Gil Perkins, doing business as Sage Salvo, is the artist, scholar, and social entrepreneur founder of Words Liive, LLC. Sage is a 2018 AT&T Aspire Accelerator Entrepreneur, 2018 LeanLab Fellow, 2017 Clinton Global Initiative – Social Entrepreneur, 4.0 Schools Fellow, Camelback Ventures Fellow and a 2017 graduate of the Harvard Kennedy School where he earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration (MPA). In 2017, Sage was selected into the US Delegation of Entrepreneurs to represent the US at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Hyderabad, India.

Armed with a patented algorithm to turn song lyrics into literacy tools, Mr. Salvo has been building the education start-up Words Liive since 2014. Words Liive is a 21st century education technology organization dedicated to eradicating illiteracy across the world and particularly in marginalized urban and rural districts. The Words Liive program has been integrated in some form, in over 20 school districts.
Currently in beta, the Words Liive app is a new Platform as a Service (PaaS) technology that allows for the instantaneous on-demand and real-time development, discovery, and sharing of K – 12 literacy-based lesson plans that integrate popular music song lyrics to augment reading and writing instruction.
Words Liive was named among the Top 3 EdTech start-ups at the 2016 South by Southwest Education Conference (SXSWedu) and Sage has also presented at the TEDx MidAtlantic Conference in Washington, D.C., the DC Education Festival, and was a Keynote speaker at the 2016 IB (International Baccalaureate) Americas Conference.

 Sage has also authored opinion pieces including an Op-Ed in the Washington Post and has been featured in FORBES, NPR, The Washington Post, and The Washington Examiner among others. Words Liive also has significant appearances on WUSA 9 (Local DC television), National Urban Radio, Tech Cocktail Conversations and D.C.’s WHUR 96.3 radio.

Academically, Mr. Salvo has taught as a professor at Howard University, Georgetown University, and Montgomery College. He is also a 2011 MBA graduate from the University of Toronto.