Michael Horning, Jr. is a passionate educational leader whom has served in a variety of educational settings. From a middle school social studies teacher and museum educator to the associate director of an award-winning research center at the University at Buffalo, Michael has led a variety of technology-based educational initiatives in curriculum, instruction, professional development and leadership evaluation. With the support of the University at Buffalo, Michael co-founded 3rd Learning in 2007 in creating one of the most successful SUNY spin-off companies in the education sector.
Michael successfully defended his dissertation, “Gender Bias in New York State Superintendent Evaluations: A Multi-Year Quantitative Study”, and achieved his Ed.D. on March 6, 2020. Michael’s research-based standards of excellence in superintendent evaluations led to the foundational design of the web-based SuperEval platform. SuperEval operationalizes these standards of excellence in leadership evaluation. For his work in leadership evaluation, Michael was the recent recipient of two prestigious awards given to an individual not employed by a school district whose work has made a significant impact on public education. Over the years, Michael has shared his passion and ideas as an accepted presenter at over 100 state, national and international education conferences.
Most importantly, when not traveling, Michael treasures his time with his wife, adult son, and two children residing in his beloved community of Buffalo, NY.