Desmond Blackburn

Desmond K. Blackburn, PhD is President and CEO of Facing History & Ourselves. Desmond is committed to bringing Facing History’s resources to more teachers, schools and districts than ever. He is also dedicated to nurturing a workplace culture where staff are highly engaged and excited to help teachers and their students stand up to bigotry and hate. Before joining Facing History, Desmond was Deputy Chancellor of School Leadership for the New York City Department of Education. Prior to that, Desmond served as CEO of the New Teacher Center, a national nonprofit that works to disrupt the predictability of educational inequities for systemically underserved students by accelerating educator effectiveness. His career in education began in 1996 as a high school math teacher.