Richard A. Flanary serves as the Director of National Association of Secondary School Principals' Department of Professional Development Services and is responsible for leading the design of professional skills and programs for prospective and practicing principals.

He chairs the Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC), a partnership involving the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), the National Association of Elementary School Principals, and NASSP.

The ELCC operates under the auspices of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) to conduct rigorous reviews of college and university leadership preparation programs, and grants national recognition to those programs meeting the ELCC/NCATE standards.

Flanary is a member of the National Commission for the Advancement of Educational Leadership Preparation (NCAELP) and the staff liaison to the NASSP Principal Preparation Task Force.

Flanary served as a middle-level principal, assistant principal, guidance counselor, and teacher in Prince William County, VA. He was the first director of the Southwestern Virginia Regional Assessment Center based at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg. This regional center was a collaborative venture involving the Virginia State Department of Education, Virginia Tech University, and school districts throughout southwestern Virginia.