Spellings, Margaret, 1957-

Margaret M. LaMontagne Spellings (née Dudar; born November 30, 1957) is an American education administrator and public official. She notably served as Director of the Domestic Policy Council from 2002 to 2005 and the 8th U.S. Secretary of Education from 2005 to 2009.

Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she moved with her family to Houston, Texas when she was in the third grade. After graduating from Sharpstown High School, she earned a B.A. from the University of Houston. After graduating, she worked in an education reform commission under Texas Governor William P. Clements and as associate executive director for the Texas Association of School Boards. Before her appointment to George W. Bush's presidential administration, Spellings was the political director for Bush's first gubernatorial campaign in 1994, and later became a senior advisor to Bush during his term as Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000.

After Bush was elected President of the United States, Spellings served as White House domestic policy advisor from 2002 to 2005, overseeing the administration’s agenda on education, transportation, health, justice, housing, and labor. From 2005 to 2009, Spellings served as U.S. Secretary of Education, leading the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, a bipartisan initiative to provide greater accountability for the education of 50 million U.S. public school students. As secretary, she also launched the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, a plan to address challenges of access, affordability, quality, and accountability in our nation’s colleges and universities.

After leaving her role as Secretary of Education, she founded Margaret Spellings & Company, an education consulting firm in Washington, D.C. She was a senior advisor to the Boston Consulting Group and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. She served as president of the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, Texas, where she oversaw programs on economic opportunity, education reform, global health, and special initiatives on women’s leadership and military service. On October 23, 2015, Spellings was elected as the President of the University of North Carolina system by the Board of Governors, effective March 1, 2016. In October 2018, Spellings announced that she was resigning, effective March 1, 2019.

Spellings currently serves as President and CEO of Texas 2036.