Donald E. Fennoy II is a member of Chiefs for Change and chief in residence. He provides coaching, advising, and thought partnership to fellow members of our network and participants in our Future Chiefs leadership development program.

Dr. Fennoy is the former superintendent of The School District of Palm Beach County in Florida. The A-rated district is the 10th largest in the country with more than 193,000 students and 23,000 employees.

Prior to his appointment as superintendent, Dr. Fennoy served as the district’s chief operating officer. He is credited with significantly improving operational efficiencies across the nine departments within his division. In addition, he created organizational structures to successfully execute $1.3 billion in tax referendum projects and managed district operations during Hurricanes Matthew and Irma.

Before joining Palm Beach County, Dr. Fennoy was the senior area superintendent of the South Learning Community for the Fulton County School District, where he was responsible for the guidance and improvement efforts of 28 schools. Under his leadership, the South Learning Community schools achieved dramatic academic gains in addition to significantly improving financial and operational outcomes.

Earlier, he served as executive director of New Leaders for New Schools in Maryland, overseeing the day-to-day operations and programming for the principal development program. In a prior position as a principal in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, his high school received the National School Change Award. The honor is presented annually to six schools in the United States that have demonstrated the greatest academic turnaround in a two-year period.

Dr. Fennoy was a part of the second cohort of the Future Chiefs leadership development program and the 2015-2016 class of the Broad Academy. He has been honored for his outstanding accomplishments in education and was named among the most notable 125 alumni of Florida A&M University during the school’s 125th-anniversary celebration. Dr. Fennoy graduated from Florida A&M University with a bachelor’s in elementary education. He went on to earn a master’s in educational leadership and a doctorate in educational leadership and administration from the University of Central Florida.