Steven Alan Minter, an African American leader in Cleveland, was the first Under Secretary at the newly created agency, appointed by President Carter in 1979.

[1] Minter's deputies were Margaret McKenna, a civil rights attorney, and Michael Bakalis, who had recently run as the Democratic candidate for governor of Illinois.

[7] Among a number of deputies was Bruce Carnes, who played a major role in the administration's efforts to address problems of fraud and abuse by for-profit colleges.

[10] In 1993 President Clinton appointed Marshall (Mike) Smith, an advocate of standards-based school reform, to serve as his Under Secretary.

[15] The higher education focus of the Under Secretary office was continued by President Obama, who named Martha J. Kanter, a community college leader from California, to the role.

[16] [17] Kanter resigned in 2013 and was replaced by Ted Mitchell, the CEO of the NewSchools Venture Fund and former president of Occidental College.

He did continue the higher education focus of the position, appointing a deputy, Diane Auer Jones, as acting Under Secretary for the bulk of the administration.