21 Notable Secondary School Leaders in Los Angeles
- Jonno White
- Jul 7
- 19 min read
Last updated: July 2026
Los Angeles secondary education runs through a small number of people who rarely appear in the same room, let alone the same article. This piece names twenty-one of them: the superintendents setting policy for hundreds of thousands of students, the charter network chief executives running some of the city's fastest-improving schools, and the independent and faith-based school leaders shaping campuses that operate entirely outside the public system. Between them they are responsible for how secondary education actually works across Los Angeles County right now, in the middle of 2026.
The list exists because the turnover at the top of LA education has been unusually fast this year, and most of it has happened quietly. A superintendent resigned mid-investigation and was replaced within days. A charter network changed chief executives without much notice outside education circles. A statewide school association swapped its executive director in the same month this list was being researched.
None of that shows up in a general search the way it should. A parent, a board member, or anyone trying to reach the right person ends up working from stale information.
Every person named below currently holds the role attributed to them, confirmed against that organisation's own website, a dated news report, or both, during the research for this piece. Where a claim could not be confirmed against a live, first-party source this time, the person was left out rather than guessed at. That is also why this list runs to twenty-one rather than a rounder number: twenty-one is the group that cleared the bar, not a target that was padded to reach.
A note on this list: I compiled it, and I am not on it. I work in leadership and Working Genius facilitation rather than K-12 school administration, and I put this together because the people running Los Angeles secondary schools shape the workforce, the families, and the community I work in every day. The people below are listed for their own current work, not their connection to me.
Why Secondary Education Leadership in Los Angeles Matters
Los Angeles is home to the second-largest public school district in the United States. Alongside it sits a dense ecosystem of charter networks, independent schools, and faith-based schools that together educate hundreds of thousands of secondary students. Leadership turnover at this scale matters because a new superintendent or chief executive can reset budget priorities, staffing decisions, and academic direction within a single school year. When that turnover happens quietly, the people who most need to know, families choosing a school, staff deciding where to build a career, partners trying to reach the right office, are often the last to find out.
The twenty-one leaders named here span traditional public districts, charter management organisations, and independent and Catholic schools, because secondary education in Los Angeles is genuinely delivered across all three sectors at meaningful scale. Several took on their current role within the past two years, which means the leadership map for LA secondary education has shifted more in the recent past than in the preceding decade. Understanding who holds these roles now, not who held them two years ago, is the practical value of this list.
How This List Was Compiled
I built this list from each organisation's own leadership pages, dated news coverage, and departure-and-succession checks for every name under consideration. Any candidate whose current role I could not confirm against a live source was discarded rather than guessed at. Several names that appear in general search results for Los Angeles education leadership were left out of this piece for exactly that reason, and they are named honestly in the Notable Voices section below rather than silently dropped.
District Superintendents Setting the Agenda
1. Andres Chait
Andres Chait is the Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest public school system in the country. The appointment followed the resignation of the previous superintendent and came after a long internal career that included serving as a Local District Superintendent and Chief of School Operations before a period as Acting Superintendent.
LAist's coverage of the appointment described Chait simply as "a longtime district administrator, as superintendent," language that frames the choice as continuity rather than an outside hire brought in to reset direction. That internal-promotion pattern shows up repeatedly across this list, and Chait's appointment is one of its clearest examples at the district's largest scale. Chait had also spent time away from LAUSD working in the Superior Court of Los Angeles's counsel office before returning to the district in senior operations roles, giving the appointment a small outside-the-system interlude within an otherwise internal career.
Known for: leading Los Angeles Unified School District through a leadership transition in mid-2026 after decades inside the system.
2. Debra Duardo
Debra Duardo serves as the Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools, overseeing the Los Angeles County Office of Education's support role across dozens of districts countywide. The role has been held since 2016, giving the position an unusual degree of continuity relative to the district-level turnover happening elsewhere in the county this year.
The office's work centres on the supports, technical assistance, and oversight that individual district superintendents and administrators rely on to run their own systems day to day. A near-decade in a role that typically turns over far faster gives Duardo's tenure a stabilising function across the wider Los Angeles education landscape, independent of any single district's own leadership changes. Duardo's career background is in school social work rather than classroom teaching, a professional path into the county superintendency that is less common than the teacher-to-administrator route most other leaders on this list have followed.
Known for: a near-decade of continuity leading the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
City and Suburban District Leaders
3. Alex Cherniss
Alex Cherniss is the Superintendent of Beverly Hills Unified School District. The appointment followed a career that began inside Beverly Hills Unified itself, as a math teacher, before Cherniss went on to serve as superintendent in three other Southern California school districts.
That inside-outside-inside arc is unusual: few superintendents return to lead the same district where they started as a classroom teacher, having built an independent track record elsewhere first. The district's own communications have framed the appointment as a homecoming with two decades of added leadership experience behind it, rather than a first-time superintendent learning the role on the job. That added experience includes an Ed.D. from USC's Rossier School of Education, where Cherniss has also taught a doctoral-level course in school finance alongside running a district. Cherniss's earlier superintendent postings included San Marino Unified, ranked California's highest-performing unified district during that tenure, giving the Beverly Hills appointment a strong track record to point to.
Known for: returning to lead Beverly Hills Unified after building an independent superintendent track record elsewhere in Southern California.
4. Antonio Shelton
Antonio Shelton is the Superintendent of Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, appointed in 2023 following a national search process. Before taking the top role, Shelton served the same district as Executive Director of Secondary Schools and, earlier still, as Principal of Santa Monica High School.
That means the district's current strategy is being set by someone who ran a comprehensive high school inside this exact system before ever reaching the superintendent's office. The progression from single-school principal to district-wide secondary director to superintendent is a distinctly internal pipeline, and it is one several other leaders on this list share in different districts. Shelton holds an Ed.D. and has spent more than two decades in education leadership roles, the bulk of it concentrated inside this one district rather than spread across several employers.
Known for: leading Santa Monica-Malibu Unified after rising through its own secondary school leadership ranks.
5. David Zaid
David Zaid became Superintendent of Long Beach Unified School District, the state's fourth-largest district, after more than three decades of service entirely within that one system. The appointment continues a distinctive pattern in Long Beach: every superintendent since Carl Cohn was hired in 1992 has spent their whole career inside the district before reaching the top job.
School Construction News reported that Zaid is "assuming the role July 1, following more than three decades of service" to the district, moving up from Assistant Superintendent of the Elementary Office after also serving as Director of Employee Relations and Assistant Superintendent of Human Resource Services. Long Beach's insistence on promoting from within, across four consecutive superintendents now, makes the district something of an outlier among large California systems that more often hire externally. Zaid is a Long Beach Polytechnic High School alumnus, meaning the district's new superintendent came up through its own classrooms as a student before ever working inside them as an administrator.
Known for: assuming Long Beach Unified's top role after a 32-year internal career with the district.
6. Alfonso Jimenez
Alfonso Jimenez is the Superintendent of Culver City Unified School District, a compact district sitting at the intersection of several major charter and independent school catchments in the Los Angeles basin. The district's own communications from Jimenez describe entering the role with decades of prior experience in California public education.
Culver City's small footprint relative to LAUSD makes its superintendent a comparatively visible and accessible reference point for the wider area, particularly for families and organisations weighing a mid-sized district against the scale of Los Angeles Unified next door. That visibility gives the role an outsized profile relative to the district's physical size. Culver City Unified serves a comparatively small student population next to LAUSD, which means decisions made at this desk are felt directly across a tightly bounded community rather than diffused across dozens of local districts.
Known for: leading Culver City Unified School District's public secondary offering at the heart of the LA basin.
7. Darneika Watson
Darneika Watson is the Superintendent of Glendale Unified School District, the third-largest district in Los Angeles County, arriving after 26 years inside Los Angeles Unified School District as a bilingual teacher, coordinator, and executive director of district operations. Most recently Watson served as LAUSD's Chief Human Resources and Operations Officer.
The appointment made Watson the first Black superintendent in Glendale Unified's history, a milestone widely reported by local press at the time of the board's confirmation vote in October. Bringing 26 years of experience from the county's largest district into a mid-sized neighbouring one gives Glendale's current leadership a distinctly cross-district perspective on Los Angeles County education. Watson holds a Ph.D. in education from Claremont Graduate University with a research emphasis on supporting children and youth in foster care, a specialisation that now informs district-wide policy at Glendale Unified.
Known for: bringing 26 years of LAUSD system experience into the top role at Glendale Unified.
8. Darin Brawley
Darin Brawley has led Compton Unified School District as superintendent for thirteen years, one of the longest continuous tenures among large Los Angeles-area districts. That length of tenure is unusual in urban public education, where superintendent turnover is typically measured in a small number of years rather than more than a decade.
The sustained tenure has made Brawley a frequent reference point in national conversations about long-term district turnaround work, since a thirteen-year run allows strategies to be implemented and measured over a timescale most urban superintendents never get. Compton's own recent recognition efforts have pointed to that consistency as central to the district's improvement story. Brawley holds an Ed.D. and has discussed the district's instructional strategies and systems publicly through national education leadership interviews, treating Compton's turnaround as a system-level story rather than a single-leader one.
Known for: a thirteen-year tenure leading sustained improvement at Compton Unified School District.
Charter Network Chief Executives
9. Cristina de Jesus
Cristina de Jesus is President and Chief Executive Officer of Green Dot Public Schools California, a nonprofit network of free public charter schools serving Los Angeles secondary students. The path to the top role ran through the organisation's own ranks, including stints as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Academic Officer.
Rising through operations and academics before reaching the chief executive role means de Jesus has direct working knowledge of both the instructional and administrative sides of running a multi-school charter network, rather than arriving from outside with one lens only. Green Dot's own leadership page frames the network's school-level leaders as reporting up through this same internally-built chain of command. Green Dot Public Schools California operates as a nonprofit network of free public charter schools, meaning the chief executive role carries direct responsibility for middle and high school students across multiple Los Angeles campuses at once.
Known for: leading Green Dot Public Schools California after rising through its own academic and operations leadership.
10. Angella Martinez
Angella Martinez is Chief Executive Officer of KIPP SoCal Public Schools, a network of twenty tuition-free charter schools serving more than nine thousand students across Southern California. The role followed years as a classroom teacher, a school leader, and the network's own Chief Academic Officer.
Before reaching the chief executive role, Martinez served as principal of a KIPP middle school in Boyle Heights, giving the position a direct line back to a single Los Angeles school site rather than a purely administrative career path. The network has highlighted that Martinez became its first Native American Latina chief executive on taking the role. KIPP SoCal's twenty schools serve a student population that is predominantly Black and Latino, and Martinez's own path from classroom teacher to network chief executive mirrors the community the schools were built to serve.
Known for: leading KIPP SoCal Public Schools after building a career inside its own classrooms and school sites.
11. Adriana Abich
Adriana Abich is Chief Executive Officer of Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, a network of schools serving the Westlake and MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles from early childhood through high school. The organisation's own announcement named Abich as the incoming chief executive ahead of the current school year.
The network's senior leadership team, spanning academics, operations, and family and student support, now reports through this role, making it a central point of accountability for one of the city's most geographically concentrated charter networks. Camino Nuevo's footprint across six schools and seven campuses in a single corridor of the city gives the chief executive role an unusually localised scope compared with citywide networks. The network serves roughly 3,200 students from early childhood through high school, giving Abich oversight of a genuine cradle-to-career pipeline within a single, geographically compact community.
Known for: leading Camino Nuevo Charter Academy's network of schools in the Westlake and MacArthur Park corridor.
12. Guadalupe Guerrero
Guadalupe Guerrero is Chief Executive Officer of Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, one of the country's largest in-district public school transformation efforts. The role follows more than three decades of experience improving education in underserved urban public schools, most of it earned outside Los Angeles before arriving in this role.
The position also carries a national dimension: Guerrero chairs the Council of Great City Schools, the leading body representing America's largest urban school districts, giving the Los Angeles-based role a genuinely national vantage point on urban school transformation. That dual local-and-national standing is relatively uncommon among the chief executives featured in this piece. Partnership for Los Angeles Schools operates as an in-district transformation partner rather than a separate charter authority, meaning Guerrero's role works inside LAUSD's own governance structure rather than alongside it.
Known for: leading Partnership for Los Angeles Schools' in-district transformation work while chairing the Council of Great City Schools nationally.
13. Malena Otero
Malena Otero is President and Chief Executive Officer of PUC Schools, a network of fourteen schools serving the northeast San Fernando Valley and northeast Los Angeles. The path to the top role began in 2005 in the organisation's human resources function, well over a decade before reaching the presidency.
Otero moved from Chief of Human Resources to Deputy Chief Executive before stepping into the top job, a trajectory the organisation itself has said was shaped by growing up in the same neighbourhoods PUC now serves. That personal connection to the communities PUC's fourteen schools serve is a detail the network has repeatedly highlighted in its own communications about the appointment. PUC Schools now employs more than seven hundred staff across the northeast San Fernando Valley and northeast Los Angeles, a workforce Otero helped build during two decades in the organisation's human resources function before reaching the top job.
Known for: leading PUC Schools after two decades inside the organisation's own operations and people functions.
14. Pablo Villavicencio
Pablo Villavicencio is Chief Executive Officer of Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, a nonprofit network of twenty-six high-performing charter public schools serving 12,500 students across Los Angeles. A first-generation college graduate and Los Angeles native, Villavicencio joined the network as Chief Schools Officer before moving into the top role.
Before Alliance, Villavicencio led school turnaround work in Oakland Unified School District and supervised principals for San Francisco Unified School District, giving the current role a foundation built across three of California's largest urban public systems rather than inside Alliance alone. Villavicencio has described being underserved by low-performing schools in East Los Angeles personally as part of what shapes the network's current priorities. Alliance's twenty-six schools now serve nearly 18,000 alumni in total, a scale that places the network among the largest charter operators active in Los Angeles secondary education today.
Known for: leading Alliance College-Ready Public Schools' network of twenty-six Los Angeles charter schools.
Independent and Faith-Based School Leaders
15. Jennifer Ciccarelli
Jennifer Ciccarelli is Head of School at Marlborough School, an independent girls' school in the Hancock Park area of Los Angeles. The appointment made Ciccarelli the school's ninth head of school, arriving after previously leading the Columbus School for Girls in Ohio.
Leading two single-sex independent schools in succession gives Ciccarelli a specific depth of experience in girls' education leadership, a distinct focus within the wider independent school sector that not every head of school shares. Marlborough's own welcome message describes Ciccarelli as someone who "leads with clarity, purpose, and an unwavering belief in the power of girls' education," language that frames the role around a throughline connecting both postings. As Marlborough's ninth head of school, Ciccarelli now leads one of the longest-established single-sex independent schools in the Los Angeles area. The move from Columbus, Ohio to Los Angeles also represents a significant jump in scale, from one Midwest girls' school to a flagship of the Hancock Park independent school community.
Known for: leading Marlborough School as its ninth Head of School.
16. Mariama Richards
Mariama Richards is Head of School at Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica, having joined as associate head of school before succeeding a predecessor who retired after thirty-eight years with the school. Thirteen of those years were spent as head, making the transition a genuine changing-of-the-guard moment for the institution.
Richards has brought a specific focus on equity, inclusion, and anti-racism work into the role, an emphasis the school has connected directly to its arts-and-academics identity. Succeeding a thirty-eight-year veteran is an unusually long shadow for any incoming head of school to step into, and Crossroads' own communications have framed the transition as building on that foundation rather than breaking from it. Crossroads combines a strong arts identity with college-preparatory academics, and Richards' equity-focused priorities now sit inside that same distinctive institutional culture.
Known for: leading Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences after succeeding a thirty-eight-year veteran head of school.
17. Lilliam Paetzold
Lilliam Paetzold is President and Head of School at Notre Dame Academy in Los Angeles. The appointment made Paetzold the first alumna to lead the school in this capacity, having graduated from the same institution now run as its president.
Notre Dame Academy's own communications have highlighted that alumna status as a distinctive marker among its recent leadership history, since it means the current president was shaped by the very school culture now being overseen in this role. Paetzold has also been publicly connected with inclusive-excellence professional development initiatives alongside other Catholic education leaders in the region. Notre Dame Academy is an all-girls Catholic school, and having an alumna in the president's office gives current students a visible, close-at-hand example of what the institution's own education can lead to over a full career.
Known for: leading Notre Dame Academy in Los Angeles as its first alumna president.
18. Jamal Adams
Loyola's own website states plainly that Jamal Adams "is the president of Loyola High School of Los Angeles," having previously served the school as principal and, before that, as a teacher of economics and African American studies.
The progression from classroom teacher to principal to president spans more than two decades within the same institution. Loyola High School of Los Angeles is an all-boys Catholic school, and Adams previously taught economics and African American studies there before moving into school-level leadership. More than 25 years of experience driving transformation now sits behind the president's desk at a school Adams once attended as a student.
Known for: leading Loyola High School of Los Angeles after rising from teacher to principal to president within the same institution.
19. Tony Galla
Tony Galla is President of Bishop Alemany High School, a Catholic school in the Mission Hills area of Los Angeles. The appointment followed more than two decades of experience in Catholic education spanning classroom teaching, school-level leadership, and regional superintendent responsibilities.
That regional-superintendent background, overseeing multiple Catholic schools rather than just one, gives the role a broader view of Catholic secondary education across Los Angeles than a single-school career would typically provide. Bishop Alemany's own announcement of the appointment specifically pointed to that multi-school regional experience as central to the decision. Bishop Alemany is a coeducational Catholic high school serving the Mission Hills community, and Galla's regional oversight background now applies directly to a single campus rather than a diocesan portfolio. That shift from overseeing several schools to leading one gives the presidency a depth of attention a regional role rarely allows.
Known for: leading Bishop Alemany High School after two decades across teaching, principal, and regional superintendent roles in Catholic education.
20. Tim Cottrell
Tim Cottrell is Head of School at Brentwood School in Los Angeles, arriving after thirteen years as Head of School at Iolani School in Honolulu, a comparably large K-12 independent school. The move brings a leader with an unusually technical academic background into one of the city's prominent independent school communities.
Cottrell holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Syracuse University and a master's and doctorate in the same field from Princeton, an academic foundation more common in engineering leadership than independent school administration. Earlier roles included heading The Harley School in Rochester and serving as Chief Communication and Information Officer at The Lawrenceville School. Cottrell was recognised with the Excellence in Teaching Award four times at Princeton, an unusually academic credential set for a K-12 independent school head of school.
Known for: leading Brentwood School after thirteen years heading Iolani School in Honolulu.
Statewide Association Leadership
21. Phil Gutierrez
Phil Gutierrez is Executive Director of the California Association of Independent Schools, the statewide body supporting independent schools across California from its Los Angeles-area base. The appointment follows three decades of leadership inside California independent schools, including service as a head of school.
Taking on responsibility for supporting every CAIS member school statewide, well beyond Los Angeles alone, places someone whose entire career was built inside the independent school sector at the head of the body that supports that whole sector. Gutierrez joined CAIS in July 2026, making this one of the most recent leadership transitions documented anywhere in this piece. CAIS supports independent schools across the whole state from its Los Angeles-area base, giving a locally headquartered role genuinely statewide reach rather than a Los Angeles-only remit. Three decades spent as a head of school before taking this post means the association's newest executive director understands member schools' concerns from direct, recent experience rather than at a policy remove.
Known for: leading the California Association of Independent Schools after three decades as an independent school head of school.
Notable Voices We Almost Included
Several names came up repeatedly during this research and deserve honest mention even though they are not profiled above. Elizabeth Blanco, Superintendent of Pasadena Unified School District and a recent ACSA Region XV Superintendent of the Year, is clearly active in the role, but a first-party page or dated article naming the current title could not be captured during this research pass, so this entry is not featured this time. Roger Brossmer's status as Downey Unified's superintendent appeared in local coverage but conflicted with a district hiring posting that suggested the search was still open, so that name was set aside pending clearer confirmation. National figures in education thought leadership such as Brene Brown, Adam Grant, and Simon Sinek are widely cited by school leaders but sit outside this list's purpose, which is naming the people who hold direct operating authority over Los Angeles secondary schools right now, not commentators on leadership in general.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The most common mistake in mapping education leadership is trusting a title from a search result without checking whether the person still holds it. Los Angeles has seen enough leadership turnover in the past eighteen months, a superintendent resignation, a charter chief executive transition, a statewide association leadership change, that outdated results are the default rather than the exception. Anyone building a contact list, a partnership pitch, or a media outreach plan around these roles should verify directly against the organisation's own website before relying on a name found anywhere else.
A second mistake is treating district superintendents as the only relevant leadership layer in Los Angeles secondary education. Charter networks like Green Dot, KIPP SoCal, Camino Nuevo, Alliance, and PUC Schools collectively serve tens of thousands of secondary students under their own governance, entirely separate from LAUSD's chain of command, and independent and Catholic schools add another layer again. A plan that only accounts for traditional public district leadership misses a meaningful share of the city's actual decision-makers.
A third mistake is assuming leadership tenure equals leadership quality, or the reverse. Some of the leaders on this list have held their roles for over a decade, others for under a year, and tenure length by itself says little about the specific priorities a given leader is pursuing right now. Reading a leader's own public communications, board minutes, or recent statements is a better guide than tenure length alone.
Implementation Guide
Anyone trying to work productively with Los Angeles secondary education leadership can follow a simple sequence. First, identify which layer of the system actually governs the relevant school: traditional public district, charter network, independent school, or Catholic diocesan school, since each has a different chain of command and a different point of contact for outreach.
Second, verify the current title-holder directly against that organisation's own website rather than a search snippet or a directory listing, given how much recent turnover this piece has documented. A title that was accurate a year ago is not a safe assumption in this environment.
Third, where the goal is a partnership or a media approach, route the initial contact through the organisation's own communications or superintendent's office rather than a personal social channel. Most of the leaders named here operate through formal institutional channels rather than a public-facing personal social media presence.
Fourth, where LinkedIn is the intended channel, check that a profile is genuinely active and correctly identified before reaching out. Several leaders in this space do not maintain a public LinkedIn presence at all, and a stale or misattributed profile is worse than no profile.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is currently the superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District?
Andres Chait was appointed Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District in mid-2026, succeeding the previous superintendent who resigned. Chait is a longtime district administrator who held several senior roles inside LAUSD, including Local District Superintendent and Chief of School Operations, before reaching the top position.
How many students do the Los Angeles charter school networks in this list serve?
The five charter networks featured here, Green Dot, KIPP SoCal, Camino Nuevo, Alliance, and PUC Schools, collectively serve well over thirty thousand students. That total spans dozens of school sites across the Los Angeles area, each network operating under its own governing board separate from LAUSD.
Are independent and Catholic school leaders included in this list?
Yes, independent school heads of school and Catholic school presidents are deliberately included alongside public district superintendents and charter network chief executives. All three sectors deliver meaningful secondary education capacity across Los Angeles, and excluding either would understate the real scope of the city's leadership landscape.
Why does this list feature 21 people instead of a rounder number like 25?
Twenty-one is the number of people whose current role could be confirmed against a live, first-party source during this research pass. It is not a target that was adjusted to reach a rounder figure, and several additional names are listed honestly in the Notable Voices section rather than being force-fitted into the main list.
Final Thoughts
Los Angeles secondary education is led by a wider and more varied group of people than most conversations about the city's schools acknowledge. Traditional public districts, charter networks, and independent and faith-based schools operate on entirely separate governance tracks, yet all shape the same students and families across the same city. The turnover across several of these roles in just the past year or two means that a list like this one has a shelf life, and the honest answer is that some of these titles will change again before long. What will not change as quickly is the underlying pattern: the leaders who tend to last are the ones who were promoted from inside the systems they now run, not brought in from outside them.
About the Author
I am Jonno White, a Certified Working Genius Facilitator, certified through Patrick Lencioni's Table Group, and the author of Step Up or Step Out. I work with leadership teams, schools, and nonprofits on team effectiveness and Working Genius facilitation. If that is useful for your team, you can reach me at jonno@consultclarity.org.
Next Read
For a broader statewide view, see 35 Outstanding Public Education Leaders in California. For the pedagogy side of the same field, see 50 Essential Thought Leaders in Teaching and Learning