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Ron Tomalis is a counselor to U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Prior to this appointment, which Secretary Paige announced on January 15, 2004, Tomalis was Acting Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education. Tomalis is also Chief of Staff in the Under Secretary's office. He joined the Bush Administration in that capacity in May of 2001. During his time at the Department of Education, Tomalis has had an active leadership role in the implementation of No Child Left Behind.

For six years prior to joining the United States Department of Education, Tomalis was the Executive Deputy Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was appointed to the position by Governor Tom Ridge in December of 1995. In that capacity, he was the principal advisor to the Pennsylvania Secretary of Education and spearheaded many of the reform initiatives proposed by Governor Ridge. Pennsylvania has over 1.9 million K-12 students and spends more than $19 billion annually on K-12 public education.

For 10 years prior to joining the Department of Education, Tomalis served at the U.S. Department of Justice in a variety of positions resulting in assignments around the country and overseas in countries such as Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti. For the last four years of his time at the Department of Justice, Tomalis served in the Community Relations Service, a conflict resolution agency of the Department that works to resolve racial conflict in communities across the country. An important focus of this work was addressing the increasing racial tensions in various secondary and post-secondary educational institutions.

Tomalis was graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He is married and is the father of three very energetic daughters.