Dr. Timothy J. Purnell was selected as the ninth executive director of the New Jersey School Boards Association in May 2022. The organization’s Board of Directors approved the appointment unanimously, following a nationwide search. He is an internationally recognized champion for education, the power of anonymous data (co-founder of It’s Anonymous™), trauma, ethics, and mental health.
As executive director/CEO, Tim manages the day-to-day operations of the organization, which is one of America’s largest school boards associations. NJSBA is a federation of the state’s 581 local boards of education and includes a majority of the charter schools as associate members. The state’s 5,000 local school board members, who serve without compensation, oversee the education of 1.3 million public school students.
Tim holds a doctorate in leadership from Seton Hall University, where he was named a 2019 Many Are One award recipient for service leadership. As superintendent of the Somerville public school district in New Jersey, Tim oversaw a $44 million budget, educational services, personnel management, and stakeholder communications for district schools. He implemented the first, districtwide, trauma-sensitive initiatives in the state of New Jersey and was one of 100 educators invited to President Obama’s 2014 ConnectED Initiative. Tim was named the 2015 New Jersey Superintendent of the Year by NJASA and, in 2016, he was named the NASS National Superintendent of the Year and was recognized as a Highest Rated Professor in the Nation by ratemyprofessor.com.
Tim has dedicated his life to making the world a better place. He is an entrepreneurial leader, board member, investor and strategic planner. He has a proven track record of spearheading transformational initiatives and building businesses for expansion. As an executive, Tim utilizes multiple-lens diagnostics, forecasting, fiscal accountability, employee satisfaction, leadership development, and goal-oriented productivity to achieve rational growth and expansion.