ACT Board of Directors

The Honorable Richard W. Riley
Former Secretary of Education
Senior Partner, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarbrough

Richard W. Riley, former U.S. secretary of education (1993-2001), is a senior partner in both the Greenville and Columbia, South Carolina, offices of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, LLP, where he counsels clients on business, governance, and financial matters, and works with the partners to develop strategy in complex legal matters.

A former governor of South Carolina (1979-87), Riley returned to Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough as a partner in 2001. With full support of the firm, Riley remains an ambassador for improving education in the United States and abroad. Riley is a distinguished university professor of education at the University of South Carolina and a distinguished professor of government, politics, and public leadership at the Richard W. Riley Institute at Furman University. The College of Education at Winthrop University bears his name.

He received a J.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1959 and a bachelor’s degree in political science, cum laude, from Furman University in 1954. Riley is the recipient of numerous honorary degrees from American universities and schools abroad.

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