Arne Duncan
Arne Duncan was nominated to be secretary of education by President-elect Barack Obama and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in January 2009. Previously, Duncan served as the chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools from 2001 through 2008, becoming the longest-serving big-city education superintendent in the country.
Prior to joining the Chicago Public Schools, Duncan ran the non-profit education foundation Ariel Education Initiative (1992-1998), which helped fund a college education for a class of inner-city children under the I Have A Dream program. He was part of a team that later started a new public elementary school built around a financial literacy curriculum, the Ariel Community Academy, which today ranks among the top elementary schools in Chicago.
From 1987 to 1991, Duncan played professional basketball in Australia, where he also worked with children who were wards of the state.
Duncan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1987, majoring in sociology.