Desmond K. Blackburn is the President and CEO of Facing History & Ourselves. Before joining Facing History & Ourselves, Blackburn was Deputy Chancellor of School Leadership for the New York City Department of Education, the largest school system in the nation. In this role, he oversaw executive superintendents in addition to all-district and high school superintendents. Prior to that, he served as CEO of the New Teacher Center, a national nonprofit that works to disrupt the predictability of educational inequities for systemically underserved students by accelerating educator effectiveness.

His career in education began in 1996 as a high school math teacher. From there, he went to the Broward County Public School system in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he started as an Assistant Principal and subsequently served as Principal, Director of School Improvement, Area Superintendent, and then Chief of School Performance & Accountability. In 2015, he became the Superintendent of Schools for Brevard Public Schools in Florida.

Blackburn has served both state and national organizations, including the Florida Association of District School Superintendents (FADSS) and Chiefs For Change. He sits on the Board of Educational Resource Strategies and is a fellow at the Broad Academy and Pahara Institute, as well as an Advisory Committee Member for The Broad Center at the Yale School of Management. He received a BS in mathematics from the University of Florida, along with graduate degrees in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University (MS) and Florida Atlantic University (PhD).