Governor-elect Youngkin announces selection of Education Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent

RICHMOND, VA – Only January 14, 2022, Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin announced he has chosen Jillian Balow as the next Superintendent of Public Instruction at the Virginia Department of Education, and Elizabeth Schultz as the next Assistant Superintendent of Public Instruction at the Virginia Department of Education.

“Jillian and Elizabeth are going to be crucial in helping Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera restore excellence in education. Under my direction, they will get to work on ensuring our schools remain safely open, ban critical race theory and political agendas from our classrooms, and rebuild our crumbling schools,” said Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin.

Jillian Balow Superintendent of Public Instruction at the Virginia Department of Education
Jillian Balow taught for ten years and has worked to support children and families her entire career. In addition to teaching, Jillian has consulted in the private sector, served as an administrator at both the Wyoming Department of Family Services, and was a policy advisor to Wyoming Governor Matt Mead.

Superintendent Balow stepped down after serving seven years as Wyoming’s elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction to work in Governor Youngkin’s administration.

Jillian has worked with tribal partners to enact “Indian Education for All” so that all Wyoming students learn about the history and contributions of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone Tribes. Jillian developed a support system for Wyoming’s lowest-performing schools and in three years, the number of schools requiring assistance has decreased by 5%. She incorporated career and military readiness into Wyoming’s statewide accountability model for the first time. She worked with business, industry, policymakers, and educators to enact and implement computer science education in every K-12 classroom.

Nationally, Jillian served as President of the Board of Directors for the Council of Chief State School Officers, the professional association of state education heads from across the nation, from 2019-2020. She is a 2020 Duke University Hunt-Keane Leadership Fellow. She also served as the Treasurer of the Education Commission of the States, the highest-ranking position a state superintendent can have in that organization. Jillian was recognized as the 2017 State Policymaker of the Year by the State Education Technology Directors Association and the 2016 Influencer of the Year, awarded by the Mott Foundation. In 2017, Jillian received the Patrick Henry Award for distinguished partnership with the armed forces. In 2021, Jillian was recognized as a Wyoming business “changemaker” for her initial and ongoing response to COVID-19. The team is grateful to have Jillian’s leadership in the administration.

Elizabeth Schultz, Assistant Superintendent of Public Instruction at the Virginia Department of Education
Elizabeth Schultz is an education and public policy professional, a prior U.S. Department of Education official, and a former professional senior contracts and negotiation manager with 25+ years of operational and organizational experience serving large, complex public and private sector organizations. Elizabeth’s work has served the U.S. Departments of Education, Treasury, & Justice, U.S. Customs Service, IRS, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, Secret Service, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and Fairfax County, in the areas of asset management, information technology, global and K-12 education.

In her federal role, Elizabeth was appointed to serve as the Deputy Director of the Office of Educational Technology. She worked to establish, guide, and support national policy on technology in education to serve students at all stages of learning. Elizabeth led the publication of Digital Learning Guides, released nationwide as resources to assist leaders of school districts and teachers to effectively educate students in distance, hybrid, and transition to in-person learning environments.

In addition to her federal service, she served as a Senior Fellow for Parents Defending Education and was elected twice to the Fairfax County School Board, the nation’s 10th largest school system. As a Board Member, she had the responsibility for governing operations, ensuring statutory compliance, executing, and monitoring $3.2+B in annual operational and capital budgets, and hiring and evaluating the Superintendent.

Elizabeth is passionate about effective education and public policy development which champions academic excellence for all students, respects parental rights and student data privacy, and encourages citizen engagement, transparency and accountability, and fiscally responsible limited government. She has championed promoting civics and digital citizenship education, expanding cybersecurity and technical-readiness skills to protect private industry, systems, and critical infrastructure, and ensuring college, life, and work-readiness for students of all abilities.

Elizabeth was born in Richmond and raised in a military family that was stationed throughout the United States. She returned to Virginia to attend James Madison University, graduating with degrees in Political Science and History. Elizabeth has been married for 30 years, is the mother of four sons who range from college graduate to middle school, and resides in Fairfax, Virginia.