Bio

Mike Ward has spent much of his career as a public school administrator, culminating with service as North Carolina’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction. During his tenure, the state of North Carolina was recognized as one of the most rapidly improving states in education by the National Education Goals Panel and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He is now an educational consultant and a professor of practice in the NC State College of Education. Ward is a three-time alumnus of NC State, having earned a doctorate in educational administration in 1993. He is a past recipient of the university’s Distinguished Alumnus Award and North Carolina’s Superintendent of the Year award.

Ward chaired the board of the NC State College of Education from 2019-2022. He and his wife, Hope Morgan Ward, created the Ward Family Scholarship Endowment to support individuals who are seeking to become teachers; the scholarship is an expression of gratitude to their own wonderful teachers.

Ward also chairs the board of the North Carolina Education Corps, a nonprofit created to provide reading tutors to accelerate student learning after the pandemic. In 2018, he chaired FAST NC, a fundraising effort that he and former state superintendents Mark Johnson and June Atkinson launched to provide grants to teachers who needed instructional resources following Hurricane Florence. While on the faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi, he was recognized as a Hero of Katrina.