Arne Duncan served as U.S. Secretary of Education under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2016. Previously, from 2001 to 2008, Arne served as Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools where he was Deputy Chief of Staff for the CEO.
In 1992, he returned to Chicago (after graduating from Harvard) to direct the Ariel Education Initiative, which creates outstanding educational opportunities for inner-city children on Chicago’s South Side. In 1998 he joined Chicago Public Schools.
Arne currently serves on the boards of the Ariel Education Initiative, Chicago Cares, The Children’s Center, the Golden Apple Foundation, the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, Jobs for America’s Graduates, Junior Achievement, the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Kellogg School of Management, the National Association of Basketball Coaches’ Foundation, Renaissance Schools Fund, Scholarship Chicago and the South Side YMCA. He also serves on the Board of Overseers for Harvard College and the Visiting Committees for Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. In 2003, he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Lake Forest College, and in 2006, the City Club of Chicago named him Citizen of the Year. He was also a fellow in the Leadership Greater Chicago’s class of 1995. Arne is former co-captain of Harvard’s basketball team and was named a first team Academic All American. From 1987 to 1991, he played professional basketball in Australia, where he also worked with children who were wards of the state. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1987, majoring in Sociology. Arne and his family live in Washington, DC. He is a 2002 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.