Status: đź”´ Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Education (confirmed 2025)
Kimberly M. Richey is the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, confirmed by the Senate in a 51–47 party-line vote in 2025. She leads the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), responsible for enforcing Title IX and other civil rights laws in federally funded education programs. Under Richey, OCR has aggressively targeted transgender inclusion in schools, including the Title IX investigation into Smith College prompted by its decision to admit transgender women and honor Dr. Rachel Levine.
In May 2026, Richey announced a Title IX investigation into Smith College, one of the nation’s oldest women’s colleges, over its policy of admitting transgender women. The investigation was prompted by a complaint from the conservative advocacy group Defending Education, whose first exhibit was Smith’s announcement of an honorary degree for Dr. Rachel Levine, the first openly transgender person confirmed to a federal office.
Richey stated: “An all-women’s college loses all meaning if it is admitting biological males. Allowing biological males into spaces designed for women raises serious concerns about privacy, fairness, and compliance under federal law. The Trump Administration will continue to uphold the law and fight to restore common sense.”
Richey has been a vocal critic of Title IX protections for transgender students. On a Federalist Society webinar, she criticized the Biden administration’s Title IX regulations for allowing transgender students to use facilities matching their gender identity, saying: “Unfortunately, under the final rule, there are certain intimate facilities that are not included in those exceptions, and that’s why you’re hearing the outcry from folks across the country.”
She also suggested that using correct pronouns for transgender students could violate First Amendment rights, stating that the Biden rules “left open this idea of whether not abiding by someone’s pronouns would be misgendering.”
Richey holds a J.D. from the University of Oklahoma and a Bachelor of Science in Education from Southern Nazarene University (Bethany, Oklahoma). She is a certified teacher and licensed to practice law in Oklahoma, Texas, and the District of Columbia. She is a native of Corpus Christi, Texas.
Richey’s federal career spans three administrations:
Served as managing director of federal advocacy and public policy at the NSBA.
Represented the Oklahoma State Department of Education, the State Board of Education, and the state superintendent of public instruction as general counsel. Also served as general counsel and associate director of the Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training, a postsecondary education agency focused on peace officer training.
Served as senior chancellor at the Florida Department of Education, a high-ranking position overseeing Florida’s public and private higher education institutions — including the Divisions of Florida Colleges, Career and Adult Education, Vocational Rehabilitation, Blind Services, the Office of Workforce Education, and the Commission for Independent Education.
Through her consultancy RealignEd LLC, Richey drafted education-related legislation and policy for conservative governors and think tanks, including:
Richey represents the weaponization of the Office for Civil Rights to pursue culture war targets rather than genuine civil rights enforcement. Under her leadership, OCR has: