Dr. Richard C. Wallace, Jr.
Clinical Professor and Co-Director
Superintendents' Academy
University of Pittsburgh

Richard C. Wallace, Jr., is Superintendent Emeritus of the Pittsburgh Public Schools. He is currently a Clinical Professor of Educational Administration in the Department of Administrative and Policy Studies, School of Education, the University of Pittsburgh, where he serves as Co-Director of the Forum for Western Pennsylvania School Superintendents.

From 1980 to 1992, Wallace led the Pittsburgh Public Schools to a position of national and international prominence as an innovative urban school district. Programs such as the Schenley High School Teacher Center, Arts PROPEL, and Monitoring Achievement in Pittsburgh won awards and were recognized as outstanding examples of educational innovations. Pittsburgh was well known nationally for its exemplary professional development programs during his tenure as superintendent.

In addition to winning the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education, Wallace was honored by the Council of the Great City Schools with the Richard L. Green award for his contributions to urban education. The American Association of School Administrators awarded Wallace its Leadership for Learning Award and Boston College conferred the Shaw Medal for contributions to learning. Indiana University of Pennsylvania awarded him an honorary doctorate degree.

For ten years, Wallace served as Co-Chair of the Danforth Foundation's Forum for the American School Superintendent, a national professional development program for school superintendents. Additionally, he supervised the Principal Initiative on behalf of the Danforth Forum. The Danforth Foundation provided funds for Wallace to initiate a Forum for Western Pennsylvania Superintendents.

In recent decades, Wallace has been active in evaluating principal certification and principal preparation programs. He served as the lead consultant for the North Carolina Standards Board in developing certification requirements for principals and superintendents. He served as a member of a team convened to evaluate all principal preparation programs in the states of North Carolina, Mississippi and Iowa. He currently is a co-coordinator of the National Principal Initiative, University of Pittsburgh that serves school districts throughout the country with principal professional development programs.

Recently, Wallace served as an expert witness on professional development for the School District of Kansas City, Missouri, in its successful effort to attain unitary status from the Federal District Court of Western Missouri. He also led a team of curriculum specialists and evaluators to evaluate the quality of professional development in the Kansas City, Missouri, school district.

Wallace is the author of two books: From Vision to Practice – The Art of Educational Leadership and The Learning School – A Guide to Vision-Based Leadership. His writings stress the educational and instructional leadership responsibilities of superintendents of schools. During his career, he authored over 40 articles and chapters in books.

Wallace received his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern Maine and his master's and doctorate degrees from Boston College. He spent a year at Stanford University as a National Postdoctoral Fellow in Educational Research. He spent 4 years in university-based research and development work and 30 years as a public school administrator serving in positions as principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent.