Raymond C. Pierce

Raymond C. Pierce serves as the President and CEO of the Southern Education Foundation, where he leads the organization’s historic mission of advancing educational opportunities for African American and low-income students in the southern states. Since joining SEF in January 2018, Pierce has focused the organization on research, policy, advocacy, and leadership development. Under his leadership, SEF has successfully launched initiatives in early childhood education, education innovation, and an intensified re-examination of school desegregation. Pierce has also led SEF’s engagement with the U.S. Department of Education in managing the Equity Assistance Center-South.

Prior to joining SEF, Pierce served as Dean of the School of Law at North Carolina Central University. Earlier, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights as a political appointee in the administration of President Bill Clinton. During that time, Pierce also served on the White House Domestic Policy Council working group in the development of the Empowerment Zones and related economic and workforce development policies.

Pierce has been a partner in the business practices at the law firms of Baker Hostetler and Nelson Mullins, where he represented clients in the steel, energy, and defense contracting industries. He also has represented clients in higher education. He began his career as a civil rights attorney in Little Rock, Arkansas, with the John W. Walker Law Firm.

Pierce currently serves on the Board of Visitors of the School of Education at Howard University and the Board of Advisors of the National Student Support Accelerator, and he is a permanent member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference. He is also Visiting Professor of Public Policy and Political Theology at the Duke University Divinity School.

Pierce earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Syracuse University, where he also received an officer’s commission in the U.S. Air Force Reserves. He earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Case Western Reserve University School of Law and a master’s degree from the Duke University Divinity School.