Former Special Education instructor Susan McKenzie will be the new director for the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.
The office of Governor. Mike Dunleavy announced the appointment Monday night following McKenzie was picked for the position by the state board of education following an extensive hunt.
McKenzie McKenzie Director for McKenzie, who is the director of Division of Innovation and Education Excellence within the department, will begin work on April 1st, the governor’s office confirmed.
“As an educator of the past 40 years, my primary focus was to enhance education for studentsand increase their progress, which leads to more choices in the future. I’ve seen the pattern of failing to provide students with research-based practices and am desperate to make a difference,” McKenzie said in an unprepared statement. “Our children deserve our best. The transition to higher leadership positions has been a blessing and I’ve discovered there’s a amazing alignment between my experience set as well as my role as a commissioner.”
According to the law of the state the education commissioner is at the discretion by the school board who are elected by the governor, and are subject to confirmation by the legislature. The decision of the school board is subject to governor’s approval and is not partisan.
McKenzie succeeds Michael Johnson, who served as commissioner until June 30 2022. Since the time, the department for education is now headed by Heidi Teshner, the deputy commissioner. Teshner will remain in her position as deputy commissioner, the governor’s office announced.
As the head of the department’s innovative section, McKenzie has been responsible for taking on the Alaska Reads Act, a program approved in the Legislature and approved by the governor in the year 2000. She also managed the department’s special education and technical and career sections.
McKenzie taught elementary school children within her school in the North Slope Borough for five years. She was also teacher for a year in Fairbanks prior to working in Oregon as a reading specialist as well as a Special Education teacher.
She was principal of the Copper River School District -in which Johnson was superintendent between 2010 and 2013. Then she returned to Oregon and was appointed director of the tiny Gaston school district. She was a part of in the Alaska Department of Education after the fact.
