The Mary Parker Follett Foundation, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization organized for educational, scientific, and charitable purposes. Our mission is to advance the understanding and practice of democracy as a creative experience. The Foundation also supports and promotes the literary and intellectual legacy of Mary Parker Follett. The Foundation was established in 2025.

Board of Directors

Matthew Shapiro – A former public school educator and an executive in renewable energy development, Matthew has been working to build capacity in participatory democracy and participatory design of social systems for three decades through various local initiatives and non-profit organizations. Matthew has been an advocate for Follett’s insights and approaches for nearly as long, and in 1998, he was instrumental in seeing The New State reissued by Penn State Press. In 2009, he founded the web-based Mary Parker Follett Network to help bring together fans of Follett and to help make Follett’s works more widely available.

Lark Corbeil – Lark is a journalist, founder of Media in the Public Interest, and founder and publisher emeritus of the Public News Service. Her career in news and communication spans more than three decades.

Margaret Major – Margaret Major is a legal editor and analyst and was drawn to Mary Parker Follett after learning that many of the tenets applied in modern quality management and policy were rooted in Follett’s early theories. Following graduate work at the University of Michigan, Margaret was employed by the university medical center in patient unit management and quality improvement before moving to the Middle East to support a medical clinic. Margaret grew up in a very progressive and diverse academic community, lived for a decade under totalitarian rule, and has spent the last twenty years in the US intermountain west region, where she raised her two children, both successful young adults.

Suzanne Stigler Martin, Ph.D., M.Div. – As owner and principal of transform, Dr. Martin lives out her why — to awaken people to their purpose and strengths so that together, we can transform our world. Her expertise includes strategy formation, strengthening organizational culture and communication, integrating conflict, and coaching. Martin’s broad base of experience includes many sectors – nonprofits, schools, businesses, municipalities, law firms, and congregations. Her dissertation, “Toward a Theory of Invisible Leadership” was recognized by the Jepson School of Leadership Studies and the International Leadership Association (ILA) as finalist for the Frederic M. Jablin Dissertation Award. This work was the first (and only) qualitative, content-analysis of all available writings of Mary Parker Follett. Martin is a board member of, and volunteer state mobilizer for, Bread for the World, a U.S. faith-based advocacy group seeking to end domestic and international hunger and extreme poverty. She also serves on the Policy Advisory Committee for the Alabama Sustainable Agricultural Network (ASAN).

Advisory Board

Advisory board membership will be updated in the near future.