Mom Congress Advisor: Melinda George

Melinda G. George is the Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future (NCTAF). In this role, Ms. George is committed to helping NCTAF, a not-for-profit organization, achieve its mission of empowering teachers and helping to create schools organized for success. Ms. George is working to build partnerships with associations and corporate and philanthropic organizations as well as advising on policy issues related to rethinking and recreating the teaching profession and how learning occurs. Ms. George oversees the operations of the organization including finance, grant management, and administrative affairs.

Prior to joining NCTAF, Ms. George served as the Senior Director of Strategic Relations for Education at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). In this role, Ms. George worked with key national education partners to create alliances that built on the educational strength that exists through PBS member stations and nationally. Before taking on the lead for strategic relations, Ms. George had direct operational oversight of PBS TeacherLine, one of the nation’s premier online teacher professional development services.

Ms. George also served as the Executive Director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA). Founded in the fall of 2001, SETDA was created to provide national leadership in educational technology to support achievement in lifelong learning, to provide professional development for state education technology directors and to build partnerships to advance learning opportunities through technology. In her role as Executive Director, Ms. George served as a national spokesperson on education technology and was instrumental in developing collaborative resources and opportunities for state educational technology leaders.

Prior to joining SETDA, Ms. George was the Director of the Education Division for the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). In this role, Ms. George was responsible for meeting the needs of SIIA education technology member companies by providing research, data and expert analysis of issues relating to education technology. In addition, Ms. George facilitated networking and partnership opportunities with businesses, education associations and federal and state government officials and provided financial information and events targeted toward helping SIIA member companies to build and grow their businesses.

Ms. George also worked as an education technology lobbyist for SIIA, working to secure ongoing and consistent funding for schools. For more than six years, Ms. George was the author of the SIIA State Technology Initiatives Report providing a state-by-state glance at the education technology initiatives occurring across the fifty states.

She is a former Washington, DC schoolteacher and technology coordinator, and also contributed to the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment’s 1995 report, Teachers and Technology: Making the Connection. She holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from The American University and received her Bachelors in American Culture from Vassar College. Ms. George lives in Arlington, Virginia with her husband and two daughters.

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