Penny Schwinn

With two decades of demonstrated success in pursuit of strategic priorities, Dr. Penny Schwinn served as Tennessee Education Commissioner from January 2019 until June 2023 and is currently the Vice President of PK – Pre-Bachelors programs with the University of Florida. Schwinn has overseen a number of initiatives including: restructuring a $9B school finance system; leading a nationally recognized literacy initiative that resulted in an 8-point gain statewide over two years; overseeing efforts to redesign the teacher preparation market and make teaching a federally recognized apprenticeable profession; designing and launching the largest and most comprehensive student acceleration program in the country; a $500M statewide redesign of high school to align K-12, post-secondary and workforce; and securing both the largest recurring and one-time investments in K-12 education in the history of the state of Tennessee.Her work has led to significant improvement in student achievement and has been featured in numerous national, state and local publications and media outlets. She has been an invited speaker for multiple presidential administrations, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Congress, state legislatures and national organizations.Schwinn also served in state agencies in Texas and Delaware, as well as in large urban school districts. Schwinn holds an undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley, a Masters from Johns Hopkins University, and a PhD from Claremont.