Topeka ? Diane DeBacker has been appointed Kansas commissioner of education after serving more than 10 months as interim commissioner.

The State Board of Education made the appointment Wednesday.

DeBacker became interim commissioner last October when Alexa Posny resigned to take a job with the U.S. Department of Education.

DeBacker has been with the Kansas Department of Education since 2003. In 2008 she became deputy commissioner for learning services, responsible for coordinating policy within the department and among the state’s 293 school districts.