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John Kaminar served for ten years in the U.S. Army and twenty in the U.S. Army Reserve.  He has been a foreign language teacher and administrator in Arkansas schools before joining the DESE staff as a curriculum specialist in 2012.  He has a B.A. in Russian and German from Texas A. and M. University, an M.Ed. in secondary education from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and is a graduate of Army Command and General Staff College and Air Command and Staff College.  His military service has included an initial assignment in Germany, service with the international peacekeeping mission in Egypt, combat service with the 101st Airborne Division in the Persian Gulf War, and command of a training mission for the Afghan National Army.  He concluded his military service with assignment as State Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officer for Arkansas.  He retired from the service in 2013 with the rank of colonel.  John has served as Arkansas' commissioner for the Military Interstate Children's Compact Commission since 2015, and was national chair of the Commission from 2018-2021.  He chairs the Arkansas Council for Military Children, which is responsible for a number of programs to benefit children of military families.  Currently John serves with the Office of School Choice and Parent Empowerment at the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, where he assists school districts with their Family and Community Engagement Plans and advises on best practices to support military-connected children.  He is married to the amazing former Toni Davis, with whom he has raised three equally amazing children.  The Kaminar family are proud of their record of service; John's father was a fighter pilot in World War II, Toni's father was an artilleryman in the Vietnam War, and sons Ben (an artillery officer) and Jonathan (a combat medic) served in the War in Iraq, while Toni serves our nation's veterans as a patient advocate in the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System.