About breadspeaks.com

Carnelius D. Gilder, Ed.D, is an educator, transformational leader, and an access advocate who serves as the Superintendent of Schools for West Sabine Independent School District, a thriving rural district deep in the heart of the Piney Woods of East Texas. He has led WSISD as superintendent since December 2020.

Dr. Gilder is best known as a voice and a visionary.  Through his tenure as superintendent, Carnelius has strived for equity within the district and across the state.  He led the repurpose of the mission and vision of the district with excellence and community development in mind and has tackled many of the challenges that plague small, rural communities and school districts and their constituents.  This push for equity has led to grassroots work locally and nationally through speaking engagements, leadership panels, roundtable discussions, media, and philanthropic work with several organizations and community development financial institutions.  The vision is multi-agency, multifaceted, and aimed at rebuilding a community and a foundation for future generations. 

He is regionally dubbed “Mr. Pineland” by KTRE News because of the many duties, responsibilities, and organizations that Dr. Gilder volunteers for or leads.  In a short timespan of leadership, he had to navigate through some of the roughest times of Sabine County’s history from budget downfalls, building deficiencies, transportation woes, leadership stability, and , most importantly, a global pandemic.

Dr. Gilder graduated from Sam Houston State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communication and minor in English in 2006, a Master of Education in Instructional Leadership in 2012, and a Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership in 2021.  While in graduate school, Dr. Gilder was chosen to represent SHSU as a Barbara L. Jackson Scholar with the University Council of Educational Administrators (UCEA). 

Dr. Gilder currently serves in several civic capacities and on several boards including Pineland Housing Authority, Chairman of Pineland Early Learning Center, Advisory Board for BOM Bank, Sabine County Shared Service Arrangement,  the Sabine County Food Pantry, Immediate Past President and Funds Allocation Chair for the Pineland Service Club, East Texas Early Literacy Alliance, Sabine County Economic Development Committee, and Pineland Community Outreach & Development Services, and more.

In education, Gilder is a member of the Texas Alliance of Black School Educators (TABSE), the 2022-23 cohort of the Southern Methodist University District Leadership Fellows Program, Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA)’s Future-Ready Superintendents Leadership Network (FRSLN), and the Inaugural Design Team of the Small Schools Network.  He serves as the Region 7 Director for the Texas Association of Rural Schools (TARS), on the Region 7 ESC Executive Committee, most recently named to the TASA Executive Committee

Dr. Gilder currently lives in Pineland, Texas, with his wife Kristina; daughters, Kaleigh and Christiane Love; and son Corey.

Most importantly, he has been proud to have contributed to the building of an ecosystem in Pineland of Human Services, Health, Education, Food Insecurity, and Community Development to provide access for our rural community.  Our work has gained the attention of the state and the nation where he has been able to tell the story of revitalization to the Texas Association of School Administrators, on national levels, podcasts, philanthropic organizations, community development financial institutions, and to the world that rural place based partnerships are the lifeblood of our country.

We have engaged leveraging local dollars to engage federal dollars down into our communities.  As a result, we have partnerships in Kentucky, Arizona, New York, Washington D.C., all over Texas and many remote rural areas across the country.  Our developing model has fueled the Revitalize Pineland Movement (RPM) that has taken a destitute and dying model and has kicked off strategic plans with our Early Learning Center, a Community Development Center, a more enlarged food pantry, a Commercial Truck Driving Academy, a new Gymnastics Center, a new Countywide public funded clinic, a brand new leadership roundtable for our community in instituting West Sabine as a place based RuralPlex of Texas.