Last updated: December 18, 2009
B i o g r a p h y
Jon
Conley was born, raised and has lived his entire life in Tallahassee and
Leon County. He is a product of the Leon County Public School System and is a graduate of Florida State University. As the son and student of
a former High
School Principal and former Leon County School Board member, Jon learned early the value of hard work and
dedication.
From his grandfather, a former School Board member in Macon, Georgia Jon
learned the importance of getting involved and serving ones community.
It is through these and the many other life lessons he learned from his
family, Jon developed a strong work ethic and a dedication to public
service.
Jon started his professional career as the Special Assistant to the Executive Director of the Florida Community College System in 1994. After two years, he moved to Commissioner of Education Frank Brogan’s office were he managed constituent services for both the Commissioner’s office and the entire Department of Education. A year after starting in this position, he was asked to represent the Commissioner in the department’s Legislative Affairs office.
For the next several years Jon served in the Florida Department of Education's Legislative Affairs office under the direction of four different Commissioners of Education. During this time, he served as a registered lobbyist for the department and was instrumental in facilitating the passage of key education legislation.
In early 2002, Jon was invited to go and work for then Governor Jeb Bush’s office. There he served as an educational policy analyst, where he worked on K-12 and educational technology issues with state-wide impact. During his tenure in the Executive Office of the Governor, Jon had the opportunity to work on a number of important policy issues and represent the Governor's Office on several national panels. He also worked on a range of state level issues from the reduction of Class-size to Universal PreKindergarten.
In the spring of 2003, Jon again was asked to return to the Florida Department of Education’s newly restructured Governmental Relations office and serve as the K-12 Governmental Relations Liaison under then Commissioner Jim Horne. He would stay in this role until December of 2004 when he would leave state service and join the team of Emergent Design and Development in 2005.
Jon currently serves at Director of Policy Research for Emergent Design and Development (EDD) in Tallahassee, Florida. EDD is private governmental relations and education consulting firm that provides consulting services to the Florida education community. In his role at EDD, Inc. Jon serves as an advocate for a number of teacher groups, several Florida School districts and represents a number of other educational interest from around the state of Florida and the nation.
In the Fall of 2007 Jon announced his candidacy for the Leon County School Board, District 4 seat. He spent the following year campaigning and working to serve the voters of Leon County. Unfortunately this first run for office did not work out for him, but served as the catalyst for his further involvement in local politics and government.
In December of 2008, Jon was elected to serve a 2 year term as Vice chairman to the Leon County Republican Executive Committee where he hopes to increase the exposure of the Local Republican Party and work with other Republicans in Leon County to change the image of the Local party. In addition to working to give the Republican Party greater exposure in predominately democratic Leon county, Jon hopes to reach out to fellow conservative voters from all parties and help bring them together to fight against the liberal and progressive agendas of our local and federal elected officials.
Jon is married and currently resides in northeast Leon County with his wife Heather. They enjoy travel, photography, shooting and the outdoors and watching Formula 1 racing.
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- © 2006-2009 Jon Conley All rights reserved.