Director
Jo Lynne DeMary, Ed.D., is director of the Center for School Improvement and an affiliate professor in the VCU School of Education Department of Educational Leadership.
She has the distinction of being the first woman to serve as Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction since the state’s public school system was created in 1870. She was appointed to the position in 2000 and retired January 1, 2006..
In her more than 38 years in education, Dr. DeMary has been a teacher in Richmond, Fairfax County, and Henrico County; and an assistant principal, principal, elementary school supervisor, director of special education, and assistant superintendent of instruction in Henrico County.
She received her bachelor’s degree and her doctorate from the College of William and Mary and her master’s from VCU, where she serves as past president of the VCU Alumni Association.
Dr. DeMary has received numerous honors and awards. In 2007, she was honored by the United Negro College Fund as a Flame Bearer of Education. In 2006, she received the YWCA’s Outstanding Woman’s Award in Education. VCU has honored her with the Alumni Star Award. She has received the outstanding educational leadership alumni award from the College of William and Mary School of Education – an award that has subsequently been renamed in her honor. She was honored by the Henrico Educational Foundation with the distinguished alumni award in 2005 and received the PACE Humanitarian Award from the National Association of State Directors of Special Education.
Active in the community, she serves on the Board of Directors of the Virginia Council on Economic Education and the Broad Prize for Urban Education Review Board. Dr. DeMary also writes a monthly column for Richmond Parent Monthly entitled “Parent Power.”