Jacqui Clay, Cochise County Superintendent
Jacqui Clay, a native of Queens, New York, is a retired Army Command Sergeant Major of 25 years and has lived in Arizona for 20 years. Ms. Clay has been married to Dale Clay for 31 years and has 7 children and 20 grandchildren. She has been an educator for 15 years, serving as Teacher, Assistant Principal, and Director of Career and Technical Education (CTE). Ms. Clay currently serves as the Superintendent of Schools in Cochise County; her responsibilities spans 21 school districts, and over 23,000 students. She also provides support for private, homeschool, detention and county jail students.
She has been recognized as Teacher of the year by the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW); she was also selected as Arizona's Career and Technical Education Administrator of the Year. And in 2020 was selected to receive the Policymaker Award by the Association for Career and Technical Education of Arizona (ACTEAZ). Ms. Clay was nominated for Sierra Vista’s Women in Action Award and featured in the book, "Gratitude Revealed, A Tribute to Women with Undaunting Commitment and Humility,” and received the Best of Sierra Vista & Tombstone award for work and education. Ms. Clay was selected as Luminary by Arizona Black Educators in 2017. In 2018 recognized by the Daughters of the American Revolution for Women in American History.
Ms. Clay is a member of Cognia’s (formally AdvancEd) national school accreditation and STEM accreditation team. She serves on the advisory board of the Arizona Business and Education Coalition (ABEC), State Perkins V (Career and Technical Education) Planning Committee, the Arizona Technology in Education Association Board of Directors (AzTEA) and on the Association of Career and Technical Education (ACTE) Virtual Professional Development Advisory Group. Ms. Clay was selected by the Arizona Superintendent of Instruction to serve on the African American Advisory Committee and Arizona’s Technology Task Force. She is also a member of the U.S. Women Veterans Advocacy Initiative Advisory Panel.
Ms. Clay has a B.S. in Information Technology/Business Management, a M.ET. in Educational Technology, an ED. S. in Educational Leadership, and is now pursuing a Doctoral degree in Organizational Leadership with an emphasis on Education.