Steve Canavero is a senior advisor at WestEd. Prior to working at WestEd, Steve was the superintendent of public instruction for the State of Nevada. Steve was appointed by Governor Brian Sandoval in February of 2016 to oversee the state’s education system serving nearly 470,000 students. Steve is committed to equity and ensuring all Nevada children have the economic opportunity they deserve. He previously served as the deputy superintendent for student achievement at the Nevada Department of Education. While there, he played a major role in the development and passage of a compressive suite of educational investments and reforms successfully passed in the 2015 Legislature. He previously served as the first director of Nevada’s newly created State Public Charter School Authority. His initial work there resulted in Nevada’s state charter school policy becoming one of the highest rated in the nation. Steve is serving his second term as a board member and treasurer at the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. He earned a bachelor’s in ecology and systematic biology from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a Ph.D. in educational leadership from the University of Nevada, Reno.