Paul Herdman

Paul Herdman is the President and CEO of Rodel, a nonprofit organization that works to improve public education and the economy in Delaware. He also chairs strategic planning for Delaware’s Workforce Development Board. He is a founding member of the Vision Coalition, one of the nation’s longest standing public-private partnerships. The group works to transform Delaware’s public schools to world-class status. Paul is an Aspen Institute-NewSchools Fellow in entrepreneurial leadership, and a recipient of numerous national awards from Harvard’s Strategic Data Project, NewSchools Venture Fund (Change Agent of the Year), and the Policy Innovators in Education (PIE) Network. He is on the board of Grantmakers for Education and co-chairs the Education Funder Strategy Group’s International Working Group. Paul served as a senior manager at New American Schools, consulted with Brookings Institution, RAND, the U.S. Department of Education, and The World Ban. He taught K-12 in the U.S., South Africa, and Australia, and co-founded an Outward Bound-based school-within-a-school in New York City which informed the creation of Expeditionary Learning. He assisted the secretary of education for two governors in Massachusetts during the redesign of the state’s policies on standards, choice, and finance. Paul holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Delaware, and master’s and doctoral degrees in education administration and planning from Harvard University.