Dr. Carey M. Wright served as State Superintendent of Education for Mississippi from 2013 to 2022. Her tenure in Mississippi has been longer and marked by more student gains than any state superintendent of education since the Education Reform Act of 1982 established the Mississippi State Board of Education. Under her leadership, Mississippi has initiated successful education reforms that have increased literacy skills in pre-K through grade 3, pushed student achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to improve at a faster rate than nearly all other states, and achieved a higher graduation rate than the national average. During her tenure, Mississippi’s ranking for NAEP 4th grade reading rose from 50th to 21st in the nation and Mississippi’s economically disadvantaged 4th graders achieved higher scores on NAEP reading and math than their peers nationally and in the South. This achievement holds steady among black, white and Hispanic students living in poverty. Because of these achievements, Quality Counts ranked Mississippi No. 2 in the nation for improvement in 2019, 2020 and 2021. 

A passionate advocate for early childhood education, Dr. Wright implemented Mississippi’s first publicly funded Early Learning Collaborative program, which earned the state recognition from the National Institute for Early Education Research as one of only five states in the nation that meet all 10 quality standards for early childhood education. Dr. Wright spearheaded initiatives that nearly doubled the Advancement Placement participation and success rate, resulted in significant annual gains in English Language Arts and Mathematics proficiency, and made Mississippi a national leader in literacy instruction and outcomes. The U.S. Secretary of Education appointed Dr. Wright in 2019 to the National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for NAEP, the Nation’s Report Card.

Kristen Wynn’s service in the field of education spans 17+ years. She is committed to ensuring equitable access for all students to effective literacy instruction, highly qualified teachers, and high-quality instructional materials. Her experience in the classroom includes teaching 1st and 2nd grade, as well as serving as a Kindergarten through 5th grade Intervention Specialist. She has also spent several years as a new teacher mentor. Ms. Wynn previously served as a literacy coach for the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE), a Regional Literacy Coordinator, an Assistant State Literacy Coordinator, and currently serves as the State Literacy Director, where she has worked diligently to improve literacy outcomes of schools and districts across the state of Mississippi. She is the co-creator of several literacy professional development trainings (for educators) aligned to the science of reading. During the 2016-2017 school year, she co-produced the MDE’s Literacy Focus of the Month in Action instructional videos featuring literacy coaches and students in Mississippi classrooms. During the 2017-2018 school year, she began working with coaches to increase the rigor and consistency of writing instruction in kindergarten through sixth grade classrooms through the development and implementation of Writing Galleries. Currently, she serves as a member of the Mississippi Reading Licensure Task Force, the Mississippi Reading Panel, the Higher Ed Literacy Council (HELC) and the Governor’s Task Force for Teacher Preparation in Early Literacy Instruction. Kristen is the mother of two wonderful boys, Braxton and Parker and a sweet princess, Baylor.