The Association of Latino Administrators & Superintendents (ALAS) has announced its new executive board members. They are:
Dr. Francisco Duran, President
Dr. Gustavo Balderas, president-elect and Director of Region 2 Northeast
Dr. Danna Diaz, secretary and director at large
Dr. Alex Marrero, treasurer and director of Region 6 Northeast
The board members were sworn in during the recent virtual ALAS National Education Summit.
“Our new executive board members have decades of experience in leading school districts to success all across the country, while also being staunch advocates for the students they serve,” said Dr. Maria Armstrong, Executive Director of ALAS. “Strong leadership is critical to address inequities in education and to best serve our Latino/a/x youth. We are privileged to have Drs. Duran, Balderas, Diaz and Marrero on our executive board.”
About the board members
Dr. Francisco Duraìn, board president, is superintendent of Arlington Public Schools in Virginia. As the first in his family to graduate from college, Dr. Durán knows education is the key to opening the door for possibilities and he continues on in a quest to ensure students, teachers, and staff have those same opportunities that were afforded to him. As an educational leader, Dr. Durán has worked passionately to ensure all students receive a quality education that will equip them with the skills needed for post-secondary education and employment in today’s ever-changing world.
Dr. Gustavo Balderas, president-elect and director of Region 2 Northeast, is the superintendent of Edmonds School District in Lynnwood, Washington. He has worked in education for more than 27 years including as superintendent of the Eugene School District 4J in Oregon, the Ocean View School District in Huntington Beach, California, and the Madera Unified School District in Madera, California. He has championed equity and cultural proficiency through the state-level work of the Oregon Leadership Network and the State Action for Educational Leadership Project, as well as through his district work in developing equity systems around instruction, student behavior and hiring practices.
Dr. Danna Diaz, secretary and director at large, is the superintendent of the Reynolds School District, the 11th largest school district in Oregon. Her school district serves a culturally-diverse population of 11,000 students with more than 100 native languages and dialects represented. She holds a Doctorate in Philosophy in Education Administration from The University of Texas at Austin, a master’s degree in Pre-School Education from University of Houston-Clear Lake, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
Dr. Alex Marrero, treasurer and director of Region 6 Northeast, is the interim superintendent of the New Rochelle School District in Middletown, New York. He previously served as assistant superintendent at East Ramapo Central School District where he helped move schools into Good Standing and increased graduation rates. He also was a principal in the Bronx where he helped move his school from a Local Assistance Plan to a School in Good Standing while he was also serving on the Council of Supervisors and Administrators (CSA) Executive Board representing over 1,700 principals across the city of New York. In 2018 he was recognized as the ALAS Latino Administrator of the Year.
The new executive board members will serve two-year terms. To view their full profiles, visit https://www.alasedu.org/board-of-directors/.
For more information about ALAS, visit https://www.alasedu.org/.
About the Association of Latino Administrators & Superintendents (ALAS)
The Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS) is a national non-profit organization with the mission to provide leadership at the national level that assures every school in America effectively serves the educational needs of all students with an emphasis on Latino/a/x youth by building capacity, promoting best practices, and transforming educational institutions. ALAS is committed to identifying, recruiting, developing and advancing Latino/a/x school administrators in order to improve the educational accomplishments of Latino/a/x youth.
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