On Aug. 2, the SCC executive committee appointed Richard Carey to serve as the superintendent of education, filling the position left vacant when previous superintendent Jim Clizbe accepted a call to serve as administrative pastor of the La Sierra University church.

Richard Carey has had extensive experience in education, serving most recently as principal of Thunderbird Academy in Arizona. Prior to that, he was superintendent of schools in the Illinois Conference and, earlier, an associate superintendent for that conference.

Carey has served on the west coast as principal of Sacramento Adventist Academy and as a principal/teacher of the Midland, Kan.; Columbia, S.C.; and Redding, Calif., junior academies. (The latter school is now a senior academy.) He also has taught in Maryland and Kentucky.

Carey holds a master's degree in educational administration from Andrews University and a bachelor's in community services from Southern Adventist University.

He serves on the NAD technology and distance education committee, which develops distance education policies and guidelines and serves as a resource for distance education development in the denomination. The committee also facilitates the integration of technology in the instructional process.

While in Illinois Carey, a history buff, volunteered as a tour guide and docent at Chicago’s Museum of Natural History and enjoys golfing.

Richard and his wife, Bonnie, a nurse, have two adult daughters: Merrilyn Carey Johnson, who is married to James Johnson, a youth pastor in Zephyrhills, Fla. The couple are the parents of the Careys’ first grandchild, Carys Leigh. Allison Carey is a third year medical student at Loma Linda.