Issaquah resident and former College Success Foundation leader Deborah Wilds has been elected to the executive committee of the Washington State Board of Education. She was appointed as vice chair of the committee in March 2013 and will continue to serve in that position through the term ending in January 2017.

Wilds earned her Ph.D. in Education Policy, Planning and Administration from the University of Maryland at College Park. She was president and chief operating officer of the College Success Foundation from 2006 to January 2014. Prior to her work in CSF, she oversaw scholarship and achievement programs as senior program officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, served as deputy director of the American Council on Education’s Office of Minorities in Higher Education and co-founded Baltimore preschool New Era Education. While with ACE, she co-authored several books, the organization’s “Annual Status Report on Minorities in Higher Education” and authored more than 20 articles.

The State Board of Education advocates for the public school system and crafts legislation and policy for education in Washington. Members of the board are publicly elected to serve four-year terms. Executive committee members are elected by the board.