American Teacher," and USA Today's "All USA Academic Team."  Marx was a member of planning and executive committees associated with the restoration of the Statue of Liberty and the celebration of the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.  Gary and Judy Marx live in Vienna, Virginia, and have two sons—John is a television commercial producer in Los Angeles, and Daniel is a technology association executive in the Washington, D.C., area.  They have one grandchild, born in 2006.                                       

  2/7/2009