2025 Superintendent of the Year Named Finalist for National Honor

Lamar CISD Superintendent Roosevelt Nivens has been selected as one of four finalists for the 2026 National Superintendent of the Year®, an award given by AASA, The School Superintendents Association. Earlier this year, Nivens was named TASB’s Superintendent of the Year.

The national award program, co-presented by AASA, Corebridge Financial, and Sourcewell, recognizes exceptional superintendents for their outstanding leadership and dedication to advancing public education in their communities. The four finalists were announced Dec. 15.

“Dr. Nivens is an inspiration to everyone who knows him,” said Kevin Brown, executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators, which nominated Nivens for the national honor. “His personal story is powerful, and it fuels his desire to help children and serve his community so very well. I have often heard him say that as a former offensive lineman, he moves things out of the way so that children can reach their potential and fulfill their dreams. Roosevelt is a man of integrity, faith, hard work and inspiration to all. He is an exceptional ambassador for Texas and the entire public education community.”

Nivens, president-elect of TASA, has served as superintendent of Lamar CISD, one of the fastest-growing districts in Texas, since 2021. Prior to that, he was superintendent of schools in Community ISD, a district encompassing four communities in a fast-growth area in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. He began his career in education in 1996 as a teacher in Dallas ISD before working as an assistant principal, principal, and assistant superintendent of achievement and organizational management in Lancaster ISD.

Nivens is passionate about ensuring that students have choices and opportunities, and he deeply believes in the power of “speaking life” into others, shaped in part by his own experience of having a teacher believe in him when he was a struggling student.

“Every day you walk into the boardroom, every day you walk into the office, every day you walk into the classroom, remember there’s a young person in there that is thirsty and hungry for you to see them and to help them,” Nivens said. “That’s what we do as educators. This is our purpose. And our purpose isn’t what we do. Our purpose is what happens to others when we do what we do.”

Nivens and the other finalists will meet the national education community during a press conference on Jan. 8 that will be livestreamed for journalists, public education advocates, and the finalists’ supporters. The 2026 National Superintendent of the Year will be announced, and the state nominees honored, at AASA’s National Conference on Education, Feb. 12-14 in Nashville.

Last September at txEDCON in Houston, Nivens was selected from a group of five state finalists as TASB’s SOTY winner for 2025. The TASB Member Services Committee said it selected Nivens because of his innovative approach to learning, his support for teachers as the key to improving instruction and student outcomes, and his recognition of public education as a way to change generations.

Sponsored by TASB and underwritten by Balfour, the SOTY program has recognized exemplary superintendents for excellence and achievement in educational leadership since 1984.