When Susana Córdova talks about education, she doesn’t just speak as a policymaker. She speaks as a former bilingual educator who knows what it’s like to lead a classroom, as a superintendent who wrestled with how to support thousands of students and educators and now as Colorado’s Commissioner of Education, where she works to shape the future of learning for an entire state.
“This perspective, grounded in experience and lifted by a vision for what schools can be, is exactly what the movement to reimagine school staffing needs right now,” says Deirdre Smith, the Next Education Workforce initiative’s senior project manager for national events. That’s why the Next Education Workforce™ is honored to welcome Commissioner Córdova as the keynote speaker for the 2026 Strategic School Staffing Summit.
In a keynote conversation with Dean Carole Basile of Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton College for Teaching and Learning Innovation, Commissioner Córdova will explore the following questions:
- How can states create the conditions for staffing innovations that make schools more supportive places to teach and to learn?
- What happens when we think differently about how educators surround and support students?
- How do we design schools where working conditions truly match the calling of the profession, and where students experience deeper, more personalized learning?
Córdova became Colorado’s 18th Commissioner of Education in 2023 and is the first Latina in the role. A Denver native with 30+ years in education, she began as a bilingual language arts teacher, led high-poverty schools as a principal, served in senior roles and later as superintendent of Denver Public Schools, and then as deputy superintendent in Dallas ISD. She also worked as superintendent-in-residence at Transcend. Read more about Commissioner Córdova.
Join us as we hear from a leader who has walked the path from the classroom to the statehouse and never lost sight of the lives of students and the dignity of the educators who serve them.
The 2026 Strategic School Staffing Summit is hosted by ASU’s Next Education Workforce™ and brings together education leaders, researchers, funders and practitioners who are making innovative staffing models work across the country.
Registration is open now through Feb. 2. Lock in early-bird pricing by registering before Dec. 19.