Former Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos has taken a job as a high-ranking advisor at HMH, a company that does millions of dollars in city business each year as one of three literacy programs New York City schools were required to adopt. The former chancellor will serve as a senior strategic a dvisor at HMH, with a title of “Executive in Residence for Innovation and Analytics,” according to a LinkedIn post by the company, formerly known as Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “It was an honor to serve NYC Public Schools for nearly two decades, especially in my most recent role as the 32nd Chancellor,” Aviles-Ramos wrote on LinkedIn on Monday. “Today, I embark on a new adventure, and I couldn’t be more excited to join HMH.” The company has been paid out $28.8 million so far this fiscal year via various education contracts, according to Checkbook NYC. Aviles-Ramos had angled to stay on as chancellor under Mayor Mamdani, who ultimately decided to pick his own schools chief in Chancellor Kamar Samuels. In her new role, Aviles-Ramos will work with superintendents and other local education officials in the nation’s biggest school districts to help “deepen our understanding of the challenges and opportunities shaping K-12 education,” according to the company. New York City Public Schools is the nation’s largest district. It’s unclear if the new gig includes work on the company’s dealing in New York, but city and state rules mostly restrict her from doing work within the five boroughs. While she did not launch the NYC Reads, Aviles-Ramos was deeply involved with reforming the initiative that required the city’s elementary schools to select one literacy curriculum out of three options. Aviles-Ramos did not receive a post-employment waiver, though ex-officials do not need one to work at a company that has business before their former city agency, according to the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board. In accordance with city laws, however, Aviles-Ramos as an outgoing agency head faces a two-year ban on communicating with their former agency on behalf of their new employer, and a lifetime ban on appearing before the city on particular matters she handled at the school system. HMH’s reading curriculum was notably left out of a more recent expansion to some middle schools — under Aviles-Ramos’ watch — after it received criticism for its reliance on anthology-style texts, as opposed to full-length books. Rachael Fauss with Reinvent Albany noted that, as chancellor, “the buck stops with her” on pretty much any issue in the local school system. “There may be narrow areas where she could work but given the position she was in, it’s unlikely that she would be able to do work with DOE as a client given that she was the chancellor,” Fauss told the Daily News. The state also has a backroom services ban preventing her from doing behind-the-scenes prep work, even if she doesn’t appear before the agency directly, Fauss said. HMH and Aviles-Ramos did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Aviles-Ramos worked nearly her whole career in the New York City school system, rising through the ranks after starting as an high school English teacher in 2007. She served as chancellor from October 2024 through December 2025, replacing David Banks in the role, who was forced to step down early after a federal corruption probe ensnared City Hall. ...read more read less