The Massachusetts school board announced three finalists Tuesday to be the state’s new education commissioner, more than a year after former Commissioner Jeff Riley stepped down.
The finalists are Jack Elsey, founder and CEO of the Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative; Lily Laux, former deputy commissioner of school programs for the Texas Education Agency; and Pedro Martinez, outgoing CEO of Chicago Public Schools.
Following a national search that fielded 42 applicants, the state education board will interview the candidates Thursday.
“We’re excited to have three highly qualified and passionate leaders as finalists for the next DESE commissioner,” said Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler in a statement. “We look forward to an engaging and transparent discussion.”
Since Riley’s departure, the department was led by an acting commissioner, Russell Johnston, whose last day at the agency was March 28. Johnston starts May 1 as a Pennsylvania school district superintendent.
The education commissioner oversees day-to-day operations of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which regulates public and charter K-12 schools; creates long-term plans for the department; provides guidance and training to school districts, and implements the school accountability system.
Whoever is chosen to lead the state’s K-12 education department faces steep challenges including reversing pandemic learning losses and navigating an uncertain financial future, as President Trump threatens to freeze federal funds meant for school districts and pandemic-era aid money has dried up.
The department is also working to help Massachusetts schools serve growing populations of English learners and special education students.
“It’s taken a long time to get there, and we’re very much in need of new leadership at the department,” said Paul Reville, a former state education secretary. “I’m delighted that they’ve got top candidates and eager to see what the board does.”
Glenn Koocher, the head of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees who served on a preliminary screening committee that reviewed candidates for the commissioner’s job, said any of the finalists could do the job successfully. Navigating the internal politics of the state’s K-12 education department, however, could prove difficult for a new commissioner, he said.
“It’s a bureaucracy that has always been accountable only to itself. So somebody coming in from out of state, and it’s been a while since that has happened, is going to find that a challenge,” Koocher said.
Here’s more about the finalists:
Jack Elsey
Elsey, an administrator for education nonprofits, is the founder and chief executive of Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative, which works working to build a robust teacher pipeline to address state shortages.
Early in his career, he worked as a middle school social studies teacher with Teach for America in New York City and in media and school relations for Teach for America. He later worked as an administrator in Detroit Public Schools and Chicago Public Schools, then served as chief schools officer for Michigan’s Education Achievement Authority, a state-run program to turn around Detroit’s lowest-performing schools. The agency appears to have shut down at the end of Elsey’s tenure.
Elsey spent the next five years running the Detroit Children’s Fund before founding the Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative in 2022.
Elsey has a master’sof education degree in educational leadership from the Broad Center at the Yale School of Management.
Elsey did not respond to requests for comment.
Lily Laux
Laux spent nearly seven years at the Texas Education Agency.
According to an online biography, during her tenure, she oversaw programs affecting 5.5 million students in 1,200 school districts. She led the redesign of the state assessment system, relaunched statewide literacy academies, and developed bilingual, “open-source” instructional materials, the biography said.
Early in her career, Laux was a middle school teacher in Memphis City Schools at a Title I middle school for nearly two years from 2006-08. Starting in 2008, she worked for about nine years for Teach for America as an adviser and manager of a training institute, according to her LinkedIn.
Laux is currently the executive director of Economic Mobility Systems, a Dallas-based organization that helps partners create and use data platforms aimed at improving economic mobility.
Laux has a PhD in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in history, political theory, sociology, and education.
Laux, who grew up in rural Massachusetts, said in a statement to the Globe Tuesday. She said she saw firsthand the difference strong public education and committed public school teachers can make.
“My experience leading at the state level has shown me that real progress comes from listening, especially to students, and working in partnership with educators, families, community leaders, and our research and business sectors,” she said. “I’d bring that collaborative, forward-looking approach back to Massachusetts to help ensure every student is prepared to thrive.”
Pedro Martinez
Martinez is the recently fired CEO of Chicago Public Schools, a district of more than 325,000 students with a budget of more than $9 billion. In 2015, he was a finalist for superintendent of Boston Public Schools.
Martinez has led multiple school districts, previously serving as superintendent of Reno, Nevada’s Washoe County School District and as superintendent of the San Diego Independent School District. He also served as “superintendent in residence” for the Nevada Department of Education.
Twice in his career, Martinez has ended up in a public dispute with his employers, including Chicago Public Schools. While working as superintendent in Washoe County, he was fired in 2014 by that school district after about two years on the job, according to the Reno Gazette Herald. In December, the Chicago school board fired Martinez without cause after building tensions with the teachers union. He took legal action against the board and will stay until June, under the terms of his contract.
Like Elsey, Martinez is an alum of the Yale’s Broad Center. An immigrant from Mexico who arrived in Chicago with his family when he was 5, he was the first in his family to graduate high school and attend college. Martinez did not respond to requests for comment.
James Vaznis of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com or on Signal at john_hilliard.70. Follow him on Bluesky at iamjohnhilliard.bsky.social. Christopher Huffaker can be reached at christopher.huffaker@globe.com. Follow him @huffakingit.