Dr. Ryan Wise was appointed Director of the Iowa Department of Education by Governor Terry Branstad in July 2015 and was reappointed by Governor Kim Reynolds in January 2019. In September 2017 he was named Policy Leader of the Year by the National Association of State Boards of Educations. He is a South Dakota native and has worked in education at the local, state, national and international levels. Wise began his career as a high school history teacher in Mississippi and Nebraska before moving to his home state of South Dakota to launch and lead Teach for America on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations. Wise also worked to eliminate educational inequity around the world as one of the founding staff members of Teach for All, a global network of education entrepreneurs. Wise earned a doctorate in education leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and a bachelor’s degree in history from Creighton University.