The Horace Mann League will install Carl Hermanns, a retired clinical professor at Arizona State University, as its president for 2026.
The public education advocacy group also will install the following officers this month:
- President-elect: Jeanne Collins Deweese of Lancaster, S.C., a retired superintendent who served in Vermont;
- Vice President: Toba Cohen-Dunning, foundation executive director, Omaha Public Schools in Nebraska; and
- Past President: Kevin Riley, associate professor of educational administration, University of Nebraska-Omaha, and a retired superintendent in Nebraska.
Newly appointed to the organization’s board of directors were Douglas Burge, superintendent, Zillah Public Schools in Washington, Greg Wyman, retired superintendent, J.O. Combs Unified School District, San Tan Valley, Ariz., and James Lloyd, superintendent of the Olmstead Falls School District in Ohio.
The governing board also named James Minichello, former AASA director of communications, to serve as executive director of the Horace Mann League.
Jack McKay, who spent 29 years leading the organization before his retirement in 2023, has been serving as interim executive director. Founded in 1922, the Horace Mann League is an association of public-school leaders who believe public education is the cornerstone of democracy.
The Horace Mann League traditionally stages an installation and awards luncheon in conjunction with the AASA national conference. This year, the league will hold its installation ceremony during its annual meeting online on Thursday, Feb. 12.
The organization hopes to resume its event in person at the AASA national conference in Atlanta, Ga., in February 2027.
At its event this month, the league will recognize the late David Berliner, a long-time board member, with a special honor.
Berliner, who died last fall, served as one of the nation’s foremost education researchers. He was the Regents Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University and a lifelong champion of public education. He created an extraordinary body of work and “carried an equally extraordinary moral voice at a time when public education faces profound challenges,” said McKay, the league’s interim executive director.
Berliner was the author of Public Education for Our Nation’s Democracy.