Jay Steele

Dr. Jay Steele is the president of the National Career Academy Coalition and the CEO of Steele Dynamics. Jay supports schools across the world in the college and career academy model. He works in Thailand, Vietnam, Guam, Hawaii, and several other states in this role. He is based in Jacksonville, FL. Jay is the former Chief Academic Officer for the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools in Nashville, Tennessee. He was responsible for the education of 81,000 students at 146 schools. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Western Kentucky University, a Master’s from the University of North Florida, and a Doctorate degree from Lipscomb University. In 1987, Jay began working with St. Augustine High School’s Coast One Winter Guard while completing his senior year in college. In 1988, Jay moved to Florida and began the Coast One Cadets, a middle school winter guard, in St. Augustine. The guard became very popular and quickly split into two performing groups. For ten years, the two groups placed first and second in every competition in the Florida Federation of Color Guard Circuit and at the First Coast WGI Regional held at the University of North Florida. Jay was also the assistant director of the Coast One Winter Guard at St. Augustine High School. During a 13 year span, St. Augustine High School competed national and internationally consistently placing in finals in Scholastic A, Open, and World class and winning a silver medal in Scholastic Open at the world championships. Jay was also on staff for the Ancient City Ensemble, silver medalist in Independent A at the 2000 world finals. During this 13 year span, Jay was on the board of directors for the Florida Federation of Color Guards serving as secretary. He worked with the board of directors to establish the premier east and west competitions, the circuit championships, establish consistent policies and procedures, and establish the circuit as the premier color guard circuit in Florida.