Joe Watkins

In December 2012, Mr. Watkins was appointed Receiver for the District by the Court of Common Pleas of Pennsylvania after the Board of the Chester Upland School District rejected the Financial Recovery Plan. Joe Watkins was appointed Chief Recovery Officer for the Chester Upland School District by Pennsylvania Education Secretary Ron Tomalis in August 2012. Watkins was selected salutatorian of the sixth grade from his public elementary school and subsequently won a scholarship to and graduated from the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. He subsequently earned degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and the Princeton Theological Seminary. He has worked as a government relations professional at Buchanan Ingersoll and Rooney, as assistant to the President of the University of Pennsylvania and also as a managing director and equity partner in an asset management firm. He previously worked on the U.S. Senate staff of Senator Dan Quayle and on the White House staff of President George H. W. Bush. He is a former host of CNN’s Crossfire and has hosted Praise the Lord on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. He serves regularly as a political analyst on MSNBC, CNBC and Fox 29. Previously the chairman of Students First Corp, Watkins is also the Pastor of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church in North Philadelphia. Married to Stephanie Taylor Watkins, he and his wife are the parents of three children and a son-in-law and have two grandchildren.