Meet our team

Gary Lane has been a part of Accel schools since 2015, where he has been a school principal, along with being a Regional Director of Academics. His educational career spans more than 24 years, including eight years as a classroom teacher and the past sixteen years as an administrator. He spent five years as the founding principal of STEAM Academy of Warrensville Heights. Before opening Sheffield Academy, Mr. Lane served as the interim principal at Bridges Academy in Tiffin, Ohio, where he successfully led the school off the closure list by boosting academic scores by 15 points during his tenure. Mr. Lane began his athletic career at the age of 5 and went on to excel in three sports throughout high school. At Mentor High School, he became the first freshman in school history to play varsity football, serving as the team’s quarterback. That same year, he also made history as the first freshman to play varsity baseball, holding the starting third base position for four years. During his time on the baseball team, he set the single-season hitting record with a 500-batting average—a record that still stands today. In addition to football and baseball, Mr. Lane was a standout basketball player, earning recognition as a distinguished three-sport athlete and ultimately being inducted into the Mentor High School Hall of Fame. Mr. Lane played college baseball at Southwestern College in San Diego, California, and later at the University of Northern Iowa, where he earned his degree. In 2000, he competed for the Mankato Mashers in Minnesota (now the Mankato Moondogs) in the Northwoods Collegiate League, leading the league in home runs—a record that still stands today. The following year, he played for the El Dorado Broncos in the Jayhawk Collegiate League, where he finished as the league’s leading hitter in 2001. For the past six summers, Mr. Lane has coached travel baseball for Force Ohio, working with athletes ages 14 to 18. His teams compete in tournaments across the state and throughout the country, achieving an impressive overall record of 268–71 and earning 14 tournament championships. Mr. Lane believes that maintaining high expectations in both academics and athletics helps create meaningful opportunities for students to grow into exceptional members of the community. Go A’s!

Dr. Chad Carr is the creator of the Blitz™ Academic Model and Sheffield Academy’s Executive Vice President. Dr. Carr joined ACCEL Schools in 2015 with over 30 years of experience as a K-12 educator, coach, principal, and superintendent of schools in Ohio and Kentucky. Prior to joining ACCEL Schools, Dr. Carr served as Executive Vice President of Mosaica Education, where he turned around failing charter schools in Ohio. His turnaround achievements include Columbus Preparatory Academy, which became the top-performing school in the state of Ohio, under his principalship from 2011 to 2018. In addition to top academic ratings from the Ohio Department of Education, Dr. Carr and Columbus Preparatory Academy received numerous awards such as National Blue Ribbon School, National Title 1 School of the Year, School Leader of the Year, and School of the Year multiple years in a row from the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and Academic Hall of Fame. Dr. Carr holds a Ph.D. in Education from Morehead State University and three Master’s degrees in Education, Curriculum & Instruction, and Administration from the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University.