Art McCoy has adopted a motto to enlighten, empower and engage. From the time he was 16 years old, he was educating educators in peer mediation and at 19, became the youngest certified teacher in Missouri. By 23, he served as a principal and a secondary superintendent by 33. McCoy became the youngest Missouri superintendent at Ferguson-Florissant School Districts and the first African American CEO.
“He has helped thousands of high potential low-income students achieve post-secondary programs at the California Institute of Technology, USC, University of California-Irvine and MIT Fab Labs,” said his staff. As the superintendent of the Jennings School District, under his leadership, multiple graduating classes achieved 100 percent graduation, career and college placement.
While bringing growth and empowerment to the education system, McCoy has been an integral part of the growth of SAGES.
The mission of SAGES is to sever attainment gaps existing in society and sever achievement gaps in the education of students. The organization empowers, enlightens and engages individuals and organizations through creative initiatives and consulting, such as workforce development, DEI and courageous conversations, mental health and wellness, business consulting, education consulting, leadership coaching, health advocacy, professional development, training, workshops, speaking, strategic planning, publications and beyond.
“McCoy has created homeless shelters, grocery food hubs, school-based health clinics for medical, dental, vision and mental health care for all students and the first Child-Parent Interaction Therapy in Missouri schools,” said his colleagues. “As president of SAGES, he has advised, consulted and keynoted for organizations and has raised over $20 million and inspired innovative and creative initiatives in education, workforce development, mental health and leadership worldwide.”
During his career, McCoy has supported over one million students, 2,500 schools and colleges and served on more than 50 boards.
“The highest leadership demands taking the road less traveled and pressing toward the mark of the highest callings and most ethical actions,” said McCoy. “Eventually, you grow to enjoy taking the most arduous paths with ease, knowing it was always the best – if not for the sake of doing things the right way, then certainly for the sake of helping others while working out aspects of your best self.”
Noting his superpower as strategic action with an extra dose of tenacious discipline, McCoy said that he strives to deploy individuals’ greatest strengths – personally and corporately – while employing and imploring various aspects of detachment to increase good outcomes by orders of magnitude.
For his unending commitment to fostering the growth of leaders and education, McCoy has been named a Titan 100.
