Miguel Cardona, a lifelong educator, emerged as President Joe Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Education. Cardona was chosen from an array of university deans and heads of teachers’ unions to carry out Biden’s plan for reopening schools and addressing racial equity.
Cardona grew up in Meriden, Connecticut, and is a first-generation college graduate, earning an undergraduate degree at Central Connecticut State University and a master’s and Ph.D. at the University of Connecticut, all in education.
He began his career in education as a fourth-grade teacher and after five years became Connecticut’s youngest principal at Hanover Elementary School at the age of 27.