Lee Burket has served as the Director of Career and Technical Education with the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) for 17 years prior to retiring in 2023. Her role as Director was to plan, develop and direct statewide programs to improve career and technical education (CTE) offered at secondary schools and institutions of higher education. She developed program policies, goals and priorities in collaboration with CTE leaders across the state and bureau staff. While serving as Director of CTE with PDE, Lee served on the national board of Advance CTE, an association of state directors of CTE.
Lee earned her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees at The Pennsylvania State University and earned her teacher and administrative certifications. She has held leadership positions at secondary schools that provide CTE including oversight of the adult CTE programs.
Lee served as a teacher of secondary CTE for 8 years prior to moving to Georgia to earn her doctorate. She also worked at the University of Georgia developing statewide program standards and curriculum for technical institutes.
Lee was a student in the EPLC fellowship program, 2003-2004, and served on EPLC’s Study Group that reviewed the status of CTE in Pennsylvania to identify issues and challenges and to provide recommendations to policy leaders. In 2022, she received the prestigious Edward Donley Education Policy Leadership Award.
Lee is currently enjoying retirement after working over 40 years in education.