Tom Shelton is the Financial and Operational Support - Lead for Strategic Educational Services. He previously served as the Executive Director of the Henry Clay Center and as a course designer and visiting professor in the global education leadership masters degree program at the Johns Hopkins University.

Prior to establishing Strategic Educational Services, he served as the Director of External Relations and Partnerships for the National Center on Education and the Economy in Washington DC. Previously he had served as the Executive Director of the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents, as a Professor of Educational Leadership at Eastern Kentucky University, and in school district administration for over twenty years, including serving as superintendent in Daviess County Public Schools and in Fayette County Public Schools in Kentucky. As a superintendent, he led his district to selection and participation in the Asia Society’s Global Cities in Education Program and was named as an eSchool News Magazine 2009 Tech-savvy Superintendent of the Year and the AASA Kentucky Superintendent of the Year in 2011.

Tom holds a Bachelors degree in Accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant. He holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration, and a Masters Degree in Educational Administration from Murray State University. He also holds a PhD in Educational Leadership and Organizational Development from the University of Louisville. In addition, Tom holds varying post doctoral certificates from Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the University of London.

Currently, he serves as a member in the Global Education Leaders Partnership (GELP), the International Congress of School Effectiveness and Improvement (ICSEI), the World Innovation  Summit in Education (WISE) Agile Leaders of Learning in Innovation Network (ALLIN), the American Education Research Association (AERA), and the American Association of School Administrators (AASA).