Jo Anderson, Jr. is a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, and works on a variety of issues including teacher outreach and relations. He recently came to the Department having served as the Executive Director of the Illinois Education Association-NEA (IEA-NEA) since 2005. Prior to this, he held a variety of other positions with IEA-NEA, working particularly on efforts of the union to involve its leaders and members in improving student learning and the public school system in Illinois. In 1987, he helped found the Consortium for Educational Change (CEC), a network of 75 school districts throughout Illinois working on school transformation through collaborative partnerships. He served as Executive Director of CEC for 18 years. He has a background in community organizing and was affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation. He was a university instructor in philosophy and political science.