AACTE Leadership Speaker Series: A Conversation with Former U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel A. Cardona

* AI tools/personal recordings are not permitted.

Co-sponsored by AACTE’s Diversified Teacher Workforce Topical Action Group

As education faces unprecedented challenges and opportunities, effective leadership has never been more important. AACTE is committed not only to helping educator preparation programs respond to today’s evolving landscape, but also to ensuring that leaders are equipped to shape the future of education.

As part of AACTE’s new Leadership Speaker Series, a year-long virtual program for deans, presidents, and other leaders of schools and colleges of education, join us for an exclusive conversation with Miguel A. Cardona, Ed.D., former U.S. Secretary of Education.

Drawing on his experience as the nation’s top education official, Cardona will share insights on leading through change, strengthening the educator workforce, advancing educational opportunity, and navigating the evolving policy and higher education landscape. Participants will gain valuable perspectives on the leadership challenges facing educator preparation programs and the opportunities ahead for institutions committed to shaping the future of learning.

Speakers:

12th U.S. Secretary of Education
Miguel A. Cardona, Ed.D.
Cardona Solutions

Prior to founding Cardona Solutions, Miguel A. Cardona, Ed.D., dedicated close to three decades to serving the community as a teacher, award-winning school principal, district leader, Commissioner of Education for Connecticut, and U.S. Secretary of Education.

As the 12th U.S. Secretary of Education, Cardona focused on safely reopening and reimagining schools, overhauling higher education accountability, improving access and affordability to higher education, and providing upward economic mobility to more students across the country.

Cardona has been a featured speaker at UCLA, the University of Texas at Austin, Yale, Harvard, and many other colleges and universities of all sizes across the country. He has partnered with the Brookings Institute, Newsweek, and TIME magazine to chronicle the importance of public education and bring much-needed attention to the challenges facing our students at this critical time.

Cardona currently serves on the boards of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz and the USC Schwarzenegger Institute of Policy. He served as a Resident Fellow at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in 2025 and will be a fellow in the School of Management at Yale University in 2026.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Central Connecticut State University, followed by his master’s, professional and executive certifications, and Ed. D. from the University of Connecticut. Miguel was also awarded two Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degrees from Southern CT State University and Thaddeus Stevens College in Pennsylvania. Yet, his greatest accomplishment is the family he built with his wife, Marissa, an educator, and their two college-aged children.

Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, Ph.D.

AACTE President and CEO

Cheryl Holcomb-McCoy, Ph.D., serves as president and CEO of AACTE (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education), the leading voice for educator preparation in the United States. She assumed this role in January 2025, bringing decades of experience as a scholar, academic leader, and national advocate for strengthening the educator workforce.

Prior to AACTE, Holcomb-McCoy served for over eight years as dean and distinguished professor at the School of Education at American University in Washington, D.C. During her tenure, she elevated the school’s national profile and led significant institutional growth, including the transition to a stand-alone school in 2019 and an expansion of enrollment from 200 to more than 1,500 students. She spearheaded innovative partnerships, such as the AU/District of Columbia Public Schools Teacher Pipeline Project and secured a multimillion-dollar grant from JPMorgan Chase to launch the Advancing Early Education Collaborative (AEEC), a stackable credentialing initiative with regional partners.

Earlier in her career, Holcomb-McCoy held senior leadership roles at Johns Hopkins University, serving as vice provost for faculty affairs and vice dean of academic affairs in the School of Education. There, she launched the School Counseling Fellows Program and the Faculty Diversity Initiative. She also served on the faculty at the University of Maryland, College Park, and directed the School Counseling Program at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York.

A nationally recognized scholar, Holcomb-McCoy’s work centers on equity, access, and outcomes for historically marginalized students, particularly Black youth. She is the author of School Counseling to Close Opportunity Gaps: A Social Justice and Antiracist Framework for Success (Corwin, 2^nd Ed) and editor of Antiracist Counseling in Schools and Communities (ACA). Her most recent book, Beyond the Doll Tests: Affirming and Uplifting Black Students’ Well-Being (Harvard Education Press), further advances conversations on identity, belonging, and the conditions necessary for students to thrive. Her scholarship bridges research, policy, and practice, shaping national conversations on equity in education.

In addition to her scholarship, Holcomb-McCoy serves on multiple boards. She is currently Board Chair of Maya Angelou Schools in Washington, D.C., a network dedicated to serving justice-involved youth and supporting their academic and personal success.

Holcomb-McCoy began her career as a kindergarten teacher and later worked as a school counselor and family therapist — experiences that continue to ground her leadership in the realities of practice. She holds a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and a master’s degree in school counseling from the University of Virginia, and a doctorate in counseling and educational development from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

She is a 2023 Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow and a Fellow of the American Counseling Association.