Featured Alumni

MARK ROOSEVELT

The Broad Superintendents Academy Class of 2003
Superintendent
Pittsburgh Public Schools

"Turning around failing schools and under-performing districts is not easy. There is no such thing as a silver bullet answer to poor educational performance. Appreciable progress will only come with multiple efforts from multiple fronts. Leadership is essential to crafting and sustaining meaningful change. I know that the job of being an urban school superintendent is where the rubber meets the road, and I am eager and ready for the challenge."

In July 2005, Mark Roosevelt was appointed superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools, a district with over 32,000 students and 80 schools. Roosevelt began his career in government as a member of President Jimmy Carter's domestic policy staff. He subsequently became the executive director of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation in Boston before being elected to the Massachusetts State Legislature. During his eight years as a state representative, Roosevelt served as the house chairman of the legislature's committee on education, and co-authored and steered to passage the landmark $40 billion Education Reform Act of 1993, which restructured the way Massachusetts funds and manages its public schools. In 1994, Roosevelt was the Democratic nominee for governor of Massachusetts. He most recently served as managing director of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education. Prior to that role he served as president and chief executive officer of Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, a nonprofit economic development corporation that works with government, academic and private institutions to start and attract medical companies in the state. Roosevelt received his Bachelor of Arts in American history from Harvard College and his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.  Roosevelt is a graduate of the 2003 class of The Broad Superintendents Academy.