Former SJHS Principal now Virginia’s Acting Superintendent of Public Instruction

Steven M. Constantino, Ed.D., a former principal of Stonewall Jackson High School in Manassas, has been appointed as acting Superintendent of Public Instruction. Dr. Constantino most recently served as the Chief Academic Officer/Assistant Superintendent, Division of Instruction for the Virginia Department of Education.

Previously, he served as the Division Superintendent for the Williamsburg-James City County School Division. Before coming to Virginia, Dr. Constantino held the position of Deputy Superintendent in Cobb County — Georgia’s second largest school district. He began his career as an educator in 1980 in upstate New York, where he served in several school districts as a music teacher, band director, district director of fine arts, a high school assistant principal and principal of Stonewall Jackson High School in Prince William.

Dr. Constantino is considered a national expert in the field of family engagement and is the author of four books on the subject. He has served as an assistant professor of educational leadership and policy at George Mason University, and as a clinical faculty member in the Executive Ed.D. program at the College of William and Mary, School of Education.

Constantino is the second Prince William County educator to be named to a state education post in a week. Atif Qarni, a teacher at Beville Middle School, has been named Secretary of Education by incoming governor Ralph Northam.

Dr. Constantino earned a doctorate in educational leadership and policy from Virginia Tech in 2002 and a certificate of advanced study in educational administration from the University of New York at Cortland in 1989. He earned master’s and bachelor’s degrees in music education from the State University of New York at Potsdam, in 1985 and 1980, respectively.

Secretariat of Natural Resources

Russell W. “Russ” Baxter, Secretary of Natural Resources
Russell W. “Russ” Baxter has been appointed Secretary of Natural Resources. Most recently Russ served as Deputy Secretary of Natural Resources for the Chesapeake Bay. Prior to his appointment as Deputy Secretary, he was the Chesapeake Bay Coordinator for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. He has also previously served as Acting Director and Chief Deputy Director of the Department of Conservation and Recreation. From 2002 until 2005, he served as Assistant Secretary of Natural Resources under Secretary W. Tayloe Murphy, Jr., in the office of Governor Mark Warner and was primarily responsible for the Commonwealth’s commitments under the multi-state Chesapeake 2000 Agreement. Prior to his service in the Warner administration, Baxter was the Virginia Director and Senior Policy Analyst for the tri-state Chesapeake Bay Commission and has held positions with the Virginia Conservation Network and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Russ holds a master’s degree in environmental planning from the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree in government from Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. He has also completed the program of study of the Virginia Executive Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University