The son of a school principal and a librarian, Rod Paige rose from humble roots in segregated small-town Mississippi all the way to the United States’ Secretary of Education.

From 2001 to 2005, Paige served in the first George W. Bush administration. As the Nation’s top educator, he championed student achievement and employed "best of breed" solutions to raise national standards of educational excellence.  A member of the Presidential Cabinet, Paige spearheaded the implementation of the historic No Child Left Behind Act, with the goal of reinvigorating America’s education system.

Paige forged his reputation for seeking out and putting in place innovative approaches to systemic academic improvement when he was Dean of the College of Education at Texas Southern University (TSU). At TSU, he established the University's Center for Excellence in Urban Education.  

He has also shown a knack for inclusive leadership, first as a school board trustee and then as Superintendent of the Houston Independent School District, then the nation's seventh largest district.  When he was appointed superintendent in 1994, he was the first African-American in the district’s history to serve in that position.  In 1999, Paige was named one of the top two educators in the country by the Council of the Great City Schools. Two years later, Paige was honored as National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators. 

Following his time as Secretary of Education, Paige served as a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.  In 2006 he authored The War Against Hope and in 2010 published The Black-White Achievement Gap: Why Closing it is the Greatest Civil Rights Issue of Our Time. 

From November 2016 to June 2017, Paige served as the interim President at his alma mater, Jackson State University.

In his relentless quest to improve the quality of education for all students, Paige is an active member of numerous boards including the Universal Technical Institute (UTI), Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, the American College of Education, Patten University, The Foundation of Blended and Online Learning, Lone Star Flight Museum and Houston A+ Challenge among others.  

He is a former board member on The Broad Foundation, the New England College of Finance and Business, Strake Foundation, Texas Charter Schools Association, the National Council on Economic Education's Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce and News Corporation.

Paige is the eldest of five siblings and has a son and daughter.  Paige resides in Houston with his wife Stephanie Nellons-Paige, business executive and philanthropist.