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In the Footsteps of Leaders Gettysburg Leadership Program Staff

In the Footsteps of Leaders Staff

Get to know the staff of In the Footsteps of Leaders, the Gettysburg Foundation's exclusive leadership program.

Sue Boardman, Leadership Program Manager and Guide

Sue is a native of Danville, Pa. She graduated with honors from Geisinger Medical Center School of Nursing and Pennsylvania State University. Sue worked as an emergency department nurse for 23 years. In 2000, she became a Licensed Battlefield Guide and received the Superintendent's Award for Excellence in Guiding in 2005 and 2006. In 2002, Sue joined the Gettysburg Foundation's Museum Design Team during the project to build the new museum and visitor center complex. Her responsibilities included identifying images for museum exhibits, identifying artifacts in partnering repositories and assisted in refining the museum script. Beginning in 2004, she served as historical consultant for the Gettysburg Foundation.

From 2005 to 2008, she served as research historian for the Gettysburg Cyclorama conservation project. She authored the book The Battle of Gettysburg Cyclorama: A History and Guide. Sue has published several articles on the history of the American Civil War cycloramas.

In 2007, Sue developed the Gettysburg Foundation's leadership program In the Footsteps of Leaders. She currently serves as Leadership Program Manager, and has led leadership tours for corporate, nonprofit and educational groups.

Heidi Myers, Leadership Program Logistics Manager

Heidi Myers serves as Leadership Program Logistics Manager for the Gettysburg Foundation. She graduated from Gettysburg College in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in history and a minor in Civil War studies. While at college, she was employed by the Civil War Institute and was the research assistant for Dr. Gabor Boritt, the conference coordinator for the annual "Lincoln" Gilder Lehrman Institute teacher's seminar and student assistant working on a number of the Civil War Institute's events, including the Dedication Day ceremony, Fortenbaugh Lecture, Lincoln Prize and other educational events.

In 2005, Heidi became the Development Assistant for the Gettysburg Foundation and began her current position in 2009. As Leadership Program Logistics Manager, she manages all of the logistics for In the Footsteps of Leaders. She is a student of the mid-19th century era and has served as civilian coordinator and educational programs coordinator at Civil War-era re-enactments, living histories and children's educational camps.

Facilitators

Michael Brewer

Michael Brewer is co-founder of OncoTx LLC, a start-up company for the development of a drug for prevention and treatment of localized prostate and breast cancer, for the treatment of bladder, brain and eye cancer and for the treatment of proliferative diseases of the eye. He has previously held officer or management positions at Dun & Bradstreet Corp., Cummins Engine Co. and Harvard University.

A graduate of Williams College and Harvard Law School, he is a member of the Massachusetts Bar and the District of Columbia Bar. Mr. Brewer has been a member of the Board of Directors of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., since 1994, where he has served as chairman, president and chairman of the National Trustees. Mr. Brewer served on the Board of the Joyce Foundation in Chicago from 2002 to 2010, and also as a member of the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee and of the Human Gene Therapy Subcommittee at the National Institutes of Health. He resides in Washington, D.C.

Ted McPherson

Nationally known for achieving valuable results, Ted McPherson serves as a leader and strategic advisor to Fortune 100 companies, Forbes 400 entrepreneurs and major investors. He is Chief Executive Officer of InterSolve group, which he founded in 1991.

From 2001 to 2005, Mr. McPherson was appointed twice by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate for two national assignments in Washington, D.C., serving as the Under Secretary of Education of the United States Department of Education and Chief Financial Officer of the United States Department of Agriculture.

Mr. McPherson is a graduate of Williams College, has a masters degree from George Washington University and completed an executive program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration. He is an advocate for excellence in academics and amateur athletics, playing in Williams College alumni basketball games for the past 12 years. His wife Sally is a consultant to the Gettysburg Foundation. The couple have two children, Beth, who teaches in Denver. Colo., and Edward, who is pursuing writing in Minneapolis, Minn.

Turner Smith

Turner Smith graduated from Williams College with a degree in history and received an MBA from the University of Virginia. His business career, covering a span of 30 years, was spent in finance with Alex Brown and later with the Bank of America, from which he retired five years ago. He has had a lifelong interest in the Civil War, particularly Gettysburg, and currently teaches various aspects of the Battle of Gettysburg in the Adult Education Program at Washington College in Chestertown, Md.

Battlefield Leadership Tour Guides

Paul Marhevka

Lincensed Battlefield Guide Paul Marhevka holds a bachelor's degree in business administration and is an accomplished entrepreneur. From the time he graduated in 1982 until 2008, he worked for his family business, having been CEO of the last seven years of operation. The business was a woodworking manufacturing plant with over 40 employees that generated $4 million in sales annually at the time of sale. His duties included running human resources, accounting, inventory, customer service and pricing.

Overlapping with his tenure as CEO of the woodworking plant, Mr. Marhevka also owned and operated a fleet of trucks. Having earned his license in 2001, he sold both businesses in 2008 to work full time as  a Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg. He has been happily married for the last 37 years and has a 32-year-old daughter.

Ed Suplee

Ed Suplee graduated from Washington & Lee University in 1970 and spent two years in the army as a lieutenant in charge of a tank platoon. He retired in Chicago from the MetLife Insurance Company as a Vice President in charge of service and sales of employee benefit programs to Fortune 200 corporations where he was responsible for a division with $2 Billion of revenue and over 700 employees. At MetLife he was also an instructor for a number of MetLife’s internal officer and director management programs. Upon retirement he moved to Gettysburg to fulfill his lifelong goal of becoming a Licensed Battlefield Guide which he attained in 2004. He is also currently an instructor for Elderhostel (now Road Scholar), the Harrisburg Area Community College, and has been an instructor with the Civil War Institute of Gettysburg College.

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