Simone Hardeman-Jones

Simone Hardeman-Jones is the national policy director for Educators for Excellence(E4E). Prior to joining E4E, Simone most recently served as a deputy assistant secretary for legislative and congressional affairs at the U.S. Department of Education, where she provided strategic advice to U.S. Secretaries of Education Arne Duncan and John B. King, Jr. One of her greatest accomplishments was helping to lead the administration’s efforts to achieve educational equity by reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Simone was also a policy advisor in the U.S. Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. In this role, she advised the assistant secretary on policies including educator equity and evaluation systems. She has served in roles ranging from senior education policy advisor to Senator Kay R. Hagan, education policy advisor for Senator Amy Klobuchar, and as director of African American outreach for Amy Klobuchar’s first Senate campaign. Simone joined E4E because its vision of an equitable and excellent education system is directly in line with her personal mission to advance educational equity for the most disadvantaged.