Dr. Jacqui Clay, a native of Queens, New York, is a retired Army Command Sergeant Major of 25 years and has lived in Arizona for 20 years. She has been an educator for 16 years, serving as Teacher, Assistant Principal, and Director of Career and Technical Education (CTE). She currently serves as the Superintendent of Schools in Cochise County; her responsibilities span 21 school districts, 6 Charter schools and over 23,000 students. She provides support for private, homeschool, detention and county jail students. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Grand Canyon University’s College of Education.
Dr. Clay has been recognized as Teacher of the year by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). She was also selected as Arizona’s Career and Technical Education Administrator of the Year in 2016 and Policymaker Award by the Association for Career and Technical Education of Arizona (ACTEAZ) in 2020.
Dr. Clay is a member of Cognia’s national school accreditation and STEM accreditation team. She serves on various boards to include the Arizona Board of Education, Arizona Association of Counties (AACo), Arizona Business and Education Coalition (ABEC), the Arizona Rural Schools (ARSA) Executive Board and the Arizona Career and Technical Education (CTE) Quality Commission.
Dr. Clay has a B.S. in Information Technology/Business Management, a M.ET. in Educational Technology, an ED. S. in Educational Leadership, and a Doctoral degree in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis on Education.
She has been married to J. Dale Clay for 34 years, has 7 children, 22 grandchildren, and 1 great-granddaughter.