The Acting Director of the Office of Indian Education since August 2010, Jenelle Leonard has more than 30 years of experience as an educator, including work as a public school teacher and administrator, a technology implementation and training consultant, a college professor, and a regional and state education department administrator. Her specialty has been bringing technology programs to schools.

 

While working in the Houston region school system, Leonard developed a program that emphasized teaching technology to staff members. She moved to Washington D.C. in 1981 and tried to introduce this training-oriented program. However the DC schools were not ready for a “microcomputer consultant,” so Leonard began teaching college-level English, while serving as a volunteer at her daughter’s school, teaching teachers. When the DC school district woke up to the need for computer training two years later, Leonard was chosen to lead the teacher training center. She eventually became the director of the Computer Literacy Training Laboratory for the District of Columbia Public Schools.

 

By 1992, she was back in Texas as the Texas Education Agency's senior director for technology services.

 

Leonard has also held supervisory- and technology-related positions in Prince William County Public Schools in Manassas, Virginia,and  at BDM Education Technologies Group, a K-12 consulting company.

 

From 1997 to 1998 Leonard served nearly a year and a half as a consultant at the U. S. Department of Education in the Office of Educational Technology. She advised on issues related to the development and implementation of technology initiatives and national goals, such as professional development, telecommunications technologies, curriculum integration, and instructional applications.

 

She later served as leader of the Education Department’s Technology Innovation Challenge Grant Program (TICG). In addition to managing the TICG Program, which included developing national guideline materials and policies, reviewing and issuing grants, program monitoring, and program evaluation, she served as an agency consultant, providing guidance within the department, as well as to state and local organizations, institutions and agencies.

 

In October 2001, Leonard was appointed to the board of advisors of Classroom Connect Inc., a private company involved in teacher development programs.

 

In December 2002, Leonard joined the School Support and Technology Programs (SSTP) Office in the Education Department as program manager/team leader of the State Technology Grants Program.

 

After that she was the group leader for the Technology and Flexibility Group, in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE). Her primary responsibilities were to supervise staff assigned to the group, and coordinate, manage, administer and oversee 11 different programs, which included the state technology formula grants and the Rural Education Achievement Program.

 

Prior to becoming acting director of the Office of Indian Education, Leonard ran the Office for School Support and Technology.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Official Biography (Department of Education)