George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Miami Division, announces the selection of Mr. Alberto M. Carvalho for the FBI Director’s 2014 Community Leadership Award in recognition of his work enhancing students’ academic enrichment.

The award will be personally presented by FBI Director James Comey in Washington, D.C. in early 2015.

As superintendent of the nation’s fourth largest school system, he successfully elevated his school district’s academic profile and streamlined its business and financial systems in an effort to better serve children throughout Miami Dade County.

Mr. Carvalho’s work includes:

• Success Academy Tutoring Initiative: this program was created to help students in struggling schools prepare for state exams.
• Terra Environmental Research Institute: this initiative is a partnership between Miami Dade Public Schools (M-DCPS) and the Discovery Channel that educates and informs students of the co-habitation of living organisms in the environment and the behaviors exhibited by these organisms.
• A $1.2 billion bond to upgrade existing schools, build new facilities, and provide technology upgrades to every school in the District was overwhelmingly endorsed by voters.
• Miami-Dade County Public Schools initiated and completed a digital transformation, providing wireless Internet service at all school sites, four years ahead of the national average, as cited by the president of the United States during a visit earlier this year.

As a result of Carvalho’s commitment to children’s education, the school district was named winner of the 2012 Broad Prize for Education, the highest honor for K-12 education in the country. The College Board named M-DCPS the AP District of the year, and M-DCPS recently became the largest fully accredited school district in the world. Earlier this year, Carvalho received the 2014 National Superintendent of the Year Award from the American Association of School Administrators.

Previous Director’s Community Leadership Award recipients from South Florida include former NBA star Alonzo Mourning, the Anti-Defamation League, Handy Inc, Ms. Essie Reed, Miami Dade County’s Asian American Advisory Board, and Constance Collins from the Lotus House in Miami Dade County.