Since early 2022, Tony has served as Executive Vice President and Chief of Staff for National Center for Families Learning (NCFL). Tony Peyton is an accomplished professional with more than 25 years of public policy, project/grant management, lobbying and advocacy, and philanthropic experience in the nonprofit and governmental sectors working to ensure families and their children have access to the resources they need to thrive. Tony has policy expertise in sectors including education (early care and education, K-12, postsecondary, adult education), workforce, poverty reduction, violence prevention, and social services.
Before returning to NCFL, Tony served as the Program Director at the C.E. and S. Foundation, a private family foundation focused on education grantmaking, where he led the development and execution of a grantmaking strategy focused on important issues such as early childhood education, K-12, Out-of School Time, postsecondary education, family stability, and family engagement. He previously served on Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer’s senior staff as the Director of Public Policy, a role in which he created, developed, and managed the city’s Cradle to Career initiative. He also served as the primary liaison for the mayor with local, state, and national education institutions and organizations. Earlier in his career, Tony was the Senior Director of Policy and Government Relations at the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL), where he was responsible for federal and state policy, lobbying, and advocacy activities.
Tony serves on the Board of Directors of the National Civic League, Community Coordinated Child Care (4-C), and the University of Louisville’s Early Learning Campus and Early Childhood Research Center. He was also a founding member of the Board of Advisors of the Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy at Penn State University. In 2020, Tony was one of ten people in the country chosen for the inaugural cohort of the National League of Cities (NLC)’s Early Childhood Municipal Fellowship sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Bezos Family Foundation, and Pritzker Children’s Initiative.
Tony attended Paducah Community College, received his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Louisville, and completed the Certificate Program in Legislative Studies at Georgetown University’s Government Affairs Institute.
Tony was raised in Paducah and still has family in McCracken, Marshall, and Hopkins Counties.
