Maryland State Board of Education

James H. DeGraffenreidt, Jr., (President) is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of WGL Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Washington Gas. He also serves as Chairman and CEO of Washington Gas, the natural gas utility serving over 1,000,000 customers in the Washington metropolitan area and surrounding region.

Mr. DeGraffenreidt has been committed to industry leadership as well as community service throughout his career. He serves on the boards of the Harbor Bankshares Corporation, Federal City Council, Maryland Science Center, The Walters Art Museum, the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, the DC College Success Foundation, is the immediate past Co-Chair of the Alliance to Save Energy, and is the immediate past Chairman of the American Gas Association.

Mr. DeGraffenreidt received the degrees of Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration from Columbia University in 1978 and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale College in 1974. He is married with four children and resides in Baltimore City.

Lelia Thompson Allen is presently a Psychology Professor at the College of Southern Maryland. Dr. Allen has extensive professorial, multi-disciplinary educational administration, consulting, and motivational speaking experiences on a national level from Head Start, public school and higher education. Her educational administrative experiences have also encompassed non-traditional alternative schools for youth, and adult education programs including Opportunities Industrialization Center, Inc., Job Corps, Urban Talent Development and State Corrections Institution of Pittsburgh. Her commission and board experiences have been national, state, and local, including the Charles County Rural Commission, the National Commission for African-American Education, C.A.S.E./Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year judge, Co-Chair of the National School Funding Support Program, and the KDKA Television Advisory Committee. Dr. Allen received her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.

Richard L. Goodall is a resident of Kent County. He graduated from VMI and served in the US Army. In 1970 he joined Dixon (a manufacturing and distribution company) and became President of Dixon in 1990. Presently he is CEO of DVCC, the parent company to Dixon. Married with two children, he currently serves on the Character Counts MidShore Board, co-chairs the Kent County Chamber of Commerce Education Committee, and is a Character Counts Coach for Garnett Elementary School. In the past he has served on the Board of Directors for the Kent County Chamber of Commerce, American Cancer Society of Kent County as President of Board, American Red Cross - County Chapter, Chestertown Volunteer Fire Company; Kent County Educational Partnership, Upper Shore Manufacturing Business Council as President, and the Washington College President's Advisory Board. He was also a youth basketball coach, high school swim team coach, and high school Sunday school teacher.

Rosa M. García currently serves as Executive Director of Legislative Affairs for the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).  In this role, she advocates at the federal level on behalf of 260 Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and more than 450 HACU member institutions on higher education policy issues affecting HSIs and Latino student achievement. Prior to this, Ms. Garcia was a Senior Legislative Aide to Montgomery County Councilmember Tom Perez for whom she covered immigration, health care, adult education, early childhood education and civil rights issues. Ms. García has taught youth and adults in numerous educational settings and worked with the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and various non-profit organizations. She also served as an Assistant Dean of Admissions at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

Ms. García earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She holds a Master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University where she was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon Fellows in Teaching scholarship in urban education reform. Ms. García also received a Master’s in Public Administration from Baruch College, City University of New York through the National Urban Fellows Program. She is an alumna of A Better Chance, Inc., a nationally recognized organization that identifies and develops young scholars of color and places them in outstanding secondary schools across the country.  Ms. García is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Dr. Charlene M. Dukes is the incoming president of Prince George's Community College and has twenty-six years of progressive leadership experience and administrative responsibility in higher education. From 2002 through 2006, she served on the Prince George's County Board of Education and chaired the Student Support, Student Appeals, and Personnel Committees. In addition she holds membership in a variety of professional organizations, including the National Council on Student Development, an affiliate of the American Association of Community Colleges; the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators; the Council of Law in Higher Education; and the Maryland Network, an affiliate of the Office of Women in Higher Education/American Council on Education.

She has participated in the Executive Leadership Institute sponsored by the League for Innovation, Women in Leadership sponsored by the Office of Women in Higher Education/American Council on Education, and the National Leadership Seminar sponsored the Association of Community College Trustees.

Dr. Dukes has a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education with an English concentration from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Master's and Doctorate in Administrative and Policy Studies from the University of Pittsburgh.

Kate Walsh has served as the president of the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) since 2002. Her commitment to addressing educational inequities and the nation’s achievement gap has defined her career, including a long tenure as a senior program officer at The Abell Foundation, as well as with the Baltimore City Public Schools. Her work has tackled a broad spectrum of children’s educational needs—from founding the successful Ingenuity Project for preparing gifted Baltimore City students in mathematics and science to a unique boarding school located in Kenya, East Africa, which served at-risk boys who had been attending Baltimore middle schools. Ms. Walsh also started the first alternative certification program for teachers in Maryland, a project which led to her strong interest in teacher quality. She has authored a number of papers on the subject of teacher quality, focusing on the policy improvements needed in states, schools of education and by teacher unions.

Ms. Walsh lives in Baltimore County and is the parent of four children.

Ivan C.A. Walks, M.D.
Potomac
(Term Ends - 2012)

Bio and photo coming soon

Mr. Wu is committed to representing Maryland students with a servant’s heart, and to always acting in their best interests.

Nancy S. Grasmick was appointed Maryland State Superintendent of Schools in September 1991, the culmination of a 30-year career in education as a teacher, principal, associate superintendent and public administrator. She is the first woman to be Maryland State Superintendent. Under Dr. Grasmick's leadership, Maryland has set a new course in school reform, early childhood programs, academic intervention, service learning, and teacher education. One of Dr. Grasmick's greatest accomplishments has been the implementation of a comprehensive school reform effort that includes state performance standards, performance assessments, and accountability for all schools. Dr. Grasmick holds degrees from Towson, Gallaudet, and Johns Hopkins universities. She is a board member and participant in many organizations and has earned numerous awards for her visionary and consistent leadership. In 2000, she received the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education. She has also received awards from a host of civic, business, and professional organizations, including The Baltimore Sun's Marylander of the Year and the American Academy of Pediatrics Child Advocacy Award. She was inducted into The Daily Record's Circle of Excellence, an honor bestowed only on those named to the newspaper's Top 100 Women list more than three times. Her expertise in the areas of teacher education and teacher quality is often tapped, especially as a member of the Association of American Colleges and Universities Greater Expectations National Panel and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

The Maryland State Department of Education does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, disability, or sexual orientation in matters affecting employment or in providing access to programs.