Glenn A. Cummings
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Vocational and Adult Education
U.S. Department of Education
As Deputy Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education, Glenn Cummings manages a $1.9 billion annual investment in federal grants and programs that support adult education and literacy, career and technical education, and community colleges. Cummings is former Speaker of the House in the Maine House of Representatives where he provided leadership for the passage of a bi-partisan state budget; brokered an agreement on the largest economic investment bond package in the state's history and successfully led an effort to increase higher education appropriations. During his tenure he sponsored and passed one of the strongest anti-predatory lending bills in the nation. While in the legislature, Cummings also served as Majority Leader and as the House Chair on the Joint Standing Committee on Education and Cultural Affairs.
A passionate educator, Cummings has spent much of his career working with students in the classroom and working on education policy as a state leader. Prior to joining the U.S. Department of Education, Cummings served as instructor of micro and macroeconomics at University of Southern Maine and as Dean of Institutional Advancement at Southern Maine Community College (SMCC). While at SMCC, he founded one of the first student-centered entrepreneurial centers and small business incubators in Northern New England. Cummings also served as Executive Director of the Portland Partnership where he built strategic alliances between businesses and high school students. A multi-generation Maine native, Cummings began his career as a high school history teacher and department head.
Cummings is pursuing his Doctorate in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania and has previously earned a Masters of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Brown University and a Bachelor of Arts from Ohio Wesleyan University.
