Before founding NEE, Dr. Joseph Scherer spent 15 years building the District Management Council (DMC) and the Superintendents’ National Dialogue (SND), where he committed to defining a common language for improving education with a view to the future and supporting Superintendents of Schools entering and participating in the larger public discussion regarding what it means to educate children. Dr. Scherer spent nearly twenty years working in Washington, D.C., first as an intern with the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Children and Youth. He was selected by the Institute for Educational Leadership for a fellowship with the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare and later headed up the Washington office of the National PTA. He is former Associate Executive Director of the American Association of School Administrators and former Executive Director of the National School Public Relations Association. He has managed a gubernatorial campaign, worked with elected officials in two state legislatures, in Tennessee and Minnesota, been a middle school teacher and a faculty member at several universities. Dr. Scherer earned an M.A. in Education, a M.S. in psychology and a Ph.D. His doctoral degree is from Vanderbilt University.