State Superintendent Hosanna Mahaley

Hosanna Mahaley serves as State Superintendent of Education for the District of Columbia.  In this role, she is implementing the rollout of common core standards for DC’s schools, managing the District’s Race to the Top initiatives, and overseeing federal education grants for the District. In her previous role, Hosanna served as senior partner and adviser to school systems working with Wireless Generation, ensuring that these collaborations help to measurably advance district plans for improving student achievement.

Hosanna spent eight years in Chicago working primarily on education issues, initially out of Mayor Richard Daley's office as Special Assistant to the mayor and subsequently out of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) where she held numerous leadership positions, including Chief of Staff to then-CEO Arne Duncan. At CPS, the nation's third largest school district, she coordinated virtually all of the policy, leadership, organizational structuring, operational, and external affairs issues; she also managed Renaissance 2010, Chicago's reform initiative to close underperforming schools and to open 15–20 new schools per year. After leaving Chicago in 2007, Hosanna moved to Atlanta to become president of the Atlanta Education Fund (AEF), chartered by the mayor and top Atlanta business leaders to focus on galvanizing community and business support for the school system's reform initiatives. Hosanna earned a bachelor's in History from Marquette University, a master's in Education from University of Illinois-Chicago, and an Executive MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. She is a proud graduate of public schools and received her teaching certificate from the University of California.