Our Mission

School board members and education leaders are influential public servants with the enormous responsibility to ensure their students graduate ready to achieve their dreams.

Research says if school boards want to reduce meeting time and improve student results, they must follow our five tenets for effective school board leadership: vision, unity, structure, advocacy, and accountability.

School boards that implement our five tenets of effective board leadership and seek on-going coaching will grow personally into better leaders, see their school system transformed, and their student results improve.

Our Team

Kara Belew
Kara BelewPRESIDENT, STATE CERTIFIED SCHOOL BOARD COACH AND SPECIALIST
Kara Belew has over 15 years of experience and is a leading national education policy and budget expert. Belew is a tireless advocate for helping students learn to read and urges education leaders to focus on reading results. She is a current school board member and on the board of Literacy First.

Belew recently served as the Deputy Commission of Education, Finance, for the Texas Education Agency. In this position, she oversaw the state’s $60 billion annual budget. Previously, Belew served as Governor Abbott’s statewide budget director, and as Governor Perry’s team leader and senior education advisor. Prior to that, Kara was a key strategist on Texas’ successful school finance legislation. She also clerked at the Texas Supreme Court.

Belew graduated with honors from the University of Texas school of law and earned political science and accounting degrees from Southern Methodist University. Kara is a CPA and attorney.

Dr. Marcia McMahon
Dr. Marcia McMahonVICE-PRESIDENT, STATE CERTIFIED SCHOOL BOARD COACH AND SPECIALIST
Dr. Marcia McMahon has 20+ years of education experience and is currently coaching the Houston Independent School District’s school board through its high-profile and nationally publicized turn around efforts.

Dr. McMahon is a national leader in school board growth and transformation. She coaches hundreds of school board members each year and supports school boards in growing their leadership to focus on what matters most: student outcomes.

Prior to joining the Tenet Leadership team, she served in multiple positions including assistant superintendent, Texas Education Agency service center leadership specialist, principal, and teacher.

Laurie Elliott
Laurie ElliottVICE-PRESIDENT, STATE CERTIFIED SCHOOL BOARD COACH AND SPECIALIST
Laurie Elliott graduated from Baylor University with a BS degree in Education majoring in Communication and minoring in English. She, also, holds a Master of Communication degree, a Master of Counseling degree, a Master of Educational Leadership degree and a Superintendent Certification from Lamar University. She has served as teacher, counselor, principal, professional service provider and monitor for the State of Texas. Mrs. Elliott now works with school boards as a Lone Star Governance Coach and as a coach for Student Outcomes Focused Governance at the national level. She and her family reside in Liberty, Texas.