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The Council of Urban Boards of Education (CUBE) selected new leadership in April for 2021-22. Steve Gallon III, of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Florida, was elected to serve as the council’s chair. Erika Mitchell of Atlanta Public Schools, Georgia, was elected vice-chair and Michelle Robinson McKissack of Shelby County Schools, Tennessee, was elected secretary.

A former classroom teacher, assistant principal, principal, administrator, and superintendent, Steve Gallon III serves as the vice-chair and member of the District 1 School Board in Miami-Dade County Schools, Florida, the nation’s fourth-largest school district. Gallon has received numerous awards for his professional and community service including CUBE’s 2017 Benjamin Elijah Mays Lifetime Achievement Award. In March 2017, Gallon was named as one of “South Florida’s Most Powerful and Influential Black Leaders for 2017” by Miami’s Legacy Magazine. In 2018, Legacy named him “Educator of the Year.” He also was named Educator of the Year by the Miami-Dade County Branch of the NAACP in 2019. 

Since being elected to the Atlanta Board of Education, Erika Mitchell has established herself as one of Atlanta’s most influential public servants. Within Mitchell’s first year in office, she developed the first electronic newsletter for her district, and established community partnerships ranging from Georgia’s Own Credit Union to the NFL Players Association. She also has co-written the first school district Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking policy and protocol in the state of Georgia. Mitchell is currently the managing partner at Sports Unlimited Enterprise, LLC.

Michelle Robinson McKissack is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and former editor of Memphis Parent magazine and has served on the Shelby County Board of Education since 2018. McKissack has worked to design the school of the 21st century with the XQ Project and served as a founding board member of Crosstown High School, which opened in August 2018. McKissack also has served in education at the state level, being appointed to several advisory councils, including the inaugural Tennessee Board of Education Parent Advisory Council representing Shelby County Schools in 2016-17.