The VCF Staff

Peter Blake recently retired from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, where he served as its director from 2012 to 2024. He previously worked as a vice chancellor for the Virginia Community College System, as  Deputy Secretary and Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and as a legislative analyst for the Virginia House Appropriations Committee.

He began his work for the Commonwealth at the Department of Planning and Budget and SCHEV. Out of college, he worked for several publications in the greater Richmond area.

He holds a history degree and a mass communications degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, where he served as editor of the Commonwealth Times. He is a member of the 2008 class of Lead Virginia and completed The Executive Program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business in 2016. He has served on several state and regional education-related boards, including the Richmond Public Library and the Richmond Public Library Foundation.

Thomas M. Jett has served as the Executive Secretary to the President since December 2021. After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in journalism in 2019, Jett worked as a server at Can Can Brasserie and the administrator for his family’s brokerage company.

A proud, life-long Virginian and beneficiary of a private high school education, Jett is excited and passionate about working to expand access to higher education throughout the Commonwealth.