Julia Keleher

Keleher grew up as an only child in an Italian community in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Cardinal O'Hara High School[1] in 1992. Keleher earned her BA in Political Science (1996) and her Master's in Psychological Services (1998) from the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership (2007) from the University of Delaware and received her Master of Business Administration from Strayer University in 2013. She is a certified Project Management Professional from the Project Management Institute (2009) and is certified in Strategic Decision Making and Risk Management from Stanford University.

Keleher & Associates, LLC

In 2009, Keleher founded Keleher & Associates, in Washington, D.C., a planning and project management firm. On August 8, 2016, the firm obtained a contract with the PRDE for $231,030 dollars; the contract was valid until June 30, 2017.[2]

Keleher in 2018

On December 28, 2016, Keleher was appointed Puerto Rico Secretary of Education by Governor-elect Ricardo Rosselló.[2] In her new role, Keleher said her goals were to transform the K-12 educational system by decentralizing the system, where previously all of the decision-making was held with the Office of the Secretary. She instituted seven Local Education Agency (LEA) districts, located in San Juan, Bayamón, Caguas, Humacao, Ponce, Arecibo and Mayagüez, with delegating authority, local decision-making, accountability and new structures.

On July 10, 2019, Keleher was arrested in Washington D.C. by the FBI and accused of unlawfully steering approximately $15 million in federal contracts to politically connected consultants during her tenure as Secretary of Education for Puerto Rico.[3] On January 14, 2020, Keleher was again indicted by the FBI on allegations she used school land for personal gain while Secretary of Education for Puerto Rico.[4] Keleher filed motions to dismiss in both cases and maintains her innocence.[5][6]

On September 20, 2017, Puerto Rico was hit by the most devastating hurricane in 100 years. Hurricane Maria made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane and crossed the island from southeast to north, causing a huge amount of physical and emotional devastation and an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. The hurricane left 95% of the island without communications, food, water and medical care, and all 3.4 million residents lost electrical power.

Like everything else on the island, schools were damaged and school were closed. A total of 164 schools were used as shelters for 9,931 people as a huge number of homes had been completely destroyed. Many of the schools that were not used as shelters were severely damaged by the hurricane, and an estimated 44 schools would never reopen.

World Central Kitchen chef José Andrés begged Keleher to use her power to order schools to open their kitchens and cook for their communities. Unsure if school officials would even receive the message because the internet and telephone service was down on the entire island Keleher posted a message, on her social media accounts, telling school officials they had permission to use school kitchens to provide food for hungry Puerto Ricans, who were struggling to find food in the days following Hurricane Maria. Later, a school administrator explained to Andrés that schools are required to do just that, by law.[7]

On October 23, 2017, 33 days after the storm, the PRDE re-opened 152 schools in the regions of San Juan and Mayagüez. The department was then able to open more schools, starting on a weekly basis and then on a daily basis. As of November 13, 2017, a total of 755 schools had been re-opened, many of them without power but with running water. Keleher had first estimated that 80% of the schools would be open by mid-November; it turned out that a total of 932 schools (84%) had re-opened by November 16. The PRDE adjusted the school calendar so that students would be able to complete the 2017–2018 academic year.

Keleher argued the hurricane provided Puerto Rico with an opportunity to reform the public school system, citing comparable changes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.[8] On November 8, 2017, US Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló, and Secretary Julia Keleher, paid a joint visit to the Loaiza Cordero School in the Santurce district of San Juan. Secretary DeVos announced that $2 million of federal funds would be awarded by the ED to aid in the recovery of the schools.[9] Keleher continued to work with the ED, private businesses and non-profit organizations in an attempt to help speed the recovery and transformation of the PRDE.