Catherine Truitt

From 2021 until 2025, Catherine Truitt served as the state superintendent on behalf of North Carolina’s 1.5 million students and 100,000 educators. Catherine’s service in education began as a high school English teacher, where she spent 10 years as an English teacher and three years as a turnaround coach in low-performing schools. As a military spouse, her frequent moves lead to many unique opportunities, including three years of teaching in the British school system. In 2015, Truitt was appointed as North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory’s senior education advisor, where she coordinated policy for all dimensions of public education and helped lead the development of strategic state education policy goals for ages 0-20. Catherine’s work with the McCrory administration laid the foundation for the state’s education and workforce attainment goal, known now as MyFuture NC. From 2017 until 2020, Catherine served as Chancellor of WGU North Carolina, a national, nonprofit online university. As chancellor, she focused on increasing access to higher education for the one million North Carolinian adults with some college but no degree. Not satisfied with the statistic that only 23% of Americans will attain a two or four-year degree by age 24, Catherine decided to run for state superintendent of public instruction and won her election in 2020, taking office at the height of the pandemic. Under her leadership, she implemented a statewide strategic plan focused on student-centered policy innovation and data-driven decision-making, leading to three consecutive years of post-pandemic academic recovery and significant early literacy gains across all student groups. Catherine’s core belief is that all students deserve the public school experience necessary to be employed, enlisted, or enrolled upon high school graduation.