Kimberly Richey, a civil rights attorney and education administrator who has held senior leadership roles in statewide education in Virginia and Florida, will be the next assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education, a department spokesperson announced on Wednesday. As the department’s civil rights chief, Richey will oversee investigations into alleged instances of antisemitism at U.S. schools and universities. 

Richey, who received her law degree from the University of Oklahoma, worked at the U.S. Department of Education in the George W. Bush administration upon graduation, after being hired by then-civil rights chief Kenneth Marcus — who later held the same role in President Donald Trump’s first term — to serve as his special assistant. 

“She brings exceptional depth and breadth to the position of assistant secretary for civil rights and is unusually experienced and strong,” Marcus, the founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told Jewish Insider on Thursday. 

Richey previously served as the acting assistant secretary of civil rights for the final months of Trump’s first term, after Marcus departed the position. In that time, he said Richey worked to publish a frequently asked questions document about Trump’s 2019 executive order on antisemitism that Marcus had not been able to complete.

“Kim shepherded the document that I had left with the agency through to publication. That required strong leadership on her part. It required that she made it a priority even after I left,” said Marcus. “She could have done otherwise, but I think that this confirms that she shares my commitment to addressing campus antisemitism through law and public policy.”

After the end of the first Trump administration, Richey joined a conservative think tank, the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, where she authored guidelines for parents who are unhappy with schools that might be teaching critical race theory, which she described as “race-based Marxism.” She advised parents to monitor whether their kids’ schools were promoting diversity, equity and inclusion plans, and whether they were teaching about “racial equity or social justice issues” so they could campaign against it. 

In her current role as senior chancellor for Florida’s Department of Education, Richey oversees all public schools including K-12 and college, as well as other statewide programs and workforce development. In the 2022-2023 school year, she served as deputy superintendent of the Virginia Department of Education.

In Trump’s first term, Richey served as deputy assistant secretary of the office that oversees special education issues, which Marcus said is an area of “particular depth and interest” for Richey. In a 2024 podcast interview, she described special education as close to her heart because she recovered from a brain tumor when she was a child — and afterward, she needed extra help from her school in dealing with lingering disabilities.

“I’m still an individual with disabilities. I still deal with the impacts and the ramifications of that brain tumor that I had as a youth,” Richey said. “I got what I needed, and I knew that I wanted to really focus my career on doing the same thing for other individuals with disabilities.”

For years, Trump has said the Education Department should be shut down, and he said on Wednesday that it should be closed “immediately.” He called the department “a big con job” at the same time that the department announced a slew of new appointees.

Linda McMahon, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, testified before the Senate on Thursday in her confirmation hearing. 

“We must protect all students from discrimination and harassment, and if I am confirmed the department will not stand idly by while Jewish students are attacked and discriminated against,” McMahon said.