For 50 years, Leadership Nashville has brought together people from across the city to learn from one another, build relationships, and imagine what is possible when community leaders work together. At the heart of that legacy is Dr. Brent Poulton, who helped design the original Leadership Nashville program in 1976. 

Five decades later, Brent’s vision continues to shape Nashville. According to AgeWell Middle Tennessee, Brent has personally opened and closed every Leadership Nashville class retreat for 50 years, touching the lives of more than 2,000 community leaders along the way. 

But Brent’s impact on Nashville extends well beyond Leadership Nashville. 

He was also instrumental in founding PENCIL, along with Sue Spickard and an education committee of the League of Women Voters and served as the organization’s first Executive Director. From its earliest days, PENCIL was built on a simple but transformative idea: public education needs community involvement and leadership. Brent helped create a model for connecting the resources, relationships, and leadership of the Nashville community with Metro Nashville Public Schools—an idea that has continued to grow for more than four decades. 

That same spirit of connection remains at the heart of PENCIL today. What began with a handful of community and business leaders has grown into an organization that connects Nashville businesses, nonprofits, and community members with public schools to support students and educators across the city. 

When Brent was honored this month with an AgeWell Middle Tennessee Sage Award, it felt especially meaningful for the PENCIL team to be there. 

PENCIL CEO Christiane Buggs, along with members of the PENCIL staff, attended the Sage Awards luncheon on October 1 to celebrate Brent and his remarkable legacy of leadership, service, and community-building. The Sage Awards recognize older adults whose lifelong dedication has made a lasting impact across Middle Tennessee, and Brent’s five decades of developing leaders and strengthening Nashville made him a fitting honoree. 

For PENCIL, celebrating Brent is also an opportunity to celebrate the power of an idea that has endured: Nashville is stronger when we invest in one another. 

Brent helped envision a city where leaders learn together, where relationships cross professional and institutional boundaries, and where the broader community takes responsibility for the success of its public schools. Fifty years of Leadership Nashville and more than four decades of PENCIL are powerful evidence of what can happen when that vision becomes a shared commitment. 

We are grateful for Brent’s leadership, his vision, and the many ways his work continues to shape Nashville. And we are proud to carry that work forward, connecting the community to public education and building the relationships that help Nashville’s students, educators, and communities thrive.