At its meeting Aug. 5, the Kentucky Board of Education conducted its first review of applicants for the position of commissioner of education.

As allowed under KRS 61.810 (1)(f), the review was conducted in closed session. After returning to open session, the board voted to ask the search firm to seek additional information on 15 of the applicants, who represent both in state and out of state candidates. Pending review of that information, the board will conduct the first round of interviews in the process to select Kentucky’s next commissioner of education. Those interviews are currently scheduled Aug. 14-15 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Louisville.

The Kentucky Board of Education also named Kevin C. Brown, associate commissioner and general counsel for the Kentucky Department of Education, as interim commissioner of education.

Brown will take over the commissioner’s duties on Sept. 1 following the retirement of current Commissioner of Education Terry Holliday on Aug. 31 and will serve until a new commissioner is hired and on the job. He will be compensated at a salary equivalent to $150,000 a year.

Brown is chief attorney for the Commissioner of Education and the Kentucky Board of Education. As associate commissioner for the Office of Guiding Support Services, he also oversees the department’s Division of Communications and the process for investigating state testing violations.

Previously, Brown was an assistant attorney general in Kentucky and a law clerk in the Lexington office of Bowles Rice LLP.

Brown earned a bachelor’s in business management, with a minor in political science from Transylvania University. He received a juris doctor degree from the University of Kentucky.