U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today named Susan Patrick as the director of the Office of Educational Technology (OET) in the Office of the Secretary. Patrick had served as acting director since February 2, 2004, when she replaced former director John Bailey, who left to join the reelection campaign of President Bush.

Patrick is responsible for coordinating programs and policies on technology to further the mission of the department and the No Child Left Behind Act, including virtual education and e-learning, student data management systems, online assessments, and the National Education Technology Plan.

The OET provides leadership to the nation in using technology to promote student achievement and to increase opportunities for all students to achieve the goals of No Child Left Behind by supporting the overall national technology policy. It recommends policies to promote increased use of technology and technology planning throughout all programs administered by the Department. The OET is leading the development of the National Education Technology Plan under Paige, reviews all relevant programs supported by the department and helps to ensure that such programs are coordinated across the federal government.

Before moving to Washington, Patrick worked for the state of Arizona on technology issues and coordinated the Digital State Survey 2002, in which Arizona was ranked first in the nation. She served as former Gov. Jane Dee Hull's liaison to the legislature and the press on technology and served in the Government Information Technology Agency. Patrick was awarded the 2002 Governor's Recognition Award for Excellence for her role in the "Telecommunications Open Partnerships for Arizona" (TOPAZ) program. In the late 1990s, she directed a distance learning campus for the Old Dominion University TELETECHNET program in Virginia and opened the first site in Arizona.

Patrick received her master's degree from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California in Communication Management, specializing in technology policy. She also has a bachelor's degree in English from The Colorado College and was the first woman to play in the men's intramural football league.

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