Bernard McCune

Senior Executive Director for Career and College Success, Denver Public Schools

Bernard McCune is the Senior Executive Director for Career and College Success for Denver Public Schools. He oversees all career and college initiatives including concurrent enrollment, counseling, CTE, Advanced Placement, IB, AVID and student engagement. Additionally he provides oversight for the 10,000 student Emily Griffith Technical College in Denver. He returned to DPS from RootED — a philanthropic organization in Denver dedicated to a quality public education for all students — where he served as a founding partner and Chief Portfolio and Talent Officer. 

Prior to joining RootED, Bernard served the Oakland Unified School District as Deputy Chief of Post-Secondary Readiness, providing leadership for district schools, principal supervisors and principals implementing college and career initiatives. Bernard held a similar role in DPS from 2012-14 as the head of the Office of College and Career Readiness, developing strategies that led to increased achievement in graduation rates, Advanced Placement, concurrent enrollment and the growth of career and technical education.

Bernard spent nearly a decade working in Chicago Public Schools, where he teamed with then-Superintendent Arne Duncan and Greg Darnieder to create what became a national model for increasing college access and success among low-income students, and with then-Senator Barack Obama to increase federal funding for district initiatives that increase postsecondary readiness and success.