President Trump has nominated an Iowan to a leadership role in the U.S. Department of Education.
Businessman David Barker of Iowa City is a current member of the board that governs the three state universities. He has been nominated to be Assistant U.S. Secretary of Postsecondary Education. The post had been held since 2022 by Nasser Paydar, the former chancellor of Indiana University, but in April Paydar was named the president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
Barker studied at the London School of Economics and has a PhD in economics from the University of Chicago. After working as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Barker moved back to his hometown of Iowa City in 1994 and he has taught classes at the University of Iowa and the University of Chicago.
Barker owns apartments, office buildings, an entertainment venue and convenience stores and he is currently the Iowa Republican Party’s finance chair. His appointment to head the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Postsecondary Education must be confirmed by a vote in the United States Senate. He nomination was submitted to the senate this week.
Barker was recently confirmed by the Iowa Senate to another term of the state Board of Regents.