Dr. Douglas R. Major, Superintendent/CEO of Meridian Technology Center, was recently sworn in as President of the Association of Career and Technical Education (ACTE), the largest professional organization in the world dedicated to career and technical education.

His appointment will continue through 2022. During this time, he will serve as President and then Past-President for the national association. This will be the second time Major has been elected to serve as an officer on the ACTE Board of Directors. He was elected President-Elect of the organization in 2012 and served the organization until 2015.

Major’s career in education began in 1985 after completing his bachelor’s degree in Agriculture Education at Oklahoma State University. He taught for two years at Anadarko High School and then had the opportunity to join the Technology Center System as an administrative intern at Meridian Technology Center. For 13 years, he worked in various administrative capacities at the school. During his tenure at Meridian Technology Center, he also completed both his master’s and doctoral degrees from OSU. In 2000, Major was selected as the Superintendent/CEO of Pioneer Technology Center in Ponca City. He held this position before returning to Meridian Technology Center in November 2008 as Superintendent.

Throughout his 35-year career in education, Dr. Major has participated in many local boards as well as state and national associations. He has held offices in the Oklahoma Technology Center Superintendents’ Association, the Oklahoma Council of Local Administrators, the Oklahoma Association of Career and Technical Education and the National Council of Local Administrators for Career and Technical Education. Major was selected to participate in the first National Leadership Institute sponsored by the National Centers for Career and Technical Education and has served as the Vice President of the Administrative Division for the Association of Career and Technical Education. He is a graduate of Leadership Stillwater and Leadership Oklahoma and has served on the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission.  Major coordinated ACTE’s national leadership development program, the ACTE Fellowship Program, from 2016 to 2019. 

The Journal Record named Dr. Major one of Oklahoma’s Most Admired CEOs in 2012. He received the Francis Tuttle Career Excellence Award from the Oklahoma Association of Career and Technology Education in 2017. On the international stage, Dr. Major traveled to Harbin, China, on behalf of ACTE to collaborate with Harbin Railway Construction Engineering School. These trips were a part of China’s national effort to develop new resources and methods for producing skilled workers through an expansion of their technical education system.