Francisca Sánchez has served as the Chair of The Create CA Equity Committee for two years. She recently retired as Associate Superintendent for Educational Services with Hayward Unified School District. She has served in a variety of leadership, administrative, and teaching positions at the district, county office, regional, and state levels, including as Chief Academic Officer for San Francisco Unified School District and Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction with the San Bernardino County Office of Education. She also served as president of the California Association for Bilingual Education for two years, and was again selected as President Elect this year.
In recognition of her continuing contributions to education, she was awarded a Presidential Excellence Medallion from CSU, San Bernardino in 2002, named as 2002 Inland Empire Educator of the Year, and inducted into the East Side Union High School District Hall of Fame in 2003. Francisca has been named to a number of influential national and state task forces and served for many years as a member of the statewide Curriculum & Instruction Steering Committee, where she was the chair for the Visual and Performing Arts Subcommittee. She was selected as the recipient of ACSA’s 2005 State Valuing Diversity Award and CABE’s 2006 Vision Award.
Passionate about her work, Francisca strives to be an advocate for equity and justice. She has authored a number of publications and articles and focuses her work to support schools and communities in creating and sustaining 21st century learning environments of deep engagement and high intellectual performance where every student is able to graduate college, career, and 21st century ready.