Kevin S. Huffman

Kevin S. Huffman (born September 22, 1970) is an American lawyer and education administrator who was the Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education. He was appointed to the position by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and served from April 2011 to January 2015. Prior to his work at the Tennessee Department of Education, Huffman held a senior management position in Teach for America and had worked as an attorney specializing in education.

Huffman resigned as Tennessee Commissioner of Education on November 13, 2014, noting that he has plans to work as a private consultant and plans to continue living in Nashville.

Huffman graduated from Bexley High School in Bexley, Ohio, in 1988. He then attended Swarthmore College, receiving a B.A. in English literature in 1992.

He began his career in education after graduation, becoming a Teach For America corps member in Houston, Texas. He taught bilingual first- and second-grade students in English and Spanish for the Houston Independent School District. He was a member of his school's elected shared-decision making committee, and trained new teachers as a faculty advisor and school director at Teach For America's summer training institutes.

After finishing his assignment as a teacher for Teach for America, Huffman attended New York University School of Law, where he was a member of the law review and graduated in 1998. After law school, he joined the Washington, DC, law firm of Hogan & Hartson, where he represented school districts, state departments of education and universities, and worked on policy and litigation matters including challenges to state finance systems, desegregation litigation, and special education hearings and trials.

In 2000, Huffman became a staff member for Teach For America. In more than a decade with that organization, he served as general counsel, senior vice president of growth strategy and development, and executive vice president of public affairs.

In 2009, Huffman was voted "America's Next Great Pundit" by The Washington Post, where he had an opinion column from 2009 to 2010.

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