Pennsylvania School Boards Association

View their website at www.psba.org

Robert Lumley-Sapanski
President

Lumley-Sapanski, a Master School Board Member, is in his 12th year on the Bellefonte Area School Board (Centre Co.), having served six years as board president. He serves on the NSBA Pre-K Committee, is a member of the Federal Relations Network and served on, as well as chaired, many PSBA committees. He was Region 4 director, Centre Co. legislative coordinator and chair of the Rural Schools Forum.

He is a graduate of the College of Agriculture at Penn State, currently works at Penn State as facilities and safety coordinator for the Food Science Department, which runs the Penn State Creamery, and was chair of the Staff Advisory Committee to the Dean. He serves on the Zero Tolerance for Hate support network at PSU and is a mentor to new students in the FastStart program.

Lumley-Sapanski has been involved in many youth activities, including Boy Scouts, 4-H and youth church and sports programs. He has hosted the Folk Show on WPSU Public Radio for 25 years, and he and his wife Kate raise sheep and chickens on their small farm.

Thomas J. Gentzel (member of NSBA Board of Directors)
Execuitve Director

Tom Gentzel is executive director of the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, which represents and serves more than 5,000 school directors, administrators and other officials from school entities throughout the state.  Mr. Gentzel previously served as a county administrator and, later, as assistant executive director of the state association of county commissioners.  He joined the PSBA staff in 1980 as a lobbyist and, five years later, was promoted to head the organization’s Office of Governmental and Member Relations – a position he held for more than 16 years.  He became PSBA executive director in 2001 and leads a staff of more than 150 persons who provide a range of publications, conferences and seminars, as well as insurance programs, management and legal assistance, and advocacy services for local school officials.

In his official capacity, Mr. Gentzel is a member of the boards of the Pennsylvania Public School Employees Retirement System (PSERS), the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) and the Pennsylvania School District Liquid Asset Fund (PSDLAF).  He chairs the Board of Directors of School Boards Insurance Company of Pennsylvania (SBIC of PA) and is a board member of the PSBA Insurance Trust, School Claims Service, and EasyProcure, a procurement card joint venture.

In addition, Mr. Gentzel has served as Vice President at Large for the National School Public Relations Association and as a member of the Outreach Advisory Board for The Pennsylvania State University. He was appointed by Gov. Tom Ridge and reappointed twice by Gov. Edward Rendell to the State Advisory Panel on Special Education. In 2009, was named by the governor to the Pennsylvania Early Learning Council. He previously chaired the Pennsylvania Coalition for Public Education and is a founder and former coordinator of the Alliance for a School Aid Partnership, He is a member of Pi Alpha Alpha, the National Honorary Society for Public Affairs and Administration.

Mr. Gentzel has served on numerous program review teams for state school boards associations. He was elected by fellow state executive directors as chair of the State Association Member Executive Directors’ NSBA Liaison Committee for 2010-11, a position that also places him on the Board of Directors of the National School Boards Association. In the summer of 2010, Mr. Gentzel was unanimously elected by his fellow executive directors, to serve an additional term as chair to guide the groups transition to the Organization of State Association Executive Directors (OSEAD), a council of NSBA.  This has placed on him on the NSBA Board of Directors for an additional one-year term.

Mr. Gentzel holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Community Development and a Master of Public Administration degree, both from Penn State.  He and his wife, Sherrin, have been married since July 1974, and are the parents of three sons and proud grandparents of Rhett and Hudson Gentzel.