Former Falls Church School Board chair Joan Wodiska, who surprised many by a last minute drive to qualify for the ballot last month to run for the F.C. City Council in November, submitted a letter to the F.C. Registrar of Voters Monday formally withdrawing from the race and asking that her name not be included on the November ballot.

She wrote that the volume of current obligations makes her running an effective campaign or serving on the City Council untenable. The next day, it was reported that Wodiska was appointed vice president and chief leadership officer of the American Council on Education, assuming oversight of the Council’s suite of leadership development programming for higher education leaders, including its Fellows program, its Institute for New Presidents, the Spectrum Leadership Development Program and the Institute for New Chief Academic Officers.

Wodiska will join the Council in August, following her departure from the National Governors Association (NGA), where she serves as director of the Education and Workforce Committee in the Office of Federal Relations. In that role, she oversees NGA legislative advocacy work on federal education, workforce and labor legislation. Previously, Wodiska served as director of federal relations for the National School Boards Association and assistant director of public policy for the American Counseling Association. She is the past president of the Virginia School Boards Association and was elected to three terms on the Falls Church City School Board, where she served as both chair and vice chair. She was appointed as a member of the Virginia Board of Education in 2013 and is currently vice chair of the Governor’s Task Force on Local Mandates.