Texas 2036

Margaret Spellings serves as President and CEO of  Texas 2036, bringing with her knowledge and  experience developed over an exceptional career in  public service at both the state and national level.  

Most recently, Spellings served as the president of the 17- institution University of North Carolina System, leading the state’s public university into a new period of performance, affordability,  and growth with a focus on improving economic mobility, ensuring accountability, and  advancing the public good.  

Prior to that, Spellings served as president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in  Dallas, Texas, where she oversaw programs on economic opportunity, education reform,  global health, and special initiatives on women’s leadership and military service.  
From 2005 to 2009, Spellings served as U.S. Secretary of Education, leading the  implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, a bipartisan initiative to provide greater  accountability for the education of 50 million U.S. public school students. As secretary, she  also launched the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, a plan to address  challenges of access, affordability, quality, and accountability in our nation’s colleges and  universities. Prior to serving as Secretary, Spellings served as White House domestic policy  advisor from 2001 to 2005, overseeing the administration’s agenda on education,  transportation, health, justice, housing, and labor.  

Spellings experience also includes serving as senior advisor to then-Governor George W.  Bush of Texas, president and CEO of Margaret Spellings and Company, a Washington, DC,  consulting firm that provided strategic guidance on a variety of domestic policy matters,  and as a president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, advocating for more  effective education and workforce training.  
Spellings was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but spent much of her childhood in Houston.  She is a graduate of the University of Houston, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in  political science. She also received an honorary doctorate and Distinguished Alumni Award  from the university in 2006. Spellings has two adult daughters and resides in Dallas.