Robert M. Heard Sr. participates in a virtual assembly of Ohio School Boards Association delegates.

CMSD NEWS BUREAU

10/29/2020

Robert M. Heard Sr., vice chair of the Cleveland Board of Education, has been elected president-elect of the Ohio School Boards Association.

More than 200 OSBA delegates, meeting virtually Thursday, confirmed a nominating committee’s selection of Heard from among three applicants for the position. Cleveland board member Lisa Thomas seconded the nomination.

Heard will spend 2021 as president-elect before beginning a one-year term as president of the OSBA Board of Trustees.

The OSBA provides the state’s local school boards with training, consulting and advocacy in policy, management, school finance and other areas. 

Heard was appointed to the Cleveland school board in 2004 and since then has been reappointed four times. He served as board chair from 2007-09 and has held the post of vice chair since 2017.

Heard is retired from State Farm Insurance and the Cleveland Clinic and previously taught English in CMSD’s Adult Education Program.

He is a member of the Neighborhood Connections grants committee and 100 Black Men of Greater Cleveland and vice president of the Cleveland Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.

An alumnus of John Adams High School, Heard holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Cleveland State University. He earned the title of fellow from the Broad Institute and completed the Executive Leadership Program for Educators at Harvard University.

He lives in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood with his wife and two daughters.