Gov. Tina Kotek chooses new education adviser from Oregon Department of Education

Gov. Tina Kotek this week hired a new education adviser to replace the previous one who left six months ago to lead the state’s teacher licensing department.

The new adviser, Rachael Moser, 37, is a former director at the Oregon Department of Education in the office of education, innovation and improvement. She’s the first addition to Kotek’s cabinet following the exodus of four high-profile staff in the last month. Moser’s first day in the governor’s office will be Monday, April 22, according to spokesperson Elisabeth Shepard. 

Shepard said Moser will coordinate work across state K-12 education agencies, with a focus on supporting social and emotional investments for students, updating the state’s education funding formula and incorporating lessons learned from the Student Success Act, which Moser oversaw after it passed in 2019. The act provides $2.35 billion to schools every two years to address student mental and behavioral health, class sizes and academic disparities among students.

Moser joined the state education department in the fall of 2019, following two years in school design and funding roles for Boston Public Schools. Prior to that she held several program coordinator and assistant positions, one at the National Education Association Foundation, a nonprofit affiliated with the National Education Association – the country’s largest teacher’s union – and a Washington D.C.-based literacy organization called Everybody Wins.

Moser holds a bachelor’s degree in religion, sociology and anthropology from Denison University in Granville, Ohio and a master’s degree in education policy and management from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass, according to her resume.

She’ll work closely with Kotek’s education initiatives director Pooja Bhatt, a consultant who also advised former Gov. Kate Brown. Bhatt is tasked with advancing policies to improve student outcomes. These are typically measured as graduation rates, post-secondary enrollment rates, attendance rates and reading, and math and science comprehension as measured on state and federal assessment tests. 

She’ll earn nearly $150,000 a year, Shepard said.