Biography: Kelly Scott

Kelly Scott

Vice President

Kelly Scott is Vice President of Margaret Spellings & Company, where she works closely with clients on strategic program development, management and execution, as well as policy development, analysis and communications.  Her experience spans the private, non-profit and government sectors, including both the legislative and executive branches.

Scott came to the firm from the Aspen Institute’s Commission on No Child Left Behind, a bipartisan effort dedicated to improving the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), where she was Director of Policy and Research. Previously, she served at the U.S. Department of Education as Associate Assistant Deputy Secretary in the Office of Innovation and Improvement, where she helped oversee NCLB’s public school choice and supplemental educational services provisions, and as Chief of Staff in the Department’s Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development. While at the Department, she led a team that developed regulations to enhance student privacy, school safety, and education research in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

Scott previously served as Associate Director at the White House Domestic Policy Council, crafting Administration policy, budget proposals, messaging, and presidential events on education, global competitiveness, faith-based and community initiatives, and volunteerism, among other issues. Scott came to the White House from Capitol Hill, where she served as policy advisor to Senator Lamar Alexander, chairman of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Education and Early Childhood Development, legislative assistant to Senator Judd Gregg, and research assistant at the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. In these capacities, she worked on the Higher Education Act, Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, Workforce Investment Act, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and Head Start Act, among other legislation. She began her career at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, an organization devoted to K-12 education reform.  Scott holds a B.A. in Politics from Washington and Lee University, where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.