Chris Cerf serves on the ExcelinEd Board of Directors. He previously served as Superintendent of Newark Public Schools and as New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education. In that role, he oversaw 2,500 public schools, 1.4 million students and 110,000 teachers in over 600 school districts.
Chris Cerf recently stepped down as Superintendent of Newark Public Schools and previously was New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education. In that role, he oversaw 2,500 public schools, 1.4 million students and 110,000 teachers in over 600 school districts. Between 2004 and 2009, he was Deputy Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education where he led organizational strategy, innovation, labor relations and all matters pertaining to recruiting, supporting, developing and evaluating the nearly 80,000 teachers and 1,450 principals who work in the nation’s largest school district.
In the private sector, Cerf was President and Chief Operating Officer of Edison Schools, Inc, and Chief Executive Officer of Amplify Insight. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of several companies in the K-12 arena. He earlier served as Associate Counsel to President Clinton and as a partner in two Washington, D.C., law firms. A graduate of Amherst College and Columbia Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review, Cerf also was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. Prior to attending law school, he spent four years as a high school history teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio.