Veronica Tate
Veronica Tate is a managing director at AIR and serves as a senior leader on the management team that shapes the technical assistance delivery and supports effective collaboration across the comprehensive centers operated by AIR. She provides leadership, project management, and quality assurance supervision to ensure the effectiveness of services, and promotes collaboration among the centers and external partners.
Prior to joining AIR, Tate served as president & CEO of Virginia Advanced Study Strategies, a non-profit education service organization focused on increasing college and career readiness, especially for underserved students in science, technology, engineering, and math. She provided strategic direction for the organization and coordinated partnerships between districts, business, and industry partners; higher education; and other education organizations to pilot evidence-based solutions to systemic challenges impacting post-secondary success. In this role, she served as co-director for two U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation (i3) research and development projects serving school districts in rural areas—the Rural Math Excel Partnership and the Rural Math Innovation Network. For both projects, Tate provided direction for the development of the innovation, coordinated work across diverse partners, managed educational consultants and project resources, and ensured evaluation results informed future activities to achieve desired outcomes. The first project created a regional model of shared responsibility for academic success with strong family engagement, educator support, and community involvement and focused on technology integration. The second project developed a virtual networked improvement community of teachers across 18 districts to integrate work-based skills and competencies into classroom instruction and focused on social-emotional learning.
In her previous role as director of ESEA Programs at the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), Tate directed a team of content and policy experts in delivering high-quality professional development and technical assistance to meet district needs related to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act implementation. While at VDOE, she served as president of the National Title I Association (now the National Association of ESEA Program Administrators). As president, she worked with the U.S. Department of Education to design the first version of the Combined Federal Programs meeting. She served as a VDOE liaison to the Department's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and to the Council of Chief State School Officers, and as an agency expert on emerging federal education policy and program trends. Tate coordinated across offices to create and implement Virginia’s statewide accountability system, including the development of annual measurable objectives and strategies to support low-performing schools. She led the coordination of agency-wide efforts for all ESEA-related processes and reports, including the Consolidated State Performance Report, Title II-A Equitable Access to Excellent Educators state plan, Title III Accountability Plan for English learner performance, School Improvement Grants, and federal program monitoring.
