| Dr. Meria Joel Carstarphen |  | is the superintendent of Saint Paul Public Schools in Saint Paul, Minnesota, an urban public school district with an annual budget of $573M, 6,500 employees, and 41, 000 pre-K-12 students in over 120 schools and learning sites. Prior to this position, Carstarphen served as Chief Accountability Officer for the District of Columbia Public Schools. She has also served in similar leadership and accountability positions for public school systems in Kingsport, Tennessee and Columbus, Ohio. Carstarphen’s professional experience includes teaching Spanish and documentary photography at the middle school level as well as elementary education in Seville, Spain and Caracas, Venezuela.
She earned a doctorate in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy with a concentration in urban superintendency from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Carstarphen earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science and Spanish from Tulane University and master of education degrees from Auburn University and Harvard University. She has also studied at the University of Seville, Spain and University of Innsbruck, Austria. A public school graduate, Carstarphen hails from Selma, Alabama where she began her teaching career.
Carstarphen currently serves on the boards of the Council of Great City Schools, Educational Testing Service, Saint Paul Public Schools Foundation, Minnesota Children’s Museum, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, Minneapolis Foundation, Minnesota Association of School Administrators, Saint Paul Children’s Collaborative, and Greater Twin Cities United Way. She also serves in advisory and committees roles for the Urban Superintendents Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Growth and Justice, a progressive economic and environmental think tank.
Carstarphen has been awarded honors, fellowships, and scholarships throughout her career as an educator including the Faculty Fellowship for National Geographic Magazine. She also received the Harold Hunt and John E. Stevens Fellowships while at Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Lyndhurst Foundation’s Southern Community Partners Fellowship (1993-1995). In 1992, she represented Newcomb College graduates as class speaker at Tulane University.
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