Kelvin Roldán

Dr. Kelvin Roldán Dávila is an innovative leader with extensive experience managing change in education and government. He is a former State Representative for Connecticut’s 4th Assembly District and Deputy Majority Leader of the House of Representatives. During his professional career, he has served as an advisor to the mayor and three superintendents, in Connecticut's capital, Hartford. He led the policy office of the City of Hartford and the institutional advancement strategy of the Hartford Public Schools. In those roles, he co-developed the district’s reform strategy and secured over $80 million for the district’s strategic priorities. As a result of those efforts, Hartford's achievement gap was closed by one-third. He is also a founder of several organizations, including Hartford Promise and Hartford Performs. He is also Director Emeritus of Hartford Youth Scholars and a member of the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts Board of Overseers.

Kelvin holds a B.A. in Chinese language and literature and in political science from Middlebury College, an M.A. in public policy from Trinity College, a professional diploma in educational leadership from the University of Connecticut, and a doctorate (Ed.L.D.) in education leadership from Harvard University, where he was a Judith K. Dimon Fellow. He studied advanced Chinese at the Middlebury College Chinese School, and advanced and classical Chinese at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China. He was also an English-Speaking Union Scholar at the Giggleswick School in England and a WALKS Scholar at Avon Old Farms School in Connecticut. He was born in Gurabo, Puerto Rico and raised in Hartford, CT.

In his role as Deputy Commissioner for System Transformation, Rhode Island Department of Education, he is responsible for school and district improvement, special education, English Learners, COVID-19 response, Providence Public Schools oversight, and several other departments/functions. Dr. Roldán also holds an appointment as an Adjunct Professorial Lecturer at the American University School of Education, where he teaches public policy analysis and K12 policy to doctoral students enrolled in the Ed.D. program in Education Policy and Leadership.