John B. King, Jr.

John B. King Jr. is the 15th Chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY), the largest comprehensive system of public higher education in the United States. As Chancellor, King established four pillars of work for his vision of SUNY: student success; diversity, equity, and inclusion; research and scholarship; and economic growth and upward mobility. Under his leadership, which began in January 2023, the State University has seen consecutive operating aid increases, including double-digit percentage increases for every state-operated campus and dedicated recurring annual funding of $10 million for each mental health services, services for students with disabilities, internships, and research, and two consecutive years of enrollment increases across every sector. Before being appointed SUNY Chancellor, King served as president of The Education Trust, a national civil rights nonprofit. Prior to this, King served in President Barack Obama’s cabinet as the 10th U.S. Secretary of Education. His service in Washington, D.C. followed King’s tenure as New York State’s first African American and first Puerto Rican Education Commissioner. Chancellor King holds a Bachelor of Arts in government from Harvard University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, as well as both a Master of Arts in the teaching of social studies and a doctorate in education from Teachers College at Columbia University. You can follow Chancellor King on Twitter at @JohnBKing.