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Archdiocese of Chicago Names Greg A. Richmond Superintendent of Schools

A veteran public and charter school leader, Richmond will oversee the nation’s largest private school system

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Chicago (July 26, 2021) – The Archdiocese of Chicago announced today the appointment of Greg A. Richmond as superintendent of the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Schools, effective Aug. 16, 2021. Richmond has dedicated his career to creating innovative school options for families locally and at the state, national, and international levels. He was most recently founder of the Richmond Strategy Group and is a senior fellow at the Future Ed think tank at Georgetown University and a Pahara Fellow at the Aspen Institute.

“We are blessed to have attracted Greg Richmond, an education thought leader and Catholic school parent to the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Schools,” said Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, archbishop of Chicago. “We are committed to building on our legacy of preparing our students for life through an education that is wholistic and marked by a strong Catholic identity. This has been the success of our school system over many generations. Greg’s experience here and around the world will give us a creative, best practice-based approach to achieving that goal. I am grateful to the search committee of the Archdiocese School Board for their work in securing Greg’s leadership at this time of unique opportunity.”

From 1994 until 2005, Richmond worked within the Chicago Public Schools, where he led the district’s efforts to partner with educators and community organizations to create new schools. He founded the district’s Charter Schools Office in 1997 and later led all new school development activities in the district.

From 2005 through 2019, Richmond was the chief executive officer of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. Under his leadership, the association established the nation’s professional standards for authorizing charter schools. He testified repeatedly before the United States Congress at the invitation of both Democrats and Republicans and worked with dozens of cities and states to implement the authorizing policies and practices that lead to quality schools. In 2017, he was inducted into the National Charter Schools Hall of Fame.

From 2011 to 2015, Richmond served as the founding chairman of the Illinois State Charter School Commission, working with educators and communities throughout the state to evaluate proposals for new charter schools and monitor charter schools in Chicago, the suburbs, and downstate.

Richmond has advised education officials in England, Abu Dhabi, and Chile in the development of charter-like school systems in their countries. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a master’s degree from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.