Terry Holliday, Ph.D., was selected as Kentucky’s fifth commissioner of education in July 2009.
Holliday, 58, served as superintendent of the more than 20,000-student Iredell-Statesville school district from 2002 until 2009. During his tenure, he has received recognition in a variety of areas, including being named 2009 North Carolina Superintendent of the Year; receiving the 2009 Grayson Medal for Innovation in Quality from the American Productivity Quality Council; being named the 2008 North Carolina Music Educators Association Superintendent of the Year; and selection as a 2008 Friend of NCAAHPERD, a physical education and health award.
Under his leadership, the Iredell-Statesville school district received the 2008 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, which was created by an act of Congress in 1987 to recognize companies, organizations, businesses and other entities that have shown long-term improvement in quality and productivity.
Holliday served as North Carolina School Superintendent Association president and as a member of the North Carolina Race to the Top Committee, the North Carolina Blue Ribbon Commission on Testing and Accountability, the North Carolina Principal Evaluation Rubric Development Committee, the North Carolina E-Learning Commission/Virtual High School Advisory Committee, the Governor’s Teacher Working Conditions Advisory Committee, the United Way Board of Directors, the Statesville and Mooresville Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, the Boys and Girls Club Board of Directors and many others.
Holliday’s previous experience includes: superintendent of the Transylvania County school system in Brevard, North Carolina; associate superintendent and director of accountability for Rock Hill School District 3 in York County, South Carolina; principal, assistant principal and director of instrumental music for Fort Mill High School in Fort Mill, South Carolina; and band director at Northside Junior High, Parker High and Gaffney High in South Carolina.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from Furman University; a master’s degree and education specialist degree from Winthrop University; and a doctorate from the University of South Carolina.
A native of Belton, South Carolina, Holliday and his wife, Denise, are the parents of two children: Adam, a student at University of North Carolina Charlotte, and Eleanor (Ellie), a student at Elon University in North Carolina.