Skip Navigation
archived information

Mary Peterson

Mary	Peterson
Mary Peterson
Senior Program Associate

As a Senior Program Associate for WestEd’s Policy Center, Mary Peterson provides technical assistance to state departments of education. Through the West Comprehensive Center, Peterson works with SEA staff in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah to design and implement their respective statewide systems of support for schools and districts. Through the Center on School Turnaround, she co-leads the development of the national Talent for Turnaround Leadership Academy. She assists Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah with development, delivery, and formative review of their state turnaround leadership development programs. She serves as a liaison to the State of Nevada for REL West.

Prior to joining WestEd in 2006, Peterson was Statewide Director of Teacher Education, Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Dean of Faculty at Sierra Nevada College. From 1994 through 2000, she served as Nevada’s Superintendent of Public Instruction. Peterson has served on the Board of Directors of the Council of Chief State School Officers and WestEd. She also was a State Commissioner to the Education Commission of the States. She began her career teaching junior and senior high school English, and was principal of a small, private K–8 school in rural Idaho.

Peterson received a BA in English from Carleton College, an MA in teaching from Duke University, and an honorary doctorate from Sierra Nevada College. Her education also includes doctoral studies in educational administration and cultural foundations of education from the University of Utah, where she earned over 90 graduate credits and was inducted into the graduate Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.