Dr. Phelton Cortez Moss is a national expert in education policy and is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership in the School of Education and Affiliate Faculty Member in the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. He also serves as an adjunct professor of Education Policy at Georgetown University. He serves as an elected School Board Member of the Prince George’s County School Board in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
He has also served as a Senior Policy Adviser to Congresswoman Frederica Wilson (FL-24) who served as Chair of the Congressional Higher Education and Workforce Investment Subcommittee & senior member of the House Education & Labor Committee. He also served as the congressional liaison to the US Commission on the Social Status of Black Men & Boys.
He has over twelve years of experience working in education and education policy from English teacher, policy maker, and principal. As the youngest serving principal in MS, his work in moving an underperforming middle school from an F to C in two years led him to become the Bureau Director of Educator Effectiveness and Talent Acquisition at the Mississippi Department of Education working on K-12 education policy issues including teacher diversity, teacher/leader evaluations, teacher recruitment and retention, educator licensure, and issues of inequity in the distribution of effective teachers. Under Dr. Moss’ leadership, his school doubled math and literacy proficiency for students in those two years. As an anti-racist scholar in education policy and leadership focused on building racially just schools, his scholarship has been published widely in venues to include Equity & Excellence Journal, The Education Planning Journal, Diverse in Education, Inside Higher Education, and Education Week to include a few.
Phelton began his career in education as a high school English teacher in Greenwood, Mississippi, where he was Teacher of the Year for two consecutive years, and corps member of Teach for America. He holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Mississippi and a BA in Public Policy Leadership and English from the University of Mississippi. He holds a certificate in Education Finance from Georgetown University. Phelton is a member of The Reading League National Board of Directors and the He Is Me Institute National Board of Directors. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Phelton is also the Founder/CEO of ALL Means ALL Consulting, a consulting firm focused on improving teaching, learning, policy, and research for historically marginalized students.
