Chris Coffelt is a proud product of and has served in public education for 31 years. Chris has two sons, Quentin, who attends Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, and Matthew, who attends the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. His wife Tanya serves as Chair for the Gleazer School of Education at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa.  

Chris began his career at Liberty Public Schools in Liberty, Missouri working as a classroom teacher, assistant principal and principal before moving to Iowa in 2005 to work at Central Decatur Community School District. After starting as an elementary principal, Chris became a superintendent for Central Decatur CSD and Lamoni CSD, two independent districts in rural south central Iowa, where he has served for the past 14 years.  

During his tenure as superintendent, Central Decatur was one of two school districts in the state of Iowa to receive the Federal Teacher incentive Fund (TIF) grant in 2012, which initiated a formal partnership with NIET. This framework eventually established the basis for state funding of a teacher leadership system for all school districts in Iowa. Chris was named one of Education Week’s Leaders to Learn From in 2017 for the use of successful strategies to promote staff recruitment and retention in rural school districts and recently selected as the 2023 Iowa High School Athletic Directors Association Administrator of the Year.  

Chris earned his Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Iowa State University. He holds a Masters of Science in Educational Leadership from Northwest Missouri State University and an Educational Specialist in Educational Administration from the University of Missouri - Kansas City.