50 Influential Pennsylvania Public Education Leaders

Introduction

Pennsylvania has nearly 1.7 million public school students, 500 school districts, and a funding system a Commonwealth Court judge declared unconstitutional in 2023. If you want to understand what is actually happening inside the Keystone State's classrooms, budget battles, policy chambers, and faculty offices right now, the most useful thing you can do is find the right people to follow. Not the loudest commentators. Not the ones who recycle national talking points.

The ones who are doing the work of making sense of one of the most consequential, complex, and contested education systems in the country.

Pennsylvania's education story is simultaneously one of high achievement and deep inequity. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, Pennsylvania's public schools consistently rank among the best-performing in the nation. Yet the gap between the state's wealthiest and most underfunded school districts remains among the largest in the United States, according to data published by the Pennsylvania State Education Association in September 2025. Pennsylvania's 2023 court ruling and the subsequent Basic Education Funding Commission report, which called for billions in new investment over seven years, have made this tension impossible to ignore.

The leaders who deserve your attention are those grappling with exactly this paradox: how do you build and sustain an excellent public education system in a state where some students have every advantage and others have been systematically left behind? The people on this list are doing that work. They lead state policy, run some of the largest and smallest school districts in the commonwealth, teach in classrooms that are at the sharp edge of national debates about literacy, technology, teacher retention, and equity. They publish the research that shapes the policy conversations in Harrisburg.

They argue the cases that win in court. They show up in their school communities, in their universities, and in the lives of the students they serve.

Rather than repeating the same handful of names that appear on every national education list, this directory surfaces the leaders who are genuinely shaping Pennsylvania's public education landscape right now. Every person here was selected on the basis of their substantive and current contribution to Pennsylvania public education, their active presence in the ideas and debates that matter most to this field, and the distinct perspective they bring from their specific discipline, region, and role.

To discuss how Jonno White can help your school leadership team build the culture, communication, and alignment that makes this kind of commitment sustainable at every level of the organisation, email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Why Pennsylvania Public Education Matters Right Now

Pennsylvania's public education system is not just a state issue. It is a national one. With 1.7 million public school students across urban megadistricts like Philadelphia (nearly 200,000 students) and tiny rural districts in Greene County, Pennsylvania's education landscape mirrors almost every challenge facing American public schooling at once.

In February 2023, Commonwealth Court issued a landmark ruling finding Pennsylvania's school funding system unconstitutional due to the massive disparities between what wealthy and poor districts receive per student. The state's subsequent response, including nearly $3 billion in additional K-12 funding invested since Governor Josh Shapiro took office, has made Pennsylvania one of the most closely watched test cases in the country for education finance reform. A 2025 report from PSEA found that Pennsylvania's average starting educator salary has declined relative to inflation over the past three decades, even as the state's student population has grown more diverse and the demands on teachers have intensified.

Pennsylvania is also home to an intense policy debate about the future of structured literacy, the role of cyber charter schools, and the growing push for career and technical education pathways. The people on this list are at the centre of those debates. Following them means following the real conversation about what it means to run a public school in one of the oldest and most complex education systems in the United States.

Book Jonno White to facilitate a leadership session for your school district or educational leadership team. Jonno is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator and bestselling author who works with schools and educational organisations globally. Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

How This List Was Compiled

Every person on this list was selected on three criteria. First, genuine and current contribution to Pennsylvania public education, through district leadership, classroom practice, policy advocacy, legal work, research, teacher leadership, or community education. Second, active engagement with the debates and decisions that are shaping Pennsylvania's public schools right now. Third, the kind of substantive presence, whether in published research, in court, in Harrisburg, or in their schools and universities, that makes following them genuinely useful for anyone who cares about this field.

The list spans every region of the commonwealth, from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to the rural reaches of Greene, Somerset, Lawrence, and Wayne counties. It includes secretaries of state and classroom teachers, university researchers and district superintendents, equity advocates and technology innovators. The goal was to bring together the people who genuinely deserve to be far better known for their contribution to Pennsylvania public education, rather than recycling the same small handful of names that appear on every national education list.

State-Level Policy and Advocacy Leaders

These are the leaders shaping the policy environment in which Pennsylvania's 500 school districts operate. They work in state government, in the legislature, in advocacy organisations, and in the legal system. Understanding their work is essential for anyone trying to understand why Pennsylvania's schools are funded, governed, and held accountable the way they are.

1. Dr. Carrie Rowe

Few people in Pennsylvania public education carry more direct authority over the day-to-day experience of 1.7 million students than Dr. Carrie Rowe. Appointed by Governor Josh Shapiro in 2025 as Secretary of Education, she brings 25 years of public education experience to a role that sits at the intersection of classroom practice, state policy, and the historic funding transformation the Commonwealth Court ruling set in motion. Before joining the Pennsylvania Department of Education, she served as a superintendent in the western region of the state, and her career has centred on the same question she is now wrestling with at scale: how do you ensure that every student has access to the resources they need to succeed, regardless of their zip code?

Rowe's priorities as Secretary reflect the urgency of this moment. She has championed structured literacy, driving four webinars in January 2026 that drew more than 1,000 educators to sessions on evidence-based reading instruction. She has advanced dual credit opportunities, expanded college and career pathways, and overseen the student teacher stipend program, which has supported more than 2,000 aspiring Pennsylvania educators. Her confirmation by the state Senate in December 2025 was a moment of bipartisan recognition of both her credentials and her vision for what Pennsylvania's schools can achieve.

2. Aaron Chapin

Aaron Chapin is a Stroudsburg Area middle school teacher who also serves as President of the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA), the organisation that represents approximately 177,000 active and retired educators, aspiring educators, higher education staff, and health care workers across the commonwealth. That combination of classroom practitioner and statewide union president is what makes Chapin's voice so distinctive and credible in Pennsylvania education conversations. He speaks as someone who is still inside a school, not above it.

Under Chapin's leadership, PSEA has been central to the campaign to fix Pennsylvania's unconstitutional school funding system, a cause that culminated in the 2025-26 budget delivering more than $900 million in new K-12 investment. Chapin commissioned the September 2025 Fundamental Facts report that documented the stark data on teacher pay, student performance, and district funding, and he has used that data in legislative testimony, media appearances, and advocacy work with a directness and clarity that has made PSEA one of the most effective education advocacy voices in the state.

3. Laura Boyce

Laura Boyce leads Teach Plus Pennsylvania as its Executive Director, a role that puts her at the intersection of teacher empowerment, policy advocacy, and the effort to build a more diverse Pennsylvania educator workforce. Teach Plus PA's policy work began in 2020 and has expanded into one of the most active teacher leadership programs in the commonwealth, with a community of over 700 educators and a highly selective annual Policy Fellowship that trains classroom educators to advocate for systemic change in Harrisburg.

Boyce has been a consistent voice for policies that center teacher voices in education decision-making, including the student teacher stipend program that has now supported more than 2,000 student teachers in Pennsylvania. Her work developing and supporting teacher leaders like Leon Smith, who went from Teach Plus PA Policy Fellow to 2026 National Teacher of the Year, reflects an approach to education leadership built on the conviction that the most effective policies emerge from the people closest to students.

4. Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg

Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg is a senior attorney at the Public Interest Law Center in Philadelphia and one of the architects of the legal strategy that resulted in the Commonwealth Court ruling declaring Pennsylvania's school funding system unconstitutional. That ruling, handed down in February 2023 after a lengthy trial, changed the entire trajectory of Pennsylvania education policy and set in motion the historic funding increases that have been the defining story of the Shapiro administration's education agenda.

Urevick-Ackelsberg spoke at a Harrisburg rally for public education funding on July 7, 2025, with the same urgency he brought to the courtroom, making him one of the rare legal advocates who is equally effective in public advocacy and complex litigation. His work at the Public Interest Law Center spans education equity, civil rights, and poverty law, always oriented toward the question of whether the promises made to Pennsylvania's most disadvantaged students are being kept.

5. Pete Schweyer

Pete Schweyer is a state representative from the Lehigh Valley and the Chair of the Pennsylvania House Education Committee, making him one of the most influential elected voices in the ongoing effort to fix the school funding system that was ruled unconstitutional. His perspective on adequacy funding is clear: last year's budget was the first instalment of a multi-year commitment, and he has signalled that he expects the legislature to follow through on the subsequent investments needed to close the adequacy gap.

Schweyer's position at the committee level means he shapes which education bills get hearings, which proposals advance, and how the House's Democratic caucus positions itself on the education funding debates that have defined two consecutive budget cycles. For anyone following Pennsylvania education policy, understanding his priorities and positions means understanding the legislative pathway for the ideas being generated by researchers, advocates, and practitioners across the state.

6. Angela Fitterer

Angela Fitterer serves as Executive Deputy Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Education, bringing more than 25 years of state government experience to a role that functions as the operational backbone of PDE's work. Her career has taken her through the governor's office, the legislature, and multiple positions within the department itself, giving her an unusually deep understanding of how education policy is made, communicated, and implemented across the commonwealth.

Fitterer served as Acting Secretary of Education between Mumin's departure in December 2024 and Rowe's confirmation in December 2025, a period during which she oversaw the announcement of the 2025 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year and kept PDE's work on track through a significant leadership transition. Her background as a legislative director and policy advisor means she bridges the executive and legislative branches in a way that is essential to the Shapiro administration's education agenda.

7. Theresa Glennon

Theresa Glennon is the Executive Director of the Education Law Center Pennsylvania, the non-profit legal advocacy organisation that has spent decades fighting for the educational rights of Pennsylvania's most disadvantaged students. ELC-PA works on fair school funding, special education rights, the rights of students experiencing homelessness, immigrant students' right to attend school, and the full range of issues that determine whether a state's formal commitment to public education is matched by its actual practice.

Under Glennon's leadership, ELC-PA has remained one of the most active and effective advocacy organisations in Pennsylvania during a period of intense pressure on public education. In 2025 and 2026, the organisation issued guidance for school districts on supporting immigrant students as the federal landscape shifted, filed complaints on behalf of students whose rights were being denied, and continued to hold policymakers accountable to the court's landmark 2023 ruling.

8. Sharon Krengel

Sharon Krengel is the Director of Policy and Communications at Education Law Center Pennsylvania, overseeing the organisation's legislative, media, and community outreach work in addition to supporting ELC's national campaign for public school funding accountability. Krengel is one of the most effective translators of complex legal and policy issues into accessible public communication in the Pennsylvania education space.

Her work includes managing ELC-PA's New Jersey education advocacy network Our Children/Our Schools as well as supporting the national Public Funds Public Schools campaign, which means her influence extends beyond Pennsylvania even as her day-to-day focus remains firmly grounded in the commonwealth's school funding and equity landscape. Following her published output means tracking the policy advocacy layer of the school funding battle in real time.

9. Zakiya Stewart

Zakiya Stewart serves as Pennsylvania Policy Manager at Teach Plus, making her one of the key connectors between classroom teachers and the policy levers that determine working conditions, curriculum, and opportunity for students across the state. She was selected as part of the Pennsylvania Education Equity Project advisory network in 2024, reflecting her standing in the equity-focused education policy community.

Stewart works at the intersection of teacher voice, education equity, and state policy, supporting the kind of grassroots policy advocacy that Teach Plus has made its hallmark in Pennsylvania. Her work is particularly focused on ensuring that teachers of colour have pathways into education leadership and that policy decisions affecting them are made with their active participation rather than about them without them.

10. David Lapp

David Lapp is a Senior Policy Fellow at Research for Action (RFA) and the key point of contact for the Pennsylvania Clearinghouse for Education Research (PACER), a project designed to inform education policy through rigorous, independent research. RFA occupies a critical intermediary role in Pennsylvania's education ecosystem: it produces the research that policymakers, journalists, and advocates need to evaluate whether the system's promises to students are being kept.

Lapp's work has focused on Pennsylvania's most underfunded schools, students experiencing homelessness, and the structural inequities that Commonwealth Court identified in its 2023 ruling. His policy briefs have become essential reading for legislators, journalists, and advocates navigating the complexity of Pennsylvania's adequacy funding formula. Following him means following the research layer of the most consequential education funding reform in Pennsylvania in a generation.

District-Level Leadership

These are the leaders responsible for running Pennsylvania's public school systems, from the nation's eighth-largest urban district to small rural districts navigating the same pressures with a fraction of the resources. Their work is where policy meets practice and where the decisions made in Harrisburg become visible in classrooms.

11. Dr. Tony B. Watlington Sr.

Tony Watlington is Superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia, the eighth-largest school district in the United States with nearly 200,000 students. Named the District Administration 2025 Superintendent of the Year, Watlington has built a record of academic results that has drawn national attention: under his leadership, the district has outpaced other large urban districts across the country in math and reading at grades three to eight, according to the Harvard University Center for Education Policy Research and The Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford.

Watlington came to Philadelphia in 2022 after serving as superintendent of the Rowan-Salisbury Schools in North Carolina, where he launched an equity-focused strategic plan and accountability model. He began his career as a history teacher in Guilford County, NC, and was named district Teacher of the Year in 1998. That classroom foundation is evident in how he talks about school improvement: as fundamentally a question of teaching and learning, not just management and operations.

12. Dr. Wayne N. Walters

Wayne Walters is Superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools, the second-largest public school system in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, with more than 20,000 students and a budget exceeding $668 million. He has spent his entire professional career at Pittsburgh Public Schools, accumulating more than 30 years of experience as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent, and interim superintendent before assuming the top role in 2022.

Walters brings both the institutional knowledge that comes from decades inside one of Pennsylvania's most complex school systems and the perspective of an educator who began as a music teacher, studying at Carnegie Mellon before taking his first teaching post at King Elementary on Pittsburgh's North Side. His vision for leveraging Pittsburgh's school footprint to enhance educational opportunity across the entire city reflects the long view that only someone who has spent a career in one institution can bring.

13. Dr. Tina Kane

Tina Kane is Superintendent of Marple Newtown School District in Delaware County and was named the 2025 Pennsylvania Superintendent of the Year by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. A graduate of Marple Newtown High School who returned to lead the district where she began her career as an elementary teacher, Kane embodies the kind of deep community rootedness that defines the best Pennsylvania district leaders.

Under her leadership, Marple Newtown has advanced STEM education and social-emotional learning, built specialized counseling services, and developed systems that support the full range of student needs. Beyond her district work, Kane serves as President of the PASA Women's Caucus and co-founder of a local Women in Leadership group, making her a genuine state-level advocate for equitable pathways into educational leadership for women across the commonwealth.

14. Dr. Michael Vuckovich

Michael Vuckovich is Superintendent of Windber Area School District in Somerset County and was named the 2026 Pennsylvania Superintendent of the Year by the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators. Leading a small district in one of Pennsylvania's rural regions, Vuckovich represents the particular demands and ingenuity of Pennsylvania's non-metropolitan school leaders, who face many of the same pressures as their urban counterparts but with a fraction of the resources and visibility.

His recognition as 2026 Superintendent of the Year makes a statement about where educational excellence lives in Pennsylvania. The PASA award affirms that innovative, impactful educational leadership is not limited to the state's large urban or wealthy suburban districts, and that some of the most instructive examples of excellent public school leadership come from communities like Windber, where every dollar and every decision carries enormous consequence.

15. Dr. Tom Butler

Tom Butler is Executive Director of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU), serving the network of school districts in Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh and the surrounding communities. Intermediate units occupy a distinctive role in Pennsylvania's education infrastructure: they provide specialised services, professional development, and programmatic support that individual districts, especially smaller ones, could not sustain on their own.

Butler was named the 2024 Stanley Thompson Future Ready Leader of the Year by the Readiness Institute at Penn State, recognising his commitment to innovative thinking and learner-centred design in the Pittsburgh education community. His work has helped shape the regional approach to technology, workforce readiness, and school improvement in one of Pennsylvania's most complex and consequential educational geographies.

16. Dr. Khalid Mumin

Khalid Mumin is Superintendent of the Reading School District, the largest school district in Berks County, a role he assumed on July 1, 2025, returning to lead a district he had previously headed from 2014 to 2021. Between those tenures, Mumin served as Pennsylvania's Secretary of Education under Governor Shapiro from January 2023 to December 2024, presiding over the early stages of the historic school funding increases that transformed the state's education investment. His book, 'Problem Child: Leading Students Living in Poverty Towards Infinite Possibilities of Success,' published in 2020, documents a philosophy of educational leadership centred on high expectations and genuine care for students navigating poverty.

Mumin's career trajectory, from classroom teacher to building principal to district superintendent to state secretary of education and back to district leadership, represents one of the most comprehensive journeys in Pennsylvania public education. His experience seeing the system from every level, classroom, building, district, and state, gives him a perspective on the practical implications of education policy that few Pennsylvania leaders can match.

17. Dr. Randal Lutz

Randal Lutz is Superintendent of Baldwin-Whitehall School District in Allegheny County and is one of Pennsylvania's most decorated superintendents for innovative practice, having received the PSBA Innovative School Leader Award. Baldwin-Whitehall's track record under Lutz has made it a reference point for Pennsylvania districts pursuing practical innovation at a scale that most schools can actually learn from.

His willingness to share the thinking and approach behind his work, a disposition not all superintendents demonstrate, makes him one of the more valuable voices in Pennsylvania's district leadership community. Following him through PASA channels and in regional education conversations means gaining access to a practitioner's perspective on what it actually takes to lead a Pennsylvania suburban school district through deliberate, sustained improvement.

18. Dr. Charles Lentz

Charles Lentz is Superintendent of New Hope-Solebury School District in Bucks County and a recipient of the PSBA Innovative School Leader Award. New Hope-Solebury is a small district that has built a reputation for educational innovation and quality outcomes under Lentz's leadership, making it a model for what small Pennsylvania school systems can achieve when they combine strong leadership with a clear vision.

Lentz's work demonstrates that the most significant educational innovation in Pennsylvania does not always come from the largest or wealthiest districts. His recognised leadership in a Bucks County district expands the geography of Pennsylvania education excellence and offers practical lessons that resonate across the state's diverse range of school communities.

19. Jay Burkhart

Jay Burkhart became Superintendent of Spring-Ford Area School District in Montgomery County in early 2026, one of the most watched superintendent transitions in southeastern Pennsylvania. Spring-Ford serves a large and growing suburban community and sits at the demographic and political crossroads of many of the state's most important education debates.

His appointment to one of the region's most prominent district leadership roles reflects a career built on instructional leadership and community engagement. Spring-Ford's size, demographics, and location make it a bellwether district for suburban Pennsylvania education leadership, and Burkhart's early leadership will be closely watched by peers across the region.

20. Dr. Christopher M. Fiorentino

Christopher Fiorentino became Chancellor of Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) on April 11, 2025, taking the helm of the system that serves as one of the most affordable pathways to a four-year degree for Pennsylvania students. A 42-year veteran of PASSHE institutions who began as an assistant professor of economics at West Chester University in 1983, the year the system was established, Fiorentino brings an unparalleled depth of institutional knowledge to the chancellor's role.

Fiorentino's leadership comes at a pivotal moment for PASSHE, which is navigating enrollment sustainability, affordability, and performance-based funding questions that have significant implications for the pipeline of teachers, administrators, and community leaders who will staff Pennsylvania's schools for the next generation. His tenure as West Chester University's president from 2017 to 2024 gives him direct experience with the challenges defining the higher education landscape his universities are navigating.

21. Chris Sefcheck

Chris Sefcheck is Superintendent of New Kensington-Arnold School District in Westmoreland County, a western Pennsylvania district serving a community that has navigated the economic pressures common to many post-industrial communities in the region. He received the PSBA Innovative School Leader Award, recognising approaches to district leadership that have made New Kensington-Arnold a standout in a challenging context.

Sefcheck's work is a reminder that innovation in Pennsylvania public education is not concentrated in the suburbs or the knowledge-economy corridors. The most creative and determined leadership in the state often emerges in communities where the stakes are highest and the resources most constrained. Following him means following a vision of public education as a genuine engine of community possibility in a part of Pennsylvania that needs that vision urgently.

22. Chuck Herring

Chuck Herring is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at South Fayette Township School District in Allegheny County, and a recipient of the PSBA Innovative School Leader Award for his work embedding equity into the district's structure, culture, and daily practice. South Fayette has developed a national reputation for its approach to STEM education and student-centred learning, and Herring's role in building the equity architecture that supports that work is a significant part of the district's story.

His work demonstrates that the infrastructure for equitable schooling is not an add-on to a high-performing district but a precondition for sustained high performance. His willingness to share the thinking and practice behind South Fayette's approach has made him one of the more influential practitioners in western Pennsylvania's education leadership community.

23. Scott Martin

Scott Martin is Superintendent of Bentworth School District in Washington County, a small district in southwestern Pennsylvania, and was recognised with the PSBA Innovative School Leader Award for his work building educational systems that work for his community. Bentworth serves a rural corner of Pennsylvania where economic and demographic pressures are keenly felt, and Martin's leadership has focused on building the internal culture and external partnerships that sustain quality in a resource-constrained environment.

His recognition reflects the PSBA's commitment to identifying innovation across Pennsylvania's full range of school communities, not just the larger or more prominent districts. Martin's work represents the superintendents leading Pennsylvania's smallest and most overlooked school districts, whose challenges and solutions are often the most instructive for the broader system.

24. Hilderbrand Pelzer III

Hilderbrand Pelzer III serves as Associate Superintendent of School Performance for elementary schools in the School District of Philadelphia, sitting within the leadership team that Superintendent Watlington has assembled to drive the academic improvement that has made Philadelphia a nationally recognised story of urban school recovery. His role is directly connected to the instructional systems and school support structures that have produced the district's gains in math and reading outcomes.

Pelzer's work in one of the largest and most complex urban school systems in the United States represents the kind of operational educational leadership that rarely makes headlines but is essential to understanding how a district of Philadelphia's scale actually improves. His position within the district's leadership architecture places him at the implementation layer of some of the most ambitious urban school improvement work currently underway in Pennsylvania.

Classroom Teachers and Practitioner Leaders

The leaders in this category remind us that the most important educational leadership happens in classrooms, not just boardrooms and policy chambers. Each of these practitioners has moved from deep expertise in teaching into a broader public role, making the work of classroom educators visible, credible, and influential in the conversations that matter most to their field.

25. Leon Smith

Leon Smith is a secondary social studies teacher at Haverford High School in the Haverford Township School District and the 2026 National Teacher of the Year, an honour he received after being named the 2025 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year. Pennsylvania has now produced the National Teacher of the Year in two consecutive years, with Smith in 2026 and Ashlie Crosson in 2025, an extraordinary testament to the quality of educators the commonwealth is developing and recognising.

Smith has spent more than 20 years teaching AP United States History and AP African American Studies, and he founded an Educators Rising chapter at his school to inspire students to pursue careers in education, with a particular focus on building a more diverse teacher workforce. As a member of the Teach Plus National Senior Policy Cabinet, he has been a vocal advocate for grow-your-own teacher programs, for supporting teachers of colour, and for elevating the prestige of the teaching profession at the exact moment when teacher recruitment and retention are among the most pressing challenges facing Pennsylvania's schools.

26. Ashlie Crosson

Ashlie Crosson is an English, Journalism, and AP Language teacher at Mifflin County High School in Lewistown and the 2025 National Teacher of the Year. Her recognition brought national attention to a rural central Pennsylvania school community and a body of classroom practice built around student engagement, independent reading, and the intellectual development of young people who might not see themselves as future writers or thinkers without a teacher like Crosson in their corner.

Crosson's advocacy for independent reading and diverse classroom libraries has given her a platform to speak to the literacy debates reshaping Pennsylvania education policy, from the state's structured literacy push to the contested questions about what students should read. Her transition from national award winner to visible advocate on Pennsylvania's literacy landscape makes her an essential voice for anyone following the reading instruction conversation in the commonwealth.

27. Madeline Loring

Madeline Loring is a fourth grade teacher at Jefferson-Morgan Elementary School in Greene County and the 2026 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year. Her recognition at the December 2025 SAS Institute brought attention to a rural southwestern Pennsylvania classroom and a teacher with 13 years of experience across mathematics, kindergarten, high school learning support, and life skills, reflecting the breadth of commitment that characterises educators in small, rural districts.

Loring's selection is significant for its geographic symbolism. Greene County is among the most rural and economically challenged regions in Pennsylvania, and the recognition of a teacher working there sends a message about where the commonwealth's most impactful educators can be found. Following her means following the rural Pennsylvania education story that often gets drowned out by the scale and noise of the state's urban systems.

28. Mike Soskil

Mike Soskil is a Pennsylvania STEM teacher and the 2017 Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year. He is co-author, alongside Armand Doucet, Jelmer Evers, and Elisa Guerra, of 'Teaching in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Standing at the Precipice,' a 2017 book that examined machine learning's educational potential and argued that keeping humanity centred in education would be essential to future social prosperity. That argument has proven increasingly prescient as artificial intelligence has reshaped conversations in every Pennsylvania classroom.

As a STEM educator who has been vocal about the need for a deliberate and relational approach to AI in schools, Soskil is one of the most thoughtful practitioner voices on technology integration in Pennsylvania education. He advocates for slowing down and asking hard questions about what AI integration means for student-teacher relationships and for the kinds of learning that cannot be reduced to outputs or efficiency metrics.

29. Dr. David Wiedlich

David Wiedlich is a principal in the Radnor Township School District in Delaware County and was named Pennsylvania's 2026 Principal of the Year by the Pennsylvania Principals Association. His recognition at the state Senate, where senators from his district recognised him on the Senate floor in early 2026, reflects the high regard in which he is held across educational and political communities in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Wiedlich's work represents the school-level leadership that sits between district administration and classroom teaching, the principalship that shapes school culture, manages teacher development, navigates community relationships, and translates district priorities into the day-to-day experience of students. Following a Pennsylvania principal like Wiedlich means following the layer of leadership where policy decisions land and where practice becomes real.

30. Dr. Matt Miller

Matt Miller is an elementary principal in Pennsylvania and was honoured by the National Association of Elementary School Principals as one of 43 exemplary elementary and middle-level principals in the 2025 class of National Distinguished Principals. NAESP's National Distinguished Principal award is one of the most prestigious recognitions available to school-building leaders in the country, and Miller's inclusion in the 2025 cohort places him alongside a national network of the field's finest practitioners.

His recognition reflects a body of leadership work in Pennsylvania that has made his school a model for how to build the culture, systems, and relationships that allow students to thrive. The network of national distinguished principals is one of the more valuable professional communities for anyone thinking about school-level leadership, and Miller's participation means his thinking is being refined alongside some of the best in the country.

Researchers and Academic Leaders

The researchers and academics on this list generate the evidence, frameworks, and critical analyses that the entire Pennsylvania education ecosystem depends on to understand itself. They work in the field's most respected universities and research organisations, and their publications shape the policy conversations in Harrisburg, the curriculum decisions in districts, and the professional development that reaches individual classrooms.

31. Dr. Katrina Strunk

Katrina Strunk is Dean of the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE), one of the most influential education research institutions in the country, ranked at number six nationally in 2026 by U.S. News and World Report. In 2025, Strunk was elected to the National Academy of Education, one of the highest honours in educational research, joining a cohort of Penn GSE faculty members recognised for their contribution to the field.

Her leadership of Penn GSE matters for Pennsylvania public education because Penn GSE is deeply embedded in the Philadelphia district's professional development ecosystem, producing research on equity, school leadership, and educational policy that directly informs practice in Pennsylvania and beyond. Under her leadership, Penn GSE has launched AI-focused degree programs and is conducting research on the responsible integration of technology in education.

32. Dr. Edward J. Fuller

Edward Fuller is Professor of Education Policy Studies at the Pennsylvania State University and Director of Research for the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium. He is a nationally recognised researcher on teacher workforce issues, school leadership, and education policy, with a particular focus on equity and the structural barriers that prevent students in Pennsylvania's most underfunded districts from accessing excellent educators.

Fuller's dual role as a Penn State researcher and PEDC research director places him at the intersection of academic research and the practical advocacy work of ensuring that Pennsylvania's teacher workforce becomes more diverse and more equitably distributed. His research has been cited in legislative testimony, policy briefs, and media coverage of the teacher shortage and school funding debates that have defined Pennsylvania education policy throughout the mid-2020s.

33. Dr. Dana Mitra

Dana Mitra is Professor of Education Policy Studies at Penn State University, with a research focus on student voice in school reform, civic education, and youth engagement in democratic processes. In December 2025, she participated in a Wilton Park seminar in the United Kingdom on empathy and youth, exploring how compassion-centred practices and non-formal education can help counter global polarisation and build civic engagement among young people.

Mitra's research on student voice makes her distinctive in a field that too often positions young people as the subjects rather than the architects of education reform. Her work is particularly relevant to the Pennsylvania education conversation at a moment when student mental health, belonging, and civic preparation are at the top of the policy agenda alongside the funding and governance questions that have dominated recent budget cycles.

34. Dr. Mildred Boveda

Mildred Boveda is Associate Professor of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education at Penn State University. She was selected as a grantee for the Pennsylvania Education Equity Project in 2024, a research initiative focused on culturally relevant and sustaining education in the context of Pennsylvania's 2022 policy mandate requiring all educators to be trained in CRSE competencies.

Boveda's research examines the intersectionality of disability and other dimensions of identity in educational settings, challenging educators and institutions to think more comprehensively about what equitable education requires. Her work at Penn State reaches graduate students who will themselves become researchers, teachers, and administrators across Pennsylvania, giving her scholarship an amplifying effect on the state's professional educational community.

35. Dr. Justin W. Aglio

Justin Aglio is Associate Vice President for Penn State Outreach and Executive Director of the Readiness Institute at Penn State, and in December 2025 was honoured with a formal City of Pittsburgh Proclamation celebrating his visionary leadership in education. His work focuses on technology-enhanced teaching, AI education, and the partnerships between schools, universities, industry, and government that prepare students for career and civic readiness.

Aglio played a significant role in advancing artificial intelligence education in Pittsburgh's schools, contributing to the launch of what has been described as the nation's first K-12 artificial intelligence program. His convening of leaders through The Global Impact Forum in Pittsburgh has made him one of the most active connectors in Pennsylvania's education technology ecosystem, regularly bringing together people from education, industry, government, and the nonprofit sector.

36. Dr. Priya Sharma

Priya Sharma is Associate Professor of Learning, Design, and Technology at Penn State University, where she was selected in 2025 as one of 20 Faculty Upskilling Fellows by the Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. Her research aims to integrate ethical artificial intelligence, machine learning for educational data mining, and human-centred design into education, making her one of the most practically focused Pennsylvania-based researchers at the intersection of technology and learning.

Sharma's work is particularly timely in the context of the intense debates Pennsylvania schools are navigating about AI in classrooms. While much of that conversation is driven by fear or hype, her research provides the empirical and ethical grounding that educators and administrators need to make responsible decisions about what technology belongs in learning environments and how it should be used.

37. Dr. Wilson Okello

Wilson Okello is Associate Professor of Higher Education at Pennsylvania State University, with research interests centred on race, justice, and the transformative possibilities of education in contexts of systemic inequality. His 2025 article, 'Against the grain: Deep reading as abolitionist praxis in education,' published in Curriculum Inquiry, reflects a body of scholarship that takes seriously the relationship between educational practice and the broader project of democratic justice.

Okello's work challenges educators to think about what it means to teach in ways that are genuinely liberatory, not merely technically proficient. His presence at Penn State means that one of Pennsylvania's most significant educator-preparation institutions is housing scholarship that pushes back against narrow, test-driven conceptions of educational excellence and insists on something more ambitious and more humane.

Educator Diversity and Equity Leaders

These leaders are building the infrastructure for a more diverse, equitable, and culturally responsive Pennsylvania educator workforce. Their work addresses one of the most structurally significant challenges in Pennsylvania public education: the gap between the diversity of Pennsylvania's student population and the demographics of its teaching force.

38. Karen Lightman

Karen Lightman is Co-Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium (PEDC), an organisation she helped build into a statewide network of more than 600 members from over 300 organisations, all focused on diversifying Pennsylvania's educator workforce and advancing culturally relevant and sustaining education. The collective impact framework that guides PEDC's work is now recognised as a model for state-level educator diversity work nationally.

Lightman brings 25 years of experience in global education reform, with a focus on leadership, culture change, and equity. Her co-creation of the CRSE competencies that the Pennsylvania Board of Education mandated for all educators in 2022 means that her policy work has shaped what every Pennsylvania educator preparation program is now required to teach.

39. Dr. Juliet Curci

Juliet Curci is Co-Founder of the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium and serves as Assistant Dean of College Access and Persistence at Temple University's College of Education and Human Development. Her dual role as a PEDC leader and a Temple administrator gives her an integrated perspective on the pipeline from community college to university to classroom that is at the heart of Pennsylvania's educator diversity challenge.

Curci's work with PEDC reflects the conviction that diversifying Pennsylvania's educator workforce is not just a demographic goal but a pedagogical one: students of all backgrounds learn better when they have access to educators who reflect their own experiences and identities, and building that workforce requires deliberate, sustained, coalition-based effort over years and decades.

40. Luvon Hudson

Luvon Hudson is Chief Programs Officer at the Center for Black Educator Development, one of the most important organisations working to recruit, prepare, and support Black educators in Pennsylvania and nationally. The Center, based in Philadelphia, is addressing what is widely recognised as one of the most consequential structural gaps in American public education: the dramatic shortage of Black educators relative to the proportion of Black students in public schools.

Hudson was selected as a key advisor for the Pennsylvania Education Equity Project in 2024, reflecting her standing as one of the most knowledgeable practitioners in the field of Black educator development. Her work on programs, partnerships, and pipelines for Black educators makes her an essential voice for anyone thinking seriously about teacher diversity and equity in Pennsylvania.

41. Donna Cooper

Donna Cooper is a longtime advocate for Pennsylvania's children and families who served as Executive Director of Children First (formerly Public Citizens for Children and Youth), an advocacy organisation focused on the wellbeing of Pennsylvania's most vulnerable children. Before leading Children First, she was a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, where she led the organisation's research on early childhood education, giving her a policy research background she has applied to practical advocacy in Philadelphia and across the commonwealth.

Cooper's career at the intersection of policy research and advocacy for Philadelphia's most disadvantaged children makes her one of the most substantive long-term voices in the Pennsylvania education equity space. Her work has spanned early childhood, K-12, and the community conditions that determine whether children arrive at school ready to learn.

42. Shawanna James-Coles

Shawanna James-Coles is CEO and Co-Founder of Marlain's Educational Consulting, and was selected as a key contributor to the Pennsylvania Education Equity Project advisory group in 2024. Her consultancy focuses on culturally relevant and sustaining education, working with schools and systems to build the internal capacity to serve all students equitably and effectively.

James-Coles represents the growing community of independent education equity consultants and practitioners who are doing the practical work of implementing the policy commitments that advocates at organisations like PEDC and ELC-PA have won in Harrisburg. Her recognition in the Pennsylvania Education Equity Project context reflects a practitioner expertise that bridges the gap between research and school-level implementation.

43. Dr. Donna-Marie Cole-Malott

Donna-Marie Cole-Malott is an Assistant Professor of Professional and Secondary Education at East Stroudsburg University and a leader within the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium, where she supports the consortium's statewide work on educator diversity and culturally relevant education. Her academic and advocacy work is grounded in the intersection of education, equity, and transformative practice.

Active on LinkedIn through 2026, she regularly engages with the broader educational equity and innovation community, sharing perspectives on open access education, equity-centred design, and the role of technology in advancing inclusive learning. Her dual position as a university faculty member and PEDC contributor means her influence extends from classroom-level teacher preparation to statewide policy advocacy.

Early Childhood and Student Support Leaders

44. Shante Brown

Shante Brown is Deputy Secretary for Early Childhood Education within the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL), with more than a decade of experience in leading child care programs and building community relationships around early education. Brown began her career at OCDEL in 2021 and has held leadership positions in multiple Philadelphia early childhood programs, including Director of PHLpreK, the city's own publicly funded Pre-K initiative.

Her work is at the centre of one of the most consequential recent investments in Pennsylvania's youngest learners. The 2025-26 Pennsylvania budget provided universal free breakfast for more than 1.7 million students and continued investment in Pre-K programs, investments that reflect the growing policy recognition that early childhood education is not a supplement to the K-12 system but a foundation for it.

45. Susan Banks

Susan Banks is the State Librarian of Pennsylvania and Director of Library Development within the Pennsylvania Department of Education, with responsibility for a statewide network of 444 public libraries operating 637 service outlets. Governor Shapiro's 2025-26 budget included a $5 million increase for public libraries, reflecting the recognition of libraries as essential educational infrastructure for communities across the state.

Banks joined the Commonwealth in November 2018 and has built the State Library's profile as a central institution in Pennsylvania's literacy and lifelong learning ecosystem. Her presence at Lancaster Public Library events connecting early childhood programs with library resources in December 2025 reflects a commitment to meeting Pennsylvania's youngest learners where they are and to treating libraries as genuine partners in the state's education mission.

Career, Technical Education, and Innovation Leaders

46. Angela Mike

Angela Mike is Executive Director of the Career and Technical Education (CTE) division at Pittsburgh Public Schools, responsible for overseeing the programs that connect students with career pathways and workforce preparation. She was honoured as the 2022 Community Leader of the Year by the Readiness Institute at Penn State, recognising her contribution to building the partnerships between schools, businesses, and community organisations that make career education meaningful.

Career and technical education is one of the most significant growth areas in Pennsylvania education policy. The Shapiro administration has invested substantially in CTE and apprenticeship programs, and Mike's leadership of CTE in Pittsburgh's school system, the second largest in the state, makes her work one of the most instructive examples of how to design and operate career education at scale in an urban context.

Statewide Systems and Professional Association Leaders

These leaders run the organisations and systems that connect and support Pennsylvania's entire educational community. Their work shapes the professional conditions under which every other leader on this list does their job.

47. Dr. Sherri Smith

Sherri Smith is Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators (PASA), the membership organisation for Pennsylvania's chief school administrators with more than 1,100 members including district superintendents, intermediate unit executive directors, and charter school leaders. From her position at the top of Pennsylvania's administrator professional organisation, Smith shapes the professional development, networking, advocacy, and community of practice that keeps the state's educational leaders connected and effective.

Her leadership of the 2026 PASA Leadership Forum, focused on 'Breaking the Mold: Leadership that Turns Challenges into Opportunities,' reflects a willingness to push past conventional professional development toward the kind of bold, future-focused leadership thinking that Pennsylvania's public schools urgently need. Smith is not just administering an organisation but building the field of Pennsylvania school administration.

48. Dr. Eric Eshbach

Eric Eshbach is Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Principals Association, the state's only professional organisation dedicated exclusively to school administrators, with a particular focus on elementary, middle, and high school principals. Eshbach leads the organisation's professional development programs, legislative advocacy, legal consultation services, and the annual recognition programs that identify and celebrate Pennsylvania's best building-level leaders.

His role in recognising and supporting the state's principal community gives him a unique vantage point on what excellent school leadership looks like across Pennsylvania's hundreds of school communities. The Pennsylvania Summit for Educational Leaders that Eshbach's organisation is hosting in Allentown in August 2026 reflects his commitment to building a genuine professional community among the state's principals.

49. Dr. Jill May Swavely

Jill May Swavely is a faculty member at Temple University who was selected as a principal researcher for the Pennsylvania Education Equity Project in 2024, examining teacher preparation at multiple Pennsylvania colleges and universities in the context of the state's groundbreaking CRSE competency mandate. Her research focuses on how educator preparation programs are translating Pennsylvania's culturally relevant and sustaining education policy into actual changes in what student teachers learn and how they practice.

Swavely's work sits at the critical junction between policy adoption and classroom implementation, examining whether the ambitious commitments made in Harrisburg are actually reaching the teacher preparation classrooms where the next generation of Pennsylvania educators is being formed. Her findings, produced through the Pennsylvania Education Equity Project research accelerator, are designed to provide practical guidance to principals, superintendents, and teacher educators across the state.

50. Dr. Sarah Anne Eckert

Sarah Anne Eckert is a faculty member at Eastern University who was selected alongside Dr. Swavely as a co-researcher for the Pennsylvania Education Equity Project in 2024, examining CRSE implementation at five Pennsylvania higher education institutions including East Stroudsburg University, Eastern University, Millersville University, Temple University, and the University of Pittsburgh. Her research contributes to the evidence base shaping how Pennsylvania prepares its next generation of educators to work in culturally responsive and sustaining ways.

Eckert's work reflects a commitment to grounding education policy reform in rigorous, practitioner-relevant research. The institutions she is studying represent a range of Pennsylvania teacher education contexts, from small liberal arts colleges to large research universities, making her findings applicable to the full breadth of the commonwealth's educator preparation ecosystem.

Notable Voices We Almost Included

Pennsylvania public education has produced remarkable voices over the decades, and the selection process for this list involved seriously considering many people who ultimately did not make the final 50. Among those given careful consideration: former Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Pedro Rivera, who led significant work on equity and curriculum during the Wolf administration; Dr. Donna-Marie Cole-Malott's PEDC colleagues in regional hubs across the state whose local-level work is deeply significant even without statewide visibility; and the many classroom teachers who have been finalists for Pennsylvania's Teacher of the Year over recent years, including Heather Bain, Susan Barbe-Stas, and others from across the commonwealth whose dedication is equally genuine.

The decision to focus on Pennsylvania-based or Pennsylvania-grounded voices was deliberate: the Keystone State's education challenges are specific enough, and consequential enough, that they deserve a list built from within the community living them. Every person who came close to inclusion represents a strand of Pennsylvania education work worth following.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Pennsylvania Education Leadership

Pennsylvania's public education system is complex enough that even experienced observers make recurring errors when trying to understand it, follow it, or lead within it. The first and most common mistake is conflating high average test scores with equity. Pennsylvania consistently ranks among the nation's highest performers on the NAEP. That performance, however, masks vast disparities between districts: the gap between what Pennsylvania's wealthiest and poorest school districts receive per student is among the largest in the country, and the court ruling that declared the funding system unconstitutional was a direct consequence of that gap.

The second mistake is underestimating the significance of the Commonwealth Court ruling and the multi-year funding reform it set in motion. Pennsylvania's school funding debate is not a typical annual budget negotiation. It is a constitutionally mandated reform process unfolding over years, with billions of dollars and the educational futures of hundreds of thousands of students in the balance.

The third mistake is treating Pennsylvania as if it is primarily a story about Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania has 500 school districts, and the conditions facing a rural district in Greene County, a small post-industrial district in Westmoreland County, or a rapidly growing suburban district in Montgomery County are as distinct as the communities they serve. The leaders on this list span that full geography, and the insights from leaders like Dr. Michael Vuckovich in Windber or Madeline Loring in Jefferson-Morgan are not peripheral to the Pennsylvania education story. They are central to it.

Fourth, it is easy to follow the policy conversation without following the legal one. The work of Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg and Theresa Glennon at ELC-PA is as consequential to Pennsylvania's education trajectory as any budget bill, because the legal accountability framework they maintain is what ensures that funding increases actually reach the students who need them most.

Fifth, the conversation about who becomes a teacher in Pennsylvania is inseparable from every other question about the quality and equity of the system. The Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium's work, the Center for Black Educator Development's programs, and Teach Plus PA's fellowship are not supplementary programs. They are building the next generation of the teacher workforce that every other educational improvement depends on.

Implementation Guide: How to Follow and Learn from These Leaders

Start with the leaders whose work directly intersects with your role or region. If you work in a district, begin with the district leaders on this list whose context resembles yours, whether urban, suburban, or rural. If you work in policy, begin with the state-level voices. If you are a teacher, begin with Leon Smith, Ashlie Crosson, and Madeline Loring, who speak directly to the classroom experience from lived authority.

A targeted list of five to seven people who address your specific context is more useful than a vague commitment to following all 50.

Engage with the ideas, not just the posts. The leaders on this list are producing research, advocacy documents, legal filings, curriculum materials, and public testimony that reward deeper engagement than a LinkedIn scroll. David Lapp's policy briefs from Research for Action, Dr. Katrina Strunk's commentary from Penn GSE, and Theresa Glennon's legal analysis from ELC-PA are all publicly available and are among the most substantive contributions to the Pennsylvania education conversation that exist.

Attend the convenings where these leaders gather. PASA's 2026 Leadership Forum, the SAS Institute at Hershey Lodge, the Pennsylvania Educator Diversity Consortium's annual summit, and the PA Principals Association's Summer Summit in Allentown in August 2026 are gatherings where the Pennsylvania education leadership community comes together in ways that are genuinely generative.

Follow the intersections. The most significant developments in Pennsylvania public education right now are happening at the intersections of law, policy, practice, and community. Following Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg alongside Carrie Rowe alongside Leon Smith alongside Karen Lightman means following a conversation that is much richer than any one of those voices alone can provide.

Book Jonno White to help your school or educational leadership team develop the communication skills, team culture, and conflict resolution capacity that allows bold ideas to translate into lasting practice. Jonno is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out, and host of The Leadership Conversations Podcast. He works with schools around the world. International travel is often far more affordable than clients expect.

Email jonno@consultclarity.org.

Frequently Asked Questions

How was this list compiled?

Every person on this list was selected on three criteria: genuine and current contribution to Pennsylvania public education through district leadership, classroom practice, policy advocacy, legal work, research, or community education; active engagement with the debates shaping Pennsylvania's public schools right now; and a substantive public presence that makes following them genuinely useful for anyone who cares about this field. The list deliberately includes voices from across the state's geographic and disciplinary diversity, from Philadelphia to Windber, from classroom teaching to legal advocacy to university research.

Who are the most influential education policy advocates in Pennsylvania?

Among the most influential voices shaping Pennsylvania education policy right now are Aaron Chapin (PSEA), Laura Boyce (Teach Plus PA), Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg (Public Interest Law Center), Theresa Glennon (ELC-PA), and Pete Schweyer (House Education Committee Chair). Each brings a different vantage point, but all are directly shaping the funding and equity reforms that are the defining story of Pennsylvania education in this decade.

What is the biggest issue in Pennsylvania public education right now?

The most consequential ongoing issue is the implementation of the school funding reform triggered by the February 2023 Commonwealth Court ruling declaring Pennsylvania's funding system unconstitutional. Pennsylvania is partway through a multi-year process of significant investment, with nearly $3 billion in additional K-12 funding invested since Governor Shapiro took office, but the gap between the state's most underfunded and best-funded districts remains large.

Can I hire someone to facilitate leadership team workshops for my school or district?

Yes. Jonno White facilitates Working Genius assessments, DISC workshops, and executive offsites for school leadership teams around the world, helping teams build the communication, trust, and accountability structures that allow their educational vision to become a reality. He is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator and bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to explore what a session looks like for your organisation.

Why are there so few rural Pennsylvania voices on the list?

This is a fair challenge. Pennsylvania's rural school communities face distinctive pressures and their leaders often operate without the visibility that urban or suburban counterparts enjoy. This list deliberately includes Dr. Michael Vuckovich (Windber/Somerset County), Madeline Loring (Jefferson-Morgan/Greene County), and Scott Martin (Bentworth/Washington County) specifically because of their rural contexts. Finding and amplifying rural Pennsylvania education leaders is an ongoing obligation, not a problem that any single list can fully solve.

Where can I find regularly updated information on Pennsylvania education policy?

The best sources for current Pennsylvania education policy are Pennsylvania Capital-Star (penncapital-star.com), Spotlight PA (spotlightpa.org), PSEA's news and publications (psea.org), Research for Action's policy briefs (researchforaction.org), and Education Law Center PA's analysis (elc-pa.org). The leaders on this list are regular contributors to these outlets, making them a reliable guide to who is saying what in the Pennsylvania education space.

Final Thoughts

Pennsylvania's public education system is at a genuinely historic inflection point. The legal and legislative work of fixing a funding system that courts found unconstitutional is underway. The state has produced two consecutive National Teachers of the Year. A new Secretary of Education is advancing evidence-based literacy across the system.

A diverse coalition of researchers, advocates, district leaders, and classroom teachers are working, together and in productive tension, to ensure that the promise of public education is kept for every one of Pennsylvania's 1.7 million students.

The people on this list are not waiting for conditions to be better before they do their best work. They are doing it now, in classrooms in Greene County and boardrooms in Philadelphia and faculty offices at Penn State and courtrooms in Harrisburg. Following them is not a passive act. It is a way of staying close to the real conversation about one of the most important institutions in democratic life.

For school leadership teams looking to build the culture, communication, and collaborative practice that makes bold educational leadership sustainable, Jonno White offers keynotes, Working Genius workshops, and executive team offsites for schools and educational organisations around the world. Jonno is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author of Step Up or Step Out (over 10,000 copies sold globally), and host of The Leadership Conversations Podcast, with 230+ episodes reaching listeners in 150+ countries. Organisations consistently find that international travel is far more affordable than expected. Email jonno@consultclarity.org to start the conversation.

About the Author

Jonno White is a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, bestselling author, and leadership consultant who has worked with schools, corporates, and nonprofits around the world. 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

Pennsylvania's education story is both deeply local and nationally significant. If you found this list valuable, the next natural read is an exploration of thought leaders in California public education, which examines many of the same themes, school funding equity, teacher workforce development, and the politics of education reform, in the context of the nation's largest school system.

For more on building high-performing leadership teams in educational settings, check out my blog post '35 Outstanding Public Education Leaders in California' at consultclarity.org/post/35-outstanding-public-education-leaders-in-california.

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