Board of Directors

RICK LAUNEY

Retired SJUSD Board of Education & Executive Producer, Inside California Education

Since 2000, Rick has served as the Executive Director of NationalEdOnline, a 501c3 non-profit organization focused on providing online training technologies for public education in California. He served for 9 years on  the Board of Trustees for the San Juan Unified School District, a Northern California K-12 school district with 50,000 students, serving as Board President 2007 - 2010. Rick grew up in Texas - Houston, Corpus Christi, and Austin - and came to California in 1967 as a 2nd Lt. in the US Air Force where he later served as a B-52 flight crew member.

In 1966 he graduated from the University of Texas with a BA, and in 1973 from TCU with a MA in Government, and began to teaching at Sierra Community College in 1976. He also received a doctoral fellowship at the University of Nevada where he studied from 1979-1981. Subsequently, Rick began working in college administration (1983-1994), first as a Dean and later as a College President, including President/Director of Heald College, San Jose, a WASC accredited, non-profit private college.

In 1995 he was asked to head the National Education Division at Netcom Online Communication Services - at that time, the leading commercial Internet service provider - where he worked to promote Internet access for colleges, universities, and public K-12 schools nationwide. In addition to his work on the SJUSD Board of Education, Rick still works as an Adjunct Professor in the Government Department teaching one class a semester at California State University Sacramento.