35 Essential Florida Public Education Thought Leaders

Introduction

Florida educates more than 2.9 million public school students across 67 county districts and a charter sector that has grown faster than almost any other state's. That makes Florida the third largest public education system in the United States, and arguably the most closely watched. What gets decided in Tallahassee, what gets researched in Gainesville and Tallahassee, and what gets practised in the hallways of Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Orange, and Palm Beach has a habit of becoming national policy a few years later. The people on this list are the reason that matters.

There is a tempting story about Florida public education that says the only voices worth listening to are the ones shouting on cable news. That story is wrong. The people who actually move Florida education forward are quieter. They are sitting in superintendent offices reading literacy data at six in the morning. They are running reading clinics inside the Florida Center for Reading Research. They are leading the Florida Education Association through one of the most contested decades in the state's history. They are running dual language charter schools in Sarasota, college access networks in Tampa, and policy shops in Tallahassee that quietly shape what the Legislature actually passes. None of them fit neatly into a single ideological camp, which is part of why this list deliberately holds space for all of them.

There are roughly 2.9 million students in Florida public schools, 67 district superintendents, and over 200,000 teachers. Reading proficiency, civics knowledge, college and career readiness, and teacher retention are all measured in real time. The leaders below show up in those measurements in concrete ways, which is the only standard that finally counts.

I am Jonno White, a Certified Working Genius Facilitator and bestselling author who works with school systems and education nonprofits across the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Canada, India, and New Zealand. I put this list together because Florida education conversations are often louder than they are useful, and a careful inventory of who is actually shaping practice, research, and policy in the state is a better starting point than another op-ed. To engage me for a keynote, workshop, or facilitation session inside your district or education organisation, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Why Florida Public Education Matters Right Now

Florida is the third largest public school system in the country, and decisions made inside its districts ripple outward at a national scale. When Florida adopted the Best Standards in Mathematics in 2020, eleven other states followed within five years. When Florida wrote its current civics framework, conservative state policy shops across the Midwest borrowed liberally from it. When Florida's reading scores moved on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, every other state superintendent watched. The leaders shaping Florida education are not running a regional system. They are running a policy laboratory.

The stakes inside Florida are even higher than the national mirror suggests. The state added more than 350,000 new public school students between 2015 and 2025, even as critics predicted enrolment cliffs. Florida's English learner population is among the largest in the country, with more than 270,000 students in formal language services. Reading proficiency at fourth grade and eighth grade has moved in both directions over the past decade, with significant gains in early literacy under science of reading approaches sitting alongside persistent gaps for low income and minority students. Teacher shortages in mathematics, special education, and exceptional student education remain the single biggest operational problem inside almost every Florida district.

Florida also occupies an unusual political position. School board elections are contested in ways they have not been since the 1970s. Charter and choice enrolment has grown to one of the largest shares in the country. The Florida Education Association represents more than 150,000 members and is one of the most active state teacher unions in the United States. These pressures sit on top of the basic job, which is teaching twenty-eight kids to read, write, calculate, reason, and care about something larger than themselves. The people below are doing that work, or shaping how it gets done, in ways that the rest of the country is watching closely.

How This List Was Compiled

This list reflects months of cross-referencing publication records, peer recognition, leadership positions, and recent contribution to public conversation. I started with everyone holding a major district superintendency, a relevant deanship at one of Florida's research universities, a state-level association presidency, or a recognised national platform tied to Florida education. From there I added researchers whose published work is shaping policy, principals and teachers whose recognition reflects genuine craft rather than political tailwinds, and advocacy leaders who have built or stewarded organisations of real substance.

I deliberately moved past the household names you have already heard a thousand times to surface fresher voices, including dual language charter founders, college access network executives, and FSU and USF education researchers whose work shows up in real district planning. The result is a mix that is geographically diverse across South Florida, the Tampa Bay region, Central Florida, the Panhandle, and Southwest Florida. The people on the list disagree with each other in important ways, which is the point. A serious read of Florida public education has to hold those disagreements honestly rather than pretending one side has it all figured out.

District Leaders Driving Daily Practice

The most consequential thinking in any state education system happens at the district level, where strategy meets schedule, budget, and bus route. Florida's 67 superintendents lead organisations that range from rural districts with three thousand students to Miami-Dade, the fourth largest district in the country. The nine leaders in this category include the 2025 Florida Superintendent of the Year, the heads of every district with more than 175,000 students, and the rural and mid sized superintendents whose work is shaping a quieter conversation about what good district leadership looks like outside the political headlines.

1. David K. Moore, Indian River County School District

David K. Moore is the superintendent of the School District of Indian River County, a coastal district of roughly 17,500 students, and the 2025 Florida Superintendent of the Year. His district has been one of the most improved in Florida over the past three years on state accountability measures, a fact local leaders attribute to Moore's relentless focus on early literacy, principal coaching, and instructional consistency across schools. He came up through the district as a teacher, principal, and chief academic officer, and his promotion happened entirely from inside.

Moore's signature contribution is Indian River's structured literacy implementation, a system wide rollout of science of reading aligned curriculum, coaching, and progress monitoring that pulled the district from underperforming to one of the state's most improved. He is widely cited inside Florida by other superintendents looking for a workable model of how to actually deliver structured literacy across every elementary classroom rather than just adopting the language on paper. His leadership team's playbook is now studied across smaller Florida districts trying to make the same shift.

2. Maria F. Vazquez, Orange County Public Schools

Maria F. Vazquez is the superintendent of Orange County Public Schools, the ninth largest school district in the United States, with more than 206,000 students across 202 schools. She is the first Hispanic leader to hold the role in OCPS history. Before becoming superintendent, she served as chief of teaching and learning and as deputy superintendent, and she remains one of the most respected operational leaders inside the Florida Association of District School Superintendents.

Vazquez is a member of Chiefs for Change, the national network of state and district leaders working on systemic improvement, and her selection for that membership reflects how OCPS has been able to combine scale with focused instructional improvement during her tenure. She has spoken publicly about the importance of grounding district strategy in classroom level instruction, principal autonomy with accountability, and rigorous use of formative data. Her leadership of Florida's third largest district makes her one of the most consequential education voices in the South East.

3. Kevin K. Hendrick, Pinellas County Schools

Kevin K. Hendrick is the superintendent of Pinellas County Schools, a district of roughly 95,000 students that includes some of Florida's most diverse and most economically polarised communities. He was appointed in 2022 and has steadily reshaped the district's communication, accountability, and instructional approach. He was named a Superintendent to Watch by the National School Public Relations Association in 2022 and went on to receive several state level recognitions over the following years.

Hendrick was named the 2025 Florida Art Education Association Superintendent of the Year and the 2026 Florida Music Education Association Superintendent of the Year, a remarkable pairing that reflects his consistent public support for fine arts education at a time when other states have been cutting it. He has positioned Pinellas as a district that takes the arts as seriously as the tested subjects, which has attracted both teacher migration into the district and national attention to his approach.

4. John Legg, Pasco County Schools

John Legg is the superintendent of Pasco County Schools, one of the fastest growing districts in Florida with around 87,000 students across the Tampa Bay region. He brings more than two decades of education and policy experience to the role, including time as a charter school co-founder and a former Florida state senator who chaired the Senate Education Committee. That hybrid background gives him an unusual ability to translate state policy into district practice, which is one reason fellow superintendents look to him on legislative interpretation.

Legg's contribution is the alignment of Pasco's growth strategy with workforce education, including expanded career and technical pathways, dual enrolment, and apprenticeship programs that put students into Florida's high growth sectors. He has been one of the more articulate Florida voices arguing that workforce alignment and rigorous academic preparation are not competing priorities but mutually reinforcing ones, and his model is being studied by other fast growing districts in the state.

5. Denise Carlin, School District of Lee County

Denise Carlin is the superintendent of the School District of Lee County, serving roughly 96,000 students across Fort Myers, Cape Coral, and Southwest Florida. She is a 32 year career educator inside the same district, having served as a teacher, principal, regional superintendent, and chief of staff before her appointment to the top role. That continuity is unusual at this scale and gives her unusually deep institutional credibility with both teachers and parents.

Carlin's signature contribution is leading Lee County's recovery and academic acceleration following Hurricane Ian, the 2022 storm that destroyed schools and displaced thousands of students. Under her leadership the district reopened damaged schools faster than expected, designed targeted academic recovery for affected students, and rebuilt facility resilience for future storms. Her recovery playbook is now informally circulated among Florida and Gulf Coast district leaders preparing for the kind of climate disruption that has become routine across the state.

6. Van Ayres, Hillsborough County Public Schools

Van Ayres is the superintendent of Hillsborough County Public Schools, the seventh largest school district in the United States with roughly 224,000 students across Tampa and the surrounding region. He was appointed permanently in 2024 after serving in an interim role, having previously been the district's chief of staff and a longtime central office leader. His appointment was widely seen inside the district as a vote for continuity, operational discipline, and steady academic improvement.

Ayres has focused his tenure on systematic implementation of Florida's reading standards and aggressive mental health expansion, recognising that academic performance in a district the size of Hillsborough only moves when both instruction and student wellbeing are addressed at the same time. He has expanded school based mental health staffing, sharpened the district's accountability cycle, and held principals to a tighter instructional vision. His district's progress is one of the most carefully watched in Florida.

7. Michael J. Burke, School District of Palm Beach County

Michael J. Burke is the superintendent of the School District of Palm Beach County, the tenth largest district in the United States with roughly 188,000 students. He has held the superintendency since 2021, having previously served as chief financial officer and chief operating officer of the same district. His finance background has shaped a leadership style focused on long term budget discipline, capital planning, and operational reliability at scale.

Burke's contribution is Palm Beach's long term capital and academic planning in a region facing both rising enrolment and serious climate risk, including coastal flooding and aging facilities. He has been one of the more thoughtful Florida superintendents on the question of how to align academic strategy with the operational realities of a district that is simultaneously growing, diversifying, and exposed to climate disruption. His public commentary on district level financial stewardship is regularly cited inside Florida and at the national level.

8. Jose L. Dotres, Miami-Dade County Public Schools

Jose L. Dotres is the superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the fourth largest school district in the United States, with roughly 326,000 students. He has spent his entire career inside or alongside Miami-Dade, including time as chief academic officer in Broward County and senior leadership in Collier County. His appointment in 2022 was widely supported by teachers, principals, and community leaders who valued his classroom roots.

Dotres has built his tenure around bilingual and dual language excellence in the country's most linguistically diverse large district, expanded career and technical education, and visible support for both magnet and neighbourhood schools. His district enrols students from more than 160 countries and operates one of the most extensive networks of dual language programs in any American district, and his public messaging consistently frames Miami-Dade's diversity as an asset rather than a problem to be managed.

9. Logan W. Brown, Sumter County Schools

Logan W. Brown is the superintendent of Sumter County Schools, a small Central Florida district that has consistently been one of the top performing in the state on accountability measures despite its rural and mixed demographic profile. He is one of the youngest district leaders in Florida and represents a generation of superintendents who came up entirely inside the state's accountability era and are now reshaping how their districts use data.

Brown's contribution is the demonstration that small Florida districts can outperform much larger ones when leadership is focused, instructional coaching is consistent, and community trust is preserved. He is widely respected by his peers in the Florida Association of District School Superintendents for the operational discipline and academic results he has achieved with comparatively limited resources, and his approach is studied by rural and small district leaders across the South East.

University Researchers Building the Evidence Base

Florida is home to one of the most active education research ecosystems in the country, anchored by the University of Florida, Florida State University, and the University of South Florida. The seven scholars and academic leaders below shape what Florida districts actually believe about reading, leadership, bilingual education, and policy design. Their work is regularly cited in federal grant programs, in state policy debates, and in the implementation guides that show up on superintendents' desks.

10. Nicole Patton Terry, Florida State University

Nicole Patton Terry is the Olive and Manuel Bordas Professor of Education in the School of Teacher Education at Florida State University and the director of the Florida Center for Reading Research. She is one of the most influential reading researchers in the United States, with a particular focus on the language and literacy development of African American children. In recent years she was elected to the National Academy of Education, a recognition reserved for scholars whose work has shaped the field.

Her contribution is the Florida Center for Reading Research's translation of reading science into classroom practice, including coaching frameworks, professional learning models, and dyslexia diagnostic work that have shaped policy and practice across the state. Patton Terry has been one of the most articulate voices in the national science of reading conversation about ensuring that the field's gains reach Black children, low income children, and English learners with equal rigour and equal urgency.

11. Maria Coady, University of Florida

Maria Coady is a professor of ESOL and bilingual education at the University of Florida and one of the most cited researchers in the country on rural English learners and dual language education. Her work has helped shape federal Title III implementation in Florida and has been instrumental in moving the field beyond a deficit framing of English learners toward an asset-based approach grounded in multilingualism as a long term educational and economic advantage.

Coady's book The Coral Way Bilingual Program, which documents the first publicly funded dual-language program in the United States, is widely used in teacher preparation programs and bilingual coordinator training, and her ongoing research with rural districts in Florida has provided one of the strongest evidence bases for the importance of teacher and family partnership in language education. She is regularly consulted by Florida districts designing dual language and ESOL programs, particularly in regions with growing immigrant populations outside the major metropolitan areas.

12. Charles Vanover, University of South Florida

Charles Vanover is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of South Florida and one of Florida's most respected qualitative researchers on teacher experience, school leadership, and instructional change. His work draws on classroom observation, ethnography, and teacher narratives to understand what actually happens inside Florida schools rather than what gets reported in state level data.

Vanover's contribution is his co-edited volume on qualitative research methods in education, which is now widely used in doctoral programs across the United States, and his ongoing applied work with Tampa Bay area districts on principal preparation, teacher development, and school improvement. He brings a careful, narrative driven research lens to a state that often defaults to quantitative accountability metrics, and his work is regularly cited by district leaders trying to understand the human side of system level change.

13. R. Anthony Rolle, University of South Florida

R. Anthony Rolle is a professor of educational leadership and policy studies at the University of South Florida and one of the country's most cited researchers on school finance, equity, and educational productivity. His work has shaped how states think about per pupil funding, weighted student formulas, and the relationship between resource allocation and student outcomes. He has served as president of the American Education Finance Association, a recognition of his standing in the field.

Rolle's contribution is his sustained research on education productivity and weighted student funding formulas, including work that has influenced state level policy conversations across the South East and beyond. His scholarship sits at the intersection of finance and instructional effectiveness, which makes it unusually useful to Florida district leaders and state policymakers who need to understand how funding decisions translate into classroom outcomes. He is one of the leading voices nationally on the economic side of public education.

14. Damon Andrew, Florida State University

Damon Andrew is the dean of the Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences at Florida State University, one of the largest education focused colleges in the country following a recent reorganisation. He has overseen the integration of FSU's education, health, and human sciences programs into a single college and has expanded the school's research portfolio in literacy, leadership, and human performance.

Andrew's contribution is his stewardship of one of the largest combined education and health science research portfolios in the country, including major federal grant work in literacy through the Florida Center for Reading Research and in school leadership through the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. He has been a thoughtful public voice for the role of research universities in actually solving classroom level problems, and his leadership at FSU has expanded the institution's reach into Florida districts and beyond.

15. Glenn E. Good, University of Florida

Glenn E. Good is the dean of the College of Education at the University of Florida, the state's land grant institution and home of the UF Literacy Institute, one of the most influential applied literacy research centres in the country. He has led the college through a period of significant growth in research grant funding, partnership development with Florida districts, and expansion of educator preparation programs.

Good's contribution is his oversight of the UF Literacy Institute, the Lastinger Center for Learning, and a doctoral program in educational leadership and policy that consistently places graduates into Florida superintendencies, central office roles, and faculty positions across the South East. He has been a steady, low-key voice for the role of a flagship public research university in solving practical problems for Florida public schools, and his leadership has positioned UF as one of the most consequential education colleges in the region.

16. James Shuls, Florida State University

James Shuls is the head of the K-12 education reform branch at the Florida State University Institute for Governance and Civics, having moved from the University of Missouri-Saint Louis in 2024. He is one of the country's most published academic voices on school choice, teacher policy, and education reform, with a research record that draws on economics, political science, and education policy.

Shuls's contribution is his recent work on school choice policy design, teacher labour market dynamics, and the political economy of education reform, including widely cited analyses of how state level reforms actually play out in district practice. His move to Florida placed him at the centre of one of the most active state level reform agendas in the country, and his published commentary and academic work are regularly cited by policymakers, district leaders, and journalists trying to understand what Florida's reforms are actually producing.

Policy and Advocacy Voices Shaping the System

The seven leaders in this category run the organisations that shape what gets funded, what gets contested, and what gets implemented across Florida public education. They include the head of the state's largest teacher union, the CEOs of the most influential reform and choice organisations, the leader of the state college system, and the workforce development chief whose budget reaches almost every Florida high school. Their work happens largely outside the classroom, but every Florida classroom feels the effect of it.

17. Andrew Spar, Florida Education Association

Andrew Spar is the president of the Florida Education Association, the state's largest teacher and school employee union with more than 150,000 members. He represents Florida classroom teachers, education support professionals, and faculty in some of the most contested state level policy debates in the country, including those over salary, classroom autonomy, school choice expansion, and curriculum.

Spar's contribution is his sustained leadership of the largest education labour organisation in the southeastern United States during one of the most politically intense decades for Florida public education in living memory. He has built one of the most effective state teacher union communications operations in the country, with consistent statewide advocacy on teacher pay, planning time, and working conditions. He is one of the most quoted Florida education leaders in national media coverage of the state's reform debates.

18. Patricia Levesque, ExcelinEd

Patricia Levesque is the chief executive officer of ExcelinEd, the national education reform organisation founded by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. ExcelinEd has been one of the most influential education policy organisations in the country for more than two decades, with a particular focus on early literacy, school choice, and accountability. Levesque has led the organisation through its evolution from a Florida focused operation into a network shaping policy in dozens of states.

Levesque's contribution is her stewardship of the most influential conservative education reform policy organisation in the country, including the design of the Florida A-F school accountability framework that has now been adopted in some form by more than fifteen other states. She has been one of the most articulate voices in the national debate over reading instruction, third grade retention, and parental choice, and her policy network is one of the largest of any state based reform organisation.

19. Doug Tuthill, Step Up For Students

Doug Tuthill is the chief vision officer of Step Up For Students, the Florida nonprofit that administers the largest private school choice scholarship programs in the United States. He served as president of the organisation from 2008 to 2024, during which time Step Up grew from administering roughly 9,000 scholarships to more than 400,000 in 2023-24. A former public school teacher and teacher union president, Tuthill is one of the more philosophically interesting voices in the Florida education debate.

Tuthill's contribution is the scaling of education choice infrastructure in Florida from a small voucher program into one of the largest state level customisation systems in the country, including the Family Empowerment Scholarship and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship. He has consistently argued that the philosophical foundations of school choice and public schooling are more compatible than the loudest voices on either side suggest, a position that has earned him both critics and allies across the political spectrum.

20. Adrienne Johnston, CareerSource Florida

Adrienne Johnston is the president and chief executive officer of CareerSource Florida, the state's workforce development agency with a board-led mandate to coordinate Florida's 24 local workforce development boards and 100 career centres. Her work sits at the intersection of K-12 education, postsecondary education, and Florida's labour market, including the state's nation-leading apprenticeship expansion.

Johnston's contribution is her leadership of Florida's workforce education infrastructure during the state's transition to the nation's top ranking for talent development, including coordination of more than 10 billion dollars in workforce investment, a 60 percent increase in registered apprenticeships since 2019, and record enrolment in career and technical education. Her work has been a major reason that the workforce side of Florida's education conversation has become one of the most coherent in the country.

21. Teresa M. Hodge, United Faculty of Florida

Teresa M. Hodge is the president of United Faculty of Florida, the statewide higher education union representing faculty across Florida's public universities and colleges. She is also a longtime mathematics professor at Broward College and was named the 2025 Higher Educator of the Year by the National Education Association, recognising her sustained advocacy for faculty rights, equity, and labour-based leadership.

Hodge's contribution is her sustained advocacy for Florida public higher education faculty during a period of significant state policy disruption, including the elimination of certain academic programs and the contested redefinition of diversity, equity, and inclusion work in state institutions. Her leadership of UFF and her two decade record as a faculty union leader in Broward make her one of the most consistent voices for the role of public higher education in Florida's K-16 pipeline.

22. Braulio Colón, Florida College Access Network

Braulio Colón is the executive director of the Florida College Access Network, the statewide initiative that coordinates postsecondary access and success efforts across Florida's school districts, state colleges, and universities. He has led the organisation through years of expansion and is one of the most influential voices in the state on college and career readiness, financial aid completion, and postsecondary persistence.

Colón's contribution is the Florida College Access Network's coordination of statewide postsecondary attainment work, including FAFSA completion campaigns, transfer pathway development between state colleges and universities, and partnership programs with high need districts. His leadership has helped move Florida's postsecondary attainment rate from the bottom half of states into the top tier, and his work is regularly cited in state policy conversations about the K-16 pipeline.

23. Kathryn Hebda, Florida College System

Kathryn Hebda is the chancellor of the Florida College System, overseeing the 28 institutions that provide most Floridians' access to higher education and serve more than 800,000 students. Her career has spanned classroom teaching, district leadership, and state policy work, and she has held the chancellorship during a period of significant change in the system's structure, mission, and political environment.

Hebda's contribution is her leadership of one of the largest community college systems in the country, including the integration of workforce credentials, baccalaureate programs at state colleges, and dual enrolment expansion with Florida districts. Her policy memos and public commentary on the role of state colleges in Florida's workforce strategy are widely circulated inside the state, and her career path is one of the more interesting in Florida education leadership.

Innovators and Practitioners Inside the Classroom

The six leaders in this category include award winning teachers and principals, charter founders building genuinely new models, foundation leaders funding the practitioner side of Florida education, and an emeritus higher education leader whose career still defines what an open access urban institution can do. Their work is closer to the classroom than the policy world above, which is part of why it matters so much.

24. Jaime Suarez, 2025 Florida Teacher of the Year

Jaime Suarez is the 2025 Florida Teacher of the Year and a high impact middle grades mathematics teacher at Challenger K-8 School of Science and Mathematics in Hernando County. She was named to the role in 2024 by then Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. and serves as the Christa McAuliffe Ambassador for Education, a role that takes her to schools across the state to elevate and showcase the teaching profession.

Suarez's contribution is her ongoing public advocacy for the teaching profession and her practitioner level commentary on what works in middle grades mathematics, including the importance of high expectations, structured intervention, and teacher autonomy in instructional design. As Christa McAuliffe Ambassador she is one of the most visible Florida classroom voices, and her work has helped translate state level teacher policy conversations into the practical reality of what happens in actual middle school maths classrooms.

25. Michael George, 2024 Florida Principal of the Year

Michael George is the principal of Atlantic Coast High School in Duval County, an urban high school of more than 2,500 students. He was named the 2024 Florida Principal of the Year by the Florida Department of Education in recognition of his leadership in academic improvement, school culture, and college and career readiness. He has been an educator for more than two decades, working his way up from classroom teaching to school leadership in the same district.

George's contribution is the Atlantic Coast High School improvement trajectory, including measurable gains in graduation rate, college enrolment, and Advanced Placement participation under his leadership. He has been a vocal advocate for the role of high school principals as instructional leaders rather than purely operational managers, and his approach to school culture and teacher development is studied by other large high school principals across Florida and the South East.

26. Maggie Fresen Zulueta, Academica

Maggie Fresen Zulueta is the co-founder and executive vice president of Academica, the educational services organisation that supports more than 200 charter schools across multiple states and serves roughly 200,000 students. Academica is one of the largest charter management and support networks in the country and includes some of Florida's most academically successful charter schools, particularly in the Miami-Dade region.

Fresen Zulueta's contribution is her sustained leadership of one of the largest charter school networks in the United States, including the Doral, Mater, and Pinecrest school families that have produced strong academic results for predominantly Hispanic student populations in South Florida. She is also active in the broader Coral Gables education community and chairs Amigos for Kids, a child welfare nonprofit, which gives her an unusual cross-sector lens on family stability, education, and child outcomes.

27. Geri Chaffee, Dreamers Academy

Geri Chaffee is the founder of Dreamers Academy, a dual-language Spanish immersion public charter school in Sarasota serving approximately 640 students. A former English learner herself, Chaffee built the school from concept to A rated public charter and has used the experience to become one of the most visible advocates in Florida for the academic case for genuine dual language education in a state with one of the largest Spanish speaking populations in the country.

Chaffee's contribution is Dreamers Academy itself, including its A rating, its predominantly Latino enrolment, and its demonstration that a public charter school can deliver bilingual instruction at high academic standards without compromising English language acquisition. Her model is now being studied by other Florida districts and charter networks looking to build serious dual language programs that go beyond the surface level Spanish exposure that characterises many existing offerings.

28. Jennifer Vigne, Education Foundation of Sarasota County

Jennifer Vigne is the president and chief executive officer of the Education Foundation of Sarasota County, one of the most active and influential local education foundations in Florida. She is also the host of Education Conversations, a podcast that brings teachers, students, community stakeholders, and policy leaders together to discuss what is actually working and not working in public education.

Vigne's contribution is her leadership of a local education foundation that has become a model for the rest of the state, including teacher grant programs, principal pipeline support, college and career readiness initiatives, and community education events. Her podcast has produced one of the most accessible and substantive bodies of long form Florida public education content available anywhere, and her foundation model is studied by foundation leaders across the Consortium of Florida Education Foundations.

29. Eduardo J. Padrón, Miami Dade College

Eduardo J. Padrón is president emeritus of Miami Dade College, the largest institution of higher education in the United States by enrolment of Hispanic and African American students. He served as MDC's president from 1995 until 2019 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 in recognition of his transformation of the college into a national model for urban access higher education. He remains one of the most quoted Florida education voices on access, equity, and the role of community colleges in the K-16 pipeline.

Padrón's contribution is his transformation of Miami Dade College into the country's most successful open access institution for minority students, including the establishment of baccalaureate programs, the expansion of partnerships with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and the cultivation of programs that have placed tens of thousands of first generation college students into the professional workforce. His ongoing public commentary on the role of open access higher education is one of the most respected voices in American education policy.

Specialised Voices on Language, Civics, and Equity

The six leaders in this final category focus on the specialised areas of Florida public education that often get less attention but determine outcomes for huge numbers of students. They include the state's most influential bilingual education advocates, a Learning Systems Institute researcher whose work is shaping how children develop across systems, and two school board members in one of Florida's most consequential districts. The list closes with a Tallahassee based research leader whose quantitative methods work supports almost every reading intervention now operating in the state.

30. Yvonne Cadiz, Yvonne Cadiz Consulting

Yvonne Cadiz is an ESOL and dual language consultant based in Florida whose work spans cultural competency, effective leadership, and the practical realities of serving English learners in Florida schools. She works with districts, schools, and community organisations across the state to improve the quality of language instruction and the cultural responsiveness of school staff.

Cadiz's contribution is her sustained applied work with Florida districts implementing or expanding dual language and ESOL programs, including her leadership development for bilingual coordinators and her advocacy for instructional models that take multilingualism as a serious academic strategy rather than a deficit to be remediated. She has become one of the most respected consultants in the state for districts trying to align language education with the academic rigor that English learners and bilingual students deserve.

31. Rosa Castro Feinberg, Bilingual Education Pioneer

Rosa Castro Feinberg is a pioneer of bilingual education in Florida who served on the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Board from 1986 to 1996 and has led numerous advocacy efforts on behalf of multilingual learners, their families, and the teachers who serve them. Her career spans more than four decades of bilingual education work in one of the most linguistically complex regions in the country.

Castro Feinberg's contribution is her sustained leadership in the Florida bilingual education community, including her work on the foundational consent decree that shaped Florida's English learner services for decades and her continuing public advocacy for the educational rights of multilingual learners. She is one of the founding voices in Florida bilingual education policy and her work continues to shape state level conversations about the responsibilities of districts to serve English learners and their families with rigour and respect.

32. Celia Reddick, Florida State University

Celia Reddick is a researcher at the Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University whose work focuses on how children and youth learn and develop across contexts and systems. She was awarded a 2026-28 Jacobs Foundation Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Fellowship, recognising her early career contribution to a research field that bridges education, developmental science, and global learning systems.

Reddick's contribution is her early career work on the development of children and youth across learning systems, including comparative research that brings global perspectives into Florida education conversations. Her FSU based work positions her as one of the more interesting emerging voices in Florida education research, particularly for her willingness to draw on evidence from learning systems beyond the United States to inform local district and state level thinking.

33. Kate Wallace, Polk County School Board

Kate Wallace is a member of the Polk County School Board with two decades of experience working across all three levels of government on K-12 education reform, including early literacy, postsecondary readiness, and education choice. She was appointed to the board in 2025 by Governor Ron DeSantis to fill a vacancy and brings a policy advocate's lens to a board of education in one of Florida's larger districts.

Wallace's contribution is her sustained career advancing student-centered K-12 education reform policies across Florida and the South East, including her work on early literacy, accelerated college readiness, and post-secondary course credit access. Her appointment to the Polk County School Board brought a state and national policy perspective into a local board context, and her commentary on the practical work of school board governance is regularly cited by other Florida board members and policy advocates.

34. Sara Beth Reynolds Wyatt, Polk County School Board

Sara Beth Reynolds Wyatt is a member of the Polk County School Board now serving her second term, first elected in 2016. She serves as the board's liaison to the Florida School Boards Association's Board of Directors, the FSBA Advocacy Committee, and the Polk Vision Operating Board. Her sustained involvement in state level school board governance makes her one of the more influential elected school board voices in Florida.

Reynolds Wyatt's contribution is her two-term record on the Polk County School Board and her active service on the Florida School Boards Association, including advocacy work that has shaped FSBA's positions on legislative priorities, governance training, and community engagement. Her service is one of the clearer recent examples of how a serious local school board member can shape state level education policy conversations through sustained committee and association work.

35. Yaacov Petscher, Florida Center for Reading Research

Yaacov Petscher is the director of quantitative methodology at the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University and one of the most cited methodologists in literacy research in the country. His work focuses on screening, progress monitoring, and dyslexia identification, and his methodological contributions are used in reading interventions across Florida and the United States.

Petscher's contribution is his development and validation of screening and progress monitoring tools used by Florida districts and dozens of states, including methods that have shaped the reliability and validity of dyslexia identification at scale. His behind the scenes role in the Florida Center for Reading Research's national influence is one of the reasons that Florida is regarded as a serious centre of reading research, and his quantitative work makes possible the practical reading interventions that other people on this list deliver.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

This list also reflects a deliberate editorial choice to surface fresher voices over the most familiar names in the national education conversation. Daniel Pink, Adam Grant, Brene Brown, Simon Sinek, Patrick Lencioni, Malcolm Gladwell, and Susan Cain are all important contributors to leadership and learning broadly, but their work is not principally about Florida public education. They have been written about in many other places and adding them to a list like this would crowd out voices who actually shape Florida classrooms, district offices, and state policy directly.

Several other Florida voices were seriously considered. Lindsey Minder, a school leader in Florida whose recent work focuses on holistic student growth, is one to watch in the coming year. Tina Descovich, a former Brevard County school board member and co-founder of Moms for Liberty, has shaped a significant share of Florida education advocacy but sits in a sharply political role that would have skewed the editorial balance of this list. Several Florida postsecondary leaders, including newer university presidents, were excluded because their work has moved away from K-12 public education over the past year. The list will be refreshed annually and these names will be reconsidered as their contribution to Florida public education evolves.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Florida Public Education Conversations

There are five recurring mistakes in the way people talk about Florida public education, and each one makes the work harder. Each of the below shows up regularly inside districts, in media coverage, in policy debates, and in the leadership team conversations I run for school systems across the United States and around the world. None of them are inevitable.

Mistake 1. Treating Florida as a Single Story

Florida is not a single education system. It is 67 county districts, more than 700 charter schools, a 28 college state college system, and a 12 university public research system. The story in Indian River is different from the story in Miami-Dade, which is different from the story in Sumter, which is different from the story in Hillsborough. Leaders, journalists, and advocates who collapse Florida into a single story consistently miss what is actually happening at the district and school level, which is where the real work occurs.

Mistake 2. Confusing Volume with Influence

The loudest Florida education voices are usually not the most influential. The actual decisions that move student outcomes happen inside superintendent offices, district academic shops, principal cabinets, and research labs. The most consequential thinkers on this list are mostly not on cable news, and they would mostly prefer to stay off it. If your map of who matters in Florida education is built from television appearances, you have the wrong map.

Mistake 3. Choosing Sides Before Choosing Evidence

Florida public education is contested ground, and the temptation to pick an ideological side before looking at the evidence is intense. Both the teacher union and the choice organisations have done genuine work for kids. Both the science of reading advocates and the more skeptical literacy researchers have caught errors in each other's work. Leadership teams who decide their position on a Florida education question before they look at the data are not leading. They are signalling.

Mistake 4. Underestimating the Operational Layer

The single most important variable in Florida district performance is not curriculum, not policy, and not even teacher quality in the abstract. It is the operational quality of the district itself, including hiring, scheduling, instructional coaching, principal preparation, and data systems. Several of the people on this list are extraordinary operators rather than visionary thinkers, and their districts outperform precisely because the boring infrastructure is excellent. Florida education conversations that ignore the operational layer mostly do not change anything on the ground.

Mistake 5. Ignoring the Researchers

The Florida Center for Reading Research, the UF Literacy Institute, the FSU Learning Systems Institute, USF's Educational Leadership and Policy Studies department, and UF's College of Education are doing work that directly affects classroom practice in the state. Leaders who treat research as an academic exercise separate from real life consistently get out-executed by leaders who actually read the literature. The researchers on this list are not optional reading. They are the practical foundation of what works in Florida public education.

Implementation Guide: Putting These Voices to Work in Your District or Organisation

If you lead a school district, an education nonprofit, a foundation, or a community partner, the question is what to do with a list like this. Below is a five step implementation guide that turns the people above into actual leverage for your work.

Step 1. Map Their Work Onto Your Real Problems

Pull your district or organisation's three most important strategic problems for the year. Then take the list above and identify which two or three people are closest to each problem. If your problem is early literacy, the answer is probably Nicole Patton Terry and Yaacov Petscher. If your problem is dual language program design, the answer is Maria Coady and Geri Chaffee. If your problem is workforce alignment, it is Adrienne Johnston and John Legg. Mapping voices to problems is the first move.

Step 2. Read or Listen to Two Pieces of Their Work

Pick two or three of the people you mapped and actually engage their published or recorded work. That can be a journal article, a podcast episode, a foundation report, or a recent LinkedIn post. The goal is to move past the brand of the person and into the substance of what they are actually saying about your problem, in their own words, with their own data.

Step 3. Bring the Substance Into Your Leadership Team

Surface the most useful one or two ideas in your next leadership team meeting. Frame it not as a recommendation from an outside expert but as a question you want to explore together with your team. The goal is to bring serious thinking into the room without offshoring the decision to someone outside it. Your team owns the decision. The voices on this list help inform it.

Step 4. Build Real Relationships With Two People

Pick one or two people from the list whose work is most relevant and start to build a real professional relationship with them. That can be a LinkedIn connection with a substantive note, an invitation to a podcast or a webinar, or a small consulting engagement. Florida education is a smaller world than it looks, and real relationships are how good work gets done.

Step 5. Bring Outside Facilitation Into the Internal Work

The voices on this list are thinkers, researchers, and system leaders. They are not designed to come into your specific leadership team and help you implement what you have learned. That is where I come in. I run keynote sessions, leadership team offsites, and Working Genius workshops with school district leadership teams, education foundation boards, and statewide associations. To book a session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is the most influential Florida public education leader right now?

There is no single answer, which is part of the point of this list. If you measure by the number of students under direct responsibility, Jose Dotres in Miami-Dade leads the largest district. If you measure by research influence, Nicole Patton Terry at the Florida Center for Reading Research is among the most cited reading researchers in the country. If you measure by policy reach, Patricia Levesque at ExcelinEd has shaped state level reform across more than fifteen states. The honest answer is that influence in Florida education is distributed across district leadership, research, policy, and practitioner roles, which is why a list of 35 makes more sense than a list of one.

How does Florida compare to other large states on public education?

Florida is the third largest public education system in the country and one of the most closely studied. Florida outperforms the national average on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in fourth grade reading and mathematics, ranks among the top states for postsecondary attainment growth, and leads the nation in apprenticeship expansion. At the same time the state has significant achievement gaps for low income and minority students, ongoing teacher shortages in specific subject areas, and contested political conditions that shape almost every major policy decision. The picture is genuinely mixed and that is exactly why serious thinking matters.

What is the relationship between charter schools and public education in Florida?

In Florida, charter schools are public schools by state law and they are part of the public education system rather than a private alternative to it. The state has one of the largest charter sectors in the country, including high performing networks like Academica and dual language schools like Dreamers Academy, and the relationship between district run schools and charter schools is one of the defining features of the Florida public education conversation. Several leaders on this list work in or with the charter sector, and their inclusion reflects the legal and practical reality that charter schools are part of public education in Florida.

Why is Florida such an important state for national education policy?

Florida is large, demographically diverse, politically active, and operationally sophisticated. State level reforms that work in Florida tend to be adopted by other states, particularly across the South East. The state has been an early adopter of A-F school accountability, structured literacy implementation, dual enrolment expansion, and large scale school choice, and the rest of the country watches Florida data carefully to understand whether those reforms actually produce outcomes. Decisions made in Tallahassee, in major district central offices, and in the research universities have national consequences within about three to five years.

How was this list compiled?

This list was built from cross-referencing leadership positions, recognised peer awards, current research output, and recent contribution to public conversation about Florida public education. The 35 people represent district superintendents, university researchers and deans, policy and advocacy leaders, classroom practitioners, and specialised voices in bilingual education, civics, and equity. The selection is deliberately diverse across geography, sector, and viewpoint, and it includes voices who disagree with each other in important ways. The intent is to give a reader a serious starting map of who actually shapes Florida public education, not a list of who is loudest or most popular.

Can I hire someone to facilitate Florida public education conversations for my team?

Yes. I deliver keynotes, workshops, and leadership team facilitation for school districts, education foundations, statewide associations, and community partners. My work draws on Working Genius, DISC, and StrengthsFinder frameworks, on my book Step Up or Step Out, and on more than 230 episodes of The Leadership Conversations podcast. I work with school leadership teams across the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Singapore, and beyond. International travel is often more affordable than people expect. To discuss a Florida engagement, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

What should a school district leadership team actually do with this list?

Pick two or three of the people whose work is closest to your district's most important problems for the year, read or listen to their published work, surface the most useful ideas in your next leadership team meeting, and build a real professional relationship with at least one of them over the year. Then bring in outside facilitation to help your team work through what the thinking means for your specific district context. The implementation guide above lays this out in more detail.

Final Thoughts

The people on this list have one thing in common, which is that they have made Florida public education the actual subject of their working lives. They disagree with each other in important ways. They sit in different organisations, hold different theories of change, and would not all show up to the same dinner party. That disagreement is not a problem to be resolved. It is the texture of a serious public education conversation, and it is exactly why a list like this needs to be broad rather than narrow.

If you lead a district, an education nonprofit, a foundation, or a community partner inside Florida, the most useful next move is to take three or four of the names above, engage their work seriously, and let what you learn shape your strategy for the year. If you lead an education organisation outside Florida, the same principle applies. Florida is too important a system to be understood through soundbites, and the voices above offer a far more reliable way in.

If you would like outside facilitation to help your leadership team work through what these voices mean for your specific district or organisation, that is what I do. I run Working Genius workshops, executive offsites, and keynotes with school district leadership teams and education organisations across multiple countries. My book Step Up or Step Out has sold more than 10,000 copies globally and is regularly used by leadership teams working through the difficult conversations that real change requires. To book a session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits across the UK, India, Australia, Canada, Mongolia, New Zealand, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, USA, Finland, Namibia, and more. His book Step Up or Step Out has sold over 10,000 copies globally, and his podcast The Leadership Conversations has featured 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Jonno founded The 7 Questions Movement with 6,000+ participating leaders and achieved a 93.75% satisfaction rating for his Working Genius masterclass at the ASBA 2025 National Conference. Based in Brisbane, Australia, Jonno works globally and regularly travels for speaking and facilitation engagements. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected.

To book Jonno for your next keynote, workshop, or facilitation session, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Next Read: 35 Outstanding Public Education Leaders in California

California's own education researchers rate the state's public school system somewhere between "poor" and "fair." That is not a headline from a tabloid. It comes from the Getting Down to Facts report released in May 2026, a sweeping thousand-page analysis co-authored by more than a hundred researchers from Stanford, UCLA, USC, and UC Davis. The people who know California's schools best, the ones who have spent their careers studying every corner of the system, gave it a verdict that lands somewhere between sober and damning.

California public education is also enormous, with roughly six million students and the largest English learner population in the country, and the leaders shaping it have national reach. If Florida is a policy laboratory for the South East, California is a policy laboratory for everywhere else. The voices in the California list are the natural complement to the Florida list above.

Keep reading: https://www.consultclarity.org/post/35-outstanding-public-education-leaders-in-california