State Board of Education
The North Carolina State Board of Education (SBE) is responsible for “supervising and administering the free public school system and the educational funds provided for its support.” Board members include the Lieutenant Governor, the State Treasurer, and 11 other members appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Legislature in joint session. Eight of the eleven Board members appointed by the Governor represent each of the state’s eight education regions, and three are at-large appointees. The eleven gubernatorial appointees serve eight-year terms; the two ex-officio members’ terms coincide with the term of their respective offices. The policies developed by the North Carolina State Board of Education set the direction for all aspects of Department of Public Instruction and local public school organization and operations.
The Board is also served by seven advisors (non-voting), as specified in General Statute. They include a local superintendent appointed by the Governor, the NC Principal of the Year, the Raleigh Dingman award winner (local board member), two NC Teachers of the Year (each serving a two-year term), and two high school students (a high school junior and a high school senior, each serving a two-year term beginning in the junior year).
Eric Davis was appointed as an at-large member of the NC State Board of Education in January 2015. He graduated 9th in the Class of 1983 from the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering. He served as an Airborne Ranger combat engineer officer in the US Army and is a professional engineer in North Carolina. Davis was elected to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education representing District 5 in 2009 and served as chair from 2009 to 2011. Davis currently serves on the Kenan Fellows Program Board and the Anne Springs Close Greenway Board of Managers. He has served as chair of the City of Charlotte Privatization/Competition Advisory Committee and the CMS Bond Oversight Committee, and as a member of the US Green Building Advisory Council Charlotte Chapter, the CMS Superintendent's Standards Review Committee and the Community Link Strategic Planning Committee. He was elected Vice Chair of the State Board of Education at the April 2018 meeting. Davis is a Charlotte native who attended CMS and Lincoln County schools, and, with his wife, Adrienne, has two daughters, both of whom attended CMS schools.
Term expires: March 31, 2021
Alan Duncan, the longtime chairman of the Guilford County Board of Education, joined the State Board of Education in May 2018 after being named by Gov. Roy Cooper to fill the vacated 5th Educational District (Piedmont Triad Region).
Duncan, a lawyer, also serves as a member of Governor Cooper’s Commission on Access to a Sound Basic Education. He is a graduate from Davidson College, and holds a law degree from Vanderbilt University. He is a partner in the Greensboro law firm Mullins Duncan Harrell & Russell and has practiced for more than thirty years.
Term expires March 31, 2021.
Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest is a registered architect. He and his wife, Alice, reside in Raleigh with their four children, ages 7 to 19. After receiving two degrees from the University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC), Dan became a leader in the business community having served as Office President and Senior Partner of the state's largest architectural, firm Little Diversified Architectural Consulting.
Dan remains active in his community and church, and he is the founder and former president of the Triangle Leadership Forum. He is also a former member of the Heritage Foundations™ Presidents Club and previously served on the NC Community Board for Heritage. He is the former chairman of the board of the Wake Forest Pregnancy Support Services. Dan enjoys coaching youth sports and has coached numerous football, baseball, and basketball teams in Raleigh. In his spare time, he enjoys anything that includes spending time with his wife and children.
Term expires with term of office
Elected in November 2016, Dale Folwell is the state's 28th popularly-elected Treasurer. As the state's fiscal advisor, he oversees more than $90 billion in state investments. He serves on the State Board of Education as an ex officio member. Treasurer Folwell has enjoyed a successful career as a financial advisor and has also served in the North Carolina House of Representatives.
Term expires with term of office.
Dr. Olivia Oxendine has an extensive record in public education teaching reading, social studies, and English in three states; directing curricular programs at the central office level; serving as a school administrator in elementary and middle grades; and directing state-level programs in dropout prevention, the NC DARE program, school nursing, and school social work. In South Carolina and North Carolina, she has served on numerous committees established to improve K-12 writing instruction.
Dr. Oxendine holds degrees from UNC Pembroke, Appalachian State University, and UNC Greensboro. While working at the Department of Public Instruction in the late nineties, Dr. 0xendine completed two school reform institutes on the campuses of Stanford University and the Yale Child Study Center. Her leadership in and advocacy for school-family-community engagement in public schools earned her a special citation signed by the author. visionary, and child psychiatrist Dr. James P. Comer, Director of the School Development Program at the Yale Child Study Center.
Dr. Oxendine's special research in school segregation from teachers' perspectives has been presented to many audiences at the state and national levels, including oral historians at the National Museum of the American Indian-Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Dr. Oxendine teaches school leadership courses at the University of North Carolina Pembroke.
Term expires: March 31, 2021
Reginald Kenan was appointed to the State Board of Education by Governor Beverly Perdue in 2009 to fill the District 2 seat for southeastern North Carolina. Mr. Kenan lives in Rose Hill, North Carolina, and practices law in his native Duplin County. He has served as a member of the Duplin County School Board since 1989. He received his bachelor's degree in economics from Guilford College and his juris doctorate from Campbell University's Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law. He is active in church and civic activities in Duplin County, where he has lived all of his life.
Term expires: March 31, 2017
Term expires: March 31, 2023
Mr. James E. Ford of Charlotte as a representative of the 6th Education District. Ford is the principal at Filling the Gap Education Consultants, LLC and serves as co-chair for the Leading on Opportunity Council in Charlotte. Ford previously served as the program director at the Public School Forum of North Carolina and was the North Carolina State Teacher of the Year during 2014-2015.
Mr. JB Buxton of Raleigh as a member at-large. Buxton is the founding principal of the Education Innovations Group and has also worked as the deputy state superintendent of the North Carolina Department for Public Instruction. Buxton has served as an appointed member of the Raleigh Planning Commission and as a soccer coach with the Capital Area Soccer League.
Ms. Jill Camnitz of Greenville as a representative of the 1st Education District. Camnitz is chair of the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Coastal Plain Board of Directors. Camnitz also serves on the Parents for Public Schools of Pitt County, Pitt County Educational Foundation and Brody Foundation. She previously served as a member and as chair for the Pitt County Board of Education.
Dr. Donna A. Tipton-Rogers of Brasstown serves as an 8th education district representative. Tipton-Rogers is the President and CEO of Tri-County Community College. She serves as Vice-Chair on the Legislative Committee for the NC Community College System Presidents Association and as Co-Chair of the North Carolina Task Force on Rural Health.
J. Wendell Hall of Ahoskie serves as a member at-large. Hall serves on the Hertford County School Board. Hall served as the Interim Superintendent for Northampton County Schools, Warren County Schools and Weldon City Schools. He also served as President of the NC School Boards and Association and the NC Association of School Administrators.
Mark Johnson
Mark Johnson was elected as the North Carolina State Superintendent of Public Instruction in November 2016. He grew up in Lousiana, attended Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, for his undergraduate degree, and later attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where he earned his Juris Doctorate. He also taught school for two years as a Teach for America teacher at West Charlotte High School. A resident of Forsyth County, he has also served as a member of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School Board. His most recent employment was as counsel at a Forsyth County IT company.
Anthony D. Jackson, Ed.D, Superintendent of the Vance County School System in Henderson, NC, serves at the helm of 17 schools educating 6,000 students, with 1,000 employees. Prior to joining the Vance County School System, Dr. Jackson served for 4 years as the Superintendent for Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools and 3 years as division Superintendent of the Henry County Public School System located in Collinsville, Virginia.
Dr. Jackson's career in public education spans 28-years and began as a teacher's assistant, and has matriculated through the public school ranks as a music teacher, assistant principal, principal, and various central office administrative posts in several Virginia and North Carolina districts. Prior to returning to North Carolina, Dr. Jackson worked as the principal and Chief Administrative Officer of the Arts and Technology Academy Public Charter School (ATA), a highly successful public charter school in Washington, DC. He also served as a Regional Vice President for Curriculum and
Instruction with a charter school management company.
Throughout his career, Dr. Jackson has received several awards and commendations including, being named the North Carolina Central Region's Superintendent of the Year in 2014. In 2017 Jackson received the prestigious Friday Medal for his leadership with implementing technological innovation in school systems in North Carolina given annually by the Friday Institute for Innovation at North Carolina State University. In July, 2019, Dr. Jackson was again named the North Carolina Central Region's Superintendent of the Year and in November 2019, Dr. Jackson was named the 2020 North Carolina A. Craig Phillips Superintendent of the Year.
Dr. Jackson has a Bachelor of Science degree from East Carolina University, a master's degree N. C. Central University and a doctorate degree in education from Walden University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He serves on the boards of the local Economic Development Commission and the Vance County Public Schools Foundation and on the executive boards of the NC School Superintendent's Association, and the NC Alliance for School Leadership Development, the Science Math and Technology Center Board of Directors and serves as the chair of the board of directors for The Innovation Project, a collaborative of innovation-focused districts in the state. Jackson has served a thought partner and mentor to new and novice Superintendents through his work with the NC Next Generation Superintendents program. He serves as adjunct professor in the masters and doctoral programs at NC State University and High Point University.
Nate Kolk-Tomberlin is a student at Apex High School. He plays lacrosse and enjoys fishing during his free time. He applied for the student advisor position because he believes he can bring a fair and objective view of his peer’s opinions/perspectives to the State Board of Education and he wants to learn about politics at the state level.