Faculty Profile: Emily Ogden

Emily Ogden has spent her entire professional career working on policy and legislation from a legal, governmental and non-profit perspective. She began her career with the Comptroller's Office of Education Accountability where she was responsible for research for the legislature on a variety of issues including pre-k and school accountability. After law school, Emily specialized in education law at the firm Lewis, King, Krieg and Waldrop where she worked on litigation in areas such as special education, first amendment/constitutional law, and administrative hearings. She also lobbied on behalf of the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents. In 2007 after the re-election of Governor Bredesen, Emily was asked to serve as Legislative Liaison with a particular focus in Governor Bredesen's education legislative agenda. During this time, she helped to pass a major reform of the state's education funding model "BEP 2.0" along with a cigarette tax increase to fund the cost of new spending in the new funding model. Most recently, Ogden has served as the Tennessee Political Director at Stand for Children, providing grassroots campaign support for the Race to the Top legislative package, continued funding for pre-k, and support for Governor Haslam's tenure bill and charter legislation.