Alan Bersin is Secretary of Education for the State of California, serving as primary education advisor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Prior to his appointment in 2005, Bersin served as superintendent of public education in San Diego, a post he began in July 1998. Before that, he worked as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, during which time he was named the attorney general's Southwest border representative. Bersin was appointed by Gov. Gray Davis to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and served as chairman of the commission from April 2000 to November 2002. He also serves as a trustee of the Neurosciences Institute, is a member of the Harvard University board of overseers and is an advisory board member for the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at University of California, San Diego. In addition, he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Pacific Council on International Policy. He was a practicing attorney from 1975 through 1992 with the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles. Bersin earned a bachelor's degree at Harvard, studied at Balliol College of the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and earned a law degree at Yale Law School.