Michael Kirst

Dr. Kirst is Professor Emeritus of Education (and Business Administration by courtesy) at Stanford University. A prolific writer, Dr. Kirst is a nationally renowned education policy scholar and has authored thirteen books, including From High School to College (2004), Remaking College: The Changing Ecology of Higher Education (2015 with Mitchell Stevens). and Higher Education and Silicon Valley: Connected But Conflicted (2017 with Richard Scott).

Before joining the Stanford University faculty, Dr. Kirst held several positions with the federal government, including Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Manpower, Employment and Poverty, and Director of Program Planning and Evaluation for the Bureau of Elementary and Secondary Education in the U.S. Office of Education (now the U.S. Department of Education). He has an extensive record of service at the state level, serving as a member of the California State Board of Education (1975-1982) and its president from 1977 to 1981. He was the longest serving President of the California State Board of Education with his second and final term from 2011 to 2019. 

Dr. Kirst is active in several professional organizations. He was Vice President of the American Educational Research Association and a commissioner of the Education Commission of the States. Kirst co-founded Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE). He was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences and a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. He has been a member of the National Academy of Education since 1979.