- Home
- News
- Initiatives
- P-16 Council
- American Diploma Project
- Teacher Quality
- Early Childhood Initiatives
- Start Strong
- Smart Beginnings
- Governor's Working Group
- Healthy Virginians
- Governor's Healthy Virginians/Healthy Students Week
- High School Reform
- NGA Honor States Grant
- Commonwealth Scholars
- Career and Technical Education
- Higher Education
- Research Initiative
- Restructuring
- Virginia Education Information
- Office Information
Secretary of Education Dr. Thomas Morris
Prior to his appointment by Governor Timothy M. Kaine to serve as Secretary of Education, Dr. Morris served as the president of Emory & Henry College for 13½ years. A distinguished Constitutional scholar and political scientist, he was a distinguished faculty member at the University of Richmond for 21 years.
A native of Galax, Virginia, Secretary Morris earned a bachelor's degree in government at Virginia Military Institute, studied at Princeton University, then completed master's and doctoral degrees in government at the University of Virginia. He received fellowships for additional advanced study including a year as a Liberal Arts Fellow at the Harvard Law School and a year as a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
During his teaching career at the University of Richmond, Dr. Morris was selected to leadership posts and honored for excellence in the classroom. He was honored as a University Distinguished Educator, received many faculty research grants, and served as chair of the Faculty Council.
Secretary Morris is widely known as an expert on Virginia government and politics. He is the author or co-author of four books, including Virginia Government and Politics: Readings and Comments, Fourth Revised Edition, a 1998 work co-edited with Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia. He co-authored a chapter entitled “Republicans Surge in the Competitive Dominion” in a book published by LSU Press, Southern Politics in the 1990s. He also wrote a chapter on Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder for a nationally circulated book entitled Governors and Hard Times, published in 1992 by Congressional Quarterly Press, and in 1994 a chapter on Virginia and the Voting Rights Act in Quiet Revolution in the South, Princeton University Press. Dr. Morris has written an additional 17 major articles or book chapters.
Dr. Morris was well known as a political analyst for television, radio, and print media over a period of twenty-five years. He chaired the Commission on Virginia’s State and Local Tax Structure for the 21st Century (1999-2000) and was a member of Governor Warner’s Commission on Efficiency and Effectiveness (2002).
Read Secretary Morris' challenge to students in his Web site message.