Raymond J. McNulty was Vermont Commissioner of Education from 2001 to 2003. During the tenure of McNulty's successor Armando Vilaseca, the Vermont legislature made this position the cabinet-level office of Vermont Secretary of Education. McNulty had been an educator for 28 years before assuming office as Vermont Commissioner of Education. He received his B.A. from Bridgewater State College in 1973 and his M.A. from Johnson State College in 1977. In 2002, Marlboro College awarded McNulty an honorary doctorate.
Since leaving government, Raymond J. McNulty has served as chief learning officer at Penn Foster College, as dean of the School of Education at Southern New Hampshire University, and is currently president of the International Center for Leadership in Education. McNulty was also a senior fellow at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He began an earlier association with the foundation while still serving as Vermont Commissioner of Education.