FUTURE CHIEFS
Margaret Crespo has over 25 years of educational and administrative experience in a wide variety of districts. She has worked with diverse populations in New Jersey, Arizona, and Colorado and is passionate about the success of all students. Dr. Crespo has held the roles of teacher, counselor, assistant principal, and principal at the secondary level. In the Thompson School District in Loveland, Colorado, she held the positions of secondary director, chief academic officer, and chief operations officer. Dr. Crespo joined Boulder Valley School District in July 2018 as the assistant superintendent for secondary school leadership. She is currently area superintendent. Dr. Crespo earned a BA in history and an MA in counseling from Montclair State University. She received her doctoral degree in educational leadership from Arizona State University.
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CHRISTINA GRANT
Chief of Charters and Innovation, The School District of Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Read MoreAs a first generation college graduate, Christina Grant recognizes that education is the key to success and social mobility. Christina got her start in education as a public school teacher in Harlem, New York, through Teach For America. Teaching served as the foundation for her lifelong passion and career in education. Having served in varying roles in education, she remains committed to educational equity and access for all students – particularly those from marginalized communities. Christina is the past Superintendent of the Great Oaks Foundation, a charter management organization that launches schools in communities of high need. In this role, Christina supported and coached principals, managed professional development, monitored performance evaluations, and launched schools in New York, Connecticut, and Delaware. Currently, Christina proudly serves as the Chief of Charters and Innovation for The School District of Philadelphia, where she works to expand new school models and instructional methods designed to meet students’ diverse needs. Christina holds a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Teachers College of Columbia University and also holds degrees from Fordham University and Hofstra University. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in education, studying organizational leadership, at The University of Pennsylvania. Committed to service in the community, Christina is a member of both Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, and The Links, Incorporated.
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GONZALO LA CAVA
Chief of Human Resources, The School District of Palm Beach County
Florida
Read MoreGonzalo La Cava is a passionate and committed educator with over 20 years of public school experience focused on improving the lives of all students. Dr. La Cava began his career as a special education teacher and later transitioned into administration. He was the instructional leader of two large comprehensive Title I elementary and middle schools in one of the largest school systems in the country, Orange County Public Schools, Florida. Both of these schools supported a population of students where 75 percent were minority and 80 percent qualified for free or reduced-priced lunch. In the role of principal, Dr. La Cava was able to turn around the schools by working with teachers to increase academic performance and help close achievement gaps in the areas of reading, math, and writing. As an acknowledgement to his success in leading these schools, he was featured as an example of leadership for second order change in the book Leading Learning: Change Student Achievement Today! Additionally, as a result of his accomplishments as a school-based leader in large urban districts, Dr. La Cava was honored as a White House Champion of Change.
Before returning to Florida for his current role, he also served Fulton County Schools as an Area Superintendent for the Central Learning Community in Atlanta, Georgia. In this role, he supported 19 schools and over 20,000 students to achieve the district’s goals of graduation and college and career readiness. During his time in Fulton County, Dr. La Cava also served in the positions of Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services and Executive Director of Services for Exceptional Children.
Today, Dr. La Cava is the Chief of Human Resources of The School District of Palm Beach County, Florida, the tenth-largest school district in the nation. He was profiled in Education Week as a Leader to Learn From. Dr. La Cava is a graduate of the Miami-Dade public school system and a former ESOL student. He holds a bachelor’s degree in exceptional education and a master’s and doctorate degree in educational leadership from the University of Central Florida. Dr. La Cava and his wife, Amanda, have two beautiful children, Isabella and Sebastian.
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SENG-DAO YANG KEO
Director, Office of Student and School Supports, Nevada Department of Education
Nevada
Read MoreSeng-Dao Yang Keo is the director of the Office of Student and School Supports at the Nevada Department of Education. She leads coordinated statewide school improvement initiatives for the lowest-performing schools and the most underserved students, including those who are from low-income families, English learners, first generation, and homeless. She also oversees the system of targeted and differentiated supports provided to districts through federal and state programs.
In this role, she has prioritized and built capacity for the implementation of evidence-based interventions, rigorous evaluations of programs and services, and continuous improvement across the state so that districts strategically leverage their funds on activities that work and make a significant, positive impact on school outcomes. This has resulted in leveraging approximately $200 million a year on evidence-based activities and strategies across several federal and state programs. Seng has served as a math and student leadership teacher, teacher leader, and administrator at the middle school, high school, and university levels in impoverished communities within the United States and Southeast Asia. Prior to working in education, she was an investment banking analyst in mergers and acquisitions.
Her experiences as a Hmong American and first-generation middle school graduate have influenced her commitment to educational equity and ensuring that all students have access to high-quality schools and the life opportunities they afford. A child of refugees, Seng earned a doctoral degree in education leadership and Ed.M. in education policy and management from Harvard Graduate School of Education, a M.S.T. in education from Pace Graduate School, and an A.B. in economics from Harvard College. She is married to Dr. Peter Tan Keo and they are blessed with two children.
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Brian Kingsley became the Chief Academic Officer for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) in North Carolina in September of 2018. Prior to joining CMS, Brian served as the assistant superintendent for academics in the Wake County Public School System in Raleigh, North Carolina, and as acting chief academic officer/executive director for Instruction and Intervention in Broward County, Florida.
In addition, Mr. Kingsley worked in Hollywood, Florida, for more than a decade as a middle school teacher and assistant principal, where he earned Broward County’s New Teacher of the Year Award in 1998. He later moved on to serve in Hallandale Beach, Florida, as the principal of Gulfstream Middle School in 2010. At that time, under his leadership, Gulfstream Middle School went from a school in danger of closing to one of Broward County’s highest-performing schools. Gulfstream Middle School became an A rated school and Mr. Kingsley was recognized as Broward County’s Principal of the Year in 2013 and as Florida’s Middle School Principal of the Year in 2014 by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Brian has successfully implemented large-scale change efforts across three of the nation’s largest school systems, all leading to stronger system coherence, improved graduation rates, narrowed achievement gaps, and strong fiscal stewardship.
Mr. Kingsley graduated with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Penn State University. He earned his master’s degree in educational leadership from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.
Mr. Kingsley is married to Marilyn Ospina-Kingsley and has two children, Logan and Aidan.
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Dr. Licata is currently the Regional Superintendent for The School District of Palm Beach County. In this role, he oversees 59 schools, 65,000 students, over 5,000 teachers, and four Instructional Superintendents. Previously, he was the Assistant Superintendent of Choice and Innovation and oversaw all aspects of the Departments of Choice, Adult and Community Education, Virtual Education, Home Education, and Charter Schools. He has served as Director of Curriculum, Charter Schools, Alternative Education, Accountability, Choice Programs, International Baccalaureate Programs, and Career and Technical Education for the 185 schools of Palm Beach County. Prior to those district leadership roles, he served as the Principal of Olympic Heights High School and Boca Raton Community Middle School in Palm Beach County, where he moved both schools to an “A” grade according to the Florida Department of Education school grading system. He received his B.A. in Business Administration and Political Science at the University of Miami (Miami, FL) and his M.S. in Educational Leadership from Barry University (Miami, FL). He earned his Ph.D. in Global Leadership from Lynn University (Boca Raton, FL) with a focus on preparing students for the 21st-century workforce. Dr. Licata is in his 10th year as an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, where he teaches courses preparing future school administrators
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Arsenio Romero was appointed to the NMSU Board of Regents in 2020. He has more than 23 years of leadership, managerial, and executive experience. He also has a proven track record of leading large-scale initiatives focused on student achievement, financial management, human capital strategy, and other strategically significant areas.
Romero has served as superintendent and CEO of Deming Public Schools since 2017. He was assistant superintendent for instruction and turnaround for the Roswell Independent School District from 2015-2017. Since 2013, he has been a lead performance coach/executive coach for the New Mexico Public Education Department. He has also served as an elementary teacher, a principal, and as an adjunct professor.
Romero has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a Ph.D. in educational management and development, both from NMSU. He also has a master’s degree in educational administration and leadership from the University of New Mexico.
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Dr. Ayindé Rudolph has been the superintendent of Mountain View Whisman School District in Mountain View, California, since 2015. The district has approximately 5,200 students who speak 50 different languages, 600 employees, and an annual budget of $75 million. As a true change agent and instructional leader, Dr. Rudolph’s focus on academic outcomes has led to double-digit improvements in student performance, with gains for every subgroup and a closing of the district’s achievement gap.
Dr. Rudolph has also held the positions of principal in a traditional high and middle school, kindergarten through 8th-grade elementary school, charter school, countywide arts magnet, and a Title 1 and Bill and Melinda Gates-funded small-themed STEM high school. In each of his positions, he has led dramatic turnarounds, including a gain in student underperforming high school to consecutive national best high school rankings.
Prior to becoming superintendent of Mountain View, he served as associate director of school transformation at the Buffalo Promise Neighborhood, a federally funded program, in Buffalo, New York, which was modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone that encourages communities to develop public-private partnerships.
His achievements during his tenure with the Promise Neighborhood included instituting a 1:1 learning environment, which received recognition in 2014 from President Barack Obama and Secretary Arne Duncan at the White House; the implementation of a new teacher evaluation system; and three new curricula aligned to the national standards. He also redesigned the school’s talent acquisition and management systems, with focus on providing positive feedback to encourage employee growth.
Shortly after arriving in Mountain View, Dr. Rudolph implemented a Response to Instruction program at every school, which provides data-driven interventions and enrichment to all students on a weekly basis. He has rallied support to improve all schools within the district, as evidenced by the passing of an eight- year parcel tax. Dr. Rudolph also developed a clear plan of action for a stalled $245 million construction program.
Dr. Rudolph’s visionary thinking resulted in the Mountain View Whisman Schools Strategic Plan 2021, which calls for academic accountability and excellence. With transparency and fiscal responsibility at the root of his administration, Dr. Rudolph has built the trust of parents and teachers, which has resulted in three years of labor peace and two consecutive years of a balanced budget while at the same time increasing salaries by more than 20 percent.
Dr. Rudolph received his doctorate in education in leadership, policy and organizations from Vanderbilt University. He also holds an educational specialist degree in educational leadership and administration as well as a master of education in secondary education from George Washington University. He earned his bachelor of arts in history from Wittenberg University.
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As a teacher, principal, and administrator, Dr. Maria Vazquez has dedicated her career to ensuring every student has a pathway to success. A first-generation American, Dr. Vazquez traces her passion for education back to the talented, dedicated teachers who changed her own life. As Deputy Superintendent of Orange County Public Schools (OCPS), Dr. Vazquez has helped lead one of Florida’s largest and most diverse school districts to an “A” rating with a nearly universal (96%) graduation rate. Dr. Vazquez has served at every level of the education system and has extensive expertise in curriculum and instruction. After beginning her career as an elementary school classroom teacher and resource teacher in reading and language arts, Dr. Vazquez served as an assistant principal and principal in OCPS. She served the district across multiple roles including area superintendent and chief academic officer before being promoted to deputy superintendent in 2018. During her tenure at OCPS, Dr. Vazquez has developed a proven track record of leadership for educational equity. She has expanded access to advanced coursework for historically underserved students, recruited great teachers to the most vulnerable schools, and reprioritized the district’s budget to support teaching and learning. In 2019, Dr. Vazquez was selected to participate in the prestigious Chiefs for Change Future Chiefs program.
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COHORT 5
Cohort at-a-Glance
- 78% leaders of color
- 100% current or former state and local education leaders
- 100% committed to ensuring all students have a quality education
Future Chiefs Programming
Nominate a Future Chief
Future Chiefs in the News
Read Announcement of Cohort 5
COHORT 5
Cohort at-a-Glance
- 78% leaders of color
- 100% current or former state and local education leaders
- 100% committed to ensuring all students have a quality education
Future Chiefs Programming
Nominate a Future Chief
Future Chiefs in the News
Read Announcement of Cohort 5
Margaret Crespo has over 25 years of educational and administrative experience in a wide variety of districts. She has worked with diverse populations in New Jersey, Arizona, and Colorado and is passionate about the success of all students. Dr. Crespo has held the roles of teacher, counselor, assistant principal, and principal at the secondary level. In the Thompson School District in Loveland, Colorado, she held the positions of secondary director, chief academic officer, and chief operations officer. Dr. Crespo joined Boulder Valley School District in July 2018 as the assistant superintendent for secondary school leadership. She is currently area superintendent. Dr. Crespo earned a BA in history and an MA in counseling from Montclair State University. She received her doctoral degree in educational leadership from Arizona State University.
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As a first generation college graduate, Christina Grant recognizes that education is the key to success and social mobility. Christina got her start in education as a public school teacher in Harlem, New York, through Teach For America. Teaching served as the foundation for her lifelong passion and career in education. Having served in varying roles in education, she remains committed to educational equity and access for all students – particularly those from marginalized communities. Christina is the past Superintendent of the Great Oaks Foundation, a charter management organization that launches schools in communities of high need. In this role, Christina supported and coached principals, managed professional development, monitored performance evaluations, and launched schools in New York, Connecticut, and Delaware. Currently, Christina proudly serves as the Chief of Charters and Innovation for The School District of Philadelphia, where she works to expand new school models and instructional methods designed to meet students’ diverse needs. Christina holds a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Teachers College of Columbia University and also holds degrees from Fordham University and Hofstra University. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in education, studying organizational leadership, at The University of Pennsylvania. Committed to service in the community, Christina is a member of both Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, and The Links, Incorporated.
Read About our Future Chiefs in the News
Gonzalo La Cava is a passionate and committed educator with over 20 years of public school experience focused on improving the lives of all students. Dr. La Cava began his career as a special education teacher and later transitioned into administration. He was the instructional leader of two large comprehensive Title I elementary and middle schools in one of the largest school systems in the country, Orange County Public Schools, Florida. Both of these schools supported a population of students where 75 percent were minority and 80 percent qualified for free or reduced-priced lunch. In the role of principal, Dr. La Cava was able to turn around the schools by working with teachers to increase academic performance and help close achievement gaps in the areas of reading, math, and writing. As an acknowledgement to his success in leading these schools, he was featured as an example of leadership for second order change in the book Leading Learning: Change Student Achievement Today! Additionally, as a result of his accomplishments as a school-based leader in large urban districts, Dr. La Cava was honored as a White House Champion of Change.
Before returning to Florida for his current role, he also served Fulton County Schools as an Area Superintendent for the Central Learning Community in Atlanta, Georgia. In this role, he supported 19 schools and over 20,000 students to achieve the district’s goals of graduation and college and career readiness. During his time in Fulton County, Dr. La Cava also served in the positions of Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services and Executive Director of Services for Exceptional Children.
Today, Dr. La Cava is the Chief of Human Resources of The School District of Palm Beach County, Florida, the tenth-largest school district in the nation. He was profiled in Education Week as a Leader to Learn From. Dr. La Cava is a graduate of the Miami-Dade public school system and a former ESOL student. He holds a bachelor’s degree in exceptional education and a master’s and doctorate degree in educational leadership from the University of Central Florida. Dr. La Cava and his wife, Amanda, have two beautiful children, Isabella and Sebastian.
Read About our Future Chiefs in the News
Seng-Dao Yang Keo is the director of the Office of Student and School Supports at the Nevada Department of Education. She leads coordinated statewide school improvement initiatives for the lowest-performing schools and the most underserved students, including those who are from low-income families, English learners, first generation, and homeless. She also oversees the system of targeted and differentiated supports provided to districts through federal and state programs.
In this role, she has prioritized and built capacity for the implementation of evidence-based interventions, rigorous evaluations of programs and services, and continuous improvement across the state so that districts strategically leverage their funds on activities that work and make a significant, positive impact on school outcomes. This has resulted in leveraging approximately $200 million a year on evidence-based activities and strategies across several federal and state programs. Seng has served as a math and student leadership teacher, teacher leader, and administrator at the middle school, high school, and university levels in impoverished communities within the United States and Southeast Asia. Prior to working in education, she was an investment banking analyst in mergers and acquisitions.
Her experiences as a Hmong American and first-generation middle school graduate have influenced her commitment to educational equity and ensuring that all students have access to high-quality schools and the life opportunities they afford. A child of refugees, Seng earned a doctoral degree in education leadership and Ed.M. in education policy and management from Harvard Graduate School of Education, a M.S.T. in education from Pace Graduate School, and an A.B. in economics from Harvard College. She is married to Dr. Peter Tan Keo and they are blessed with two children.
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Brian Kingsley became the Chief Academic Officer for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) in North Carolina in September of 2018. Prior to joining CMS, Brian served as the assistant superintendent for academics in the Wake County Public School System in Raleigh, North Carolina, and as acting chief academic officer/executive director for Instruction and Intervention in Broward County, Florida.
In addition, Mr. Kingsley worked in Hollywood, Florida, for more than a decade as a middle school teacher and assistant principal, where he earned Broward County’s New Teacher of the Year Award in 1998. He later moved on to serve in Hallandale Beach, Florida, as the principal of Gulfstream Middle School in 2010. At that time, under his leadership, Gulfstream Middle School went from a school in danger of closing to one of Broward County’s highest-performing schools. Gulfstream Middle School became an A rated school and Mr. Kingsley was recognized as Broward County’s Principal of the Year in 2013 and as Florida’s Middle School Principal of the Year in 2014 by the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
Brian has successfully implemented large-scale change efforts across three of the nation’s largest school systems, all leading to stronger system coherence, improved graduation rates, narrowed achievement gaps, and strong fiscal stewardship.
Mr. Kingsley graduated with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Penn State University. He earned his master’s degree in educational leadership from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.
Mr. Kingsley is married to Marilyn Ospina-Kingsley and has two children, Logan and Aidan.
Read About our Future Chiefs in the News
Dr. Licata is currently the Regional Superintendent for The School District of Palm Beach County. In this role, he oversees 59 schools, 65,000 students, over 5,000 teachers, and four Instructional Superintendents. Previously, he was the Assistant Superintendent of Choice and Innovation and oversaw all aspects of the Departments of Choice, Adult and Community Education, Virtual Education, Home Education, and Charter Schools. He has served as Director of Curriculum, Charter Schools, Alternative Education, Accountability, Choice Programs, International Baccalaureate Programs, and Career and Technical Education for the 185 schools of Palm Beach County. Prior to those district leadership roles, he served as the Principal of Olympic Heights High School and Boca Raton Community Middle School in Palm Beach County, where he moved both schools to an “A” grade according to the Florida Department of Education school grading system. He received his B.A. in Business Administration and Political Science at the University of Miami (Miami, FL) and his M.S. in Educational Leadership from Barry University (Miami, FL). He earned his Ph.D. in Global Leadership from Lynn University (Boca Raton, FL) with a focus on preparing students for the 21st-century workforce. Dr. Licata is in his 10th year as an adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, where he teaches courses preparing future school administrators
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Arsenio Romero was appointed to the NMSU Board of Regents in 2020. He has more than 23 years of leadership, managerial, and executive experience. He also has a proven track record of leading large-scale initiatives focused on student achievement, financial management, human capital strategy, and other strategically significant areas.
Romero has served as superintendent and CEO of Deming Public Schools since 2017. He was assistant superintendent for instruction and turnaround for the Roswell Independent School District from 2015-2017. Since 2013, he has been a lead performance coach/executive coach for the New Mexico Public Education Department. He has also served as an elementary teacher, a principal, and as an adjunct professor.
Romero has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a Ph.D. in educational management and development, both from NMSU. He also has a master’s degree in educational administration and leadership from the University of New Mexico.
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Dr. Ayindé Rudolph has been the superintendent of Mountain View Whisman School District in Mountain View, California, since 2015. The district has approximately 5,200 students who speak 50 different languages, 600 employees, and an annual budget of $75 million. As a true change agent and instructional leader, Dr. Rudolph’s focus on academic outcomes has led to double-digit improvements in student performance, with gains for every subgroup and a closing of the district’s achievement gap.
Dr. Rudolph has also held the positions of principal in a traditional high and middle school, kindergarten through 8th-grade elementary school, charter school, countywide arts magnet, and a Title 1 and Bill and Melinda Gates-funded small-themed STEM high school. In each of his positions, he has led dramatic turnarounds, including a gain in student underperforming high school to consecutive national best high school rankings.
Prior to becoming superintendent of Mountain View, he served as associate director of school transformation at the Buffalo Promise Neighborhood, a federally funded program, in Buffalo, New York, which was modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone that encourages communities to develop public-private partnerships.
His achievements during his tenure with the Promise Neighborhood included instituting a 1:1 learning environment, which received recognition in 2014 from President Barack Obama and Secretary Arne Duncan at the White House; the implementation of a new teacher evaluation system; and three new curricula aligned to the national standards. He also redesigned the school’s talent acquisition and management systems, with focus on providing positive feedback to encourage employee growth.
Shortly after arriving in Mountain View, Dr. Rudolph implemented a Response to Instruction program at every school, which provides data-driven interventions and enrichment to all students on a weekly basis. He has rallied support to improve all schools within the district, as evidenced by the passing of an eight- year parcel tax. Dr. Rudolph also developed a clear plan of action for a stalled $245 million construction program.
Dr. Rudolph’s visionary thinking resulted in the Mountain View Whisman Schools Strategic Plan 2021, which calls for academic accountability and excellence. With transparency and fiscal responsibility at the root of his administration, Dr. Rudolph has built the trust of parents and teachers, which has resulted in three years of labor peace and two consecutive years of a balanced budget while at the same time increasing salaries by more than 20 percent.
Dr. Rudolph received his doctorate in education in leadership, policy and organizations from Vanderbilt University. He also holds an educational specialist degree in educational leadership and administration as well as a master of education in secondary education from George Washington University. He earned his bachelor of arts in history from Wittenberg University.
Read About our Future Chiefs in the News
As a teacher, principal, and administrator, Dr. Maria Vazquez has dedicated her career to ensuring every student has a pathway to success. A first-generation American, Dr. Vazquez traces her passion for education back to the talented, dedicated teachers who changed her own life. As Deputy Superintendent of Orange County Public Schools (OCPS), Dr. Vazquez has helped lead one of Florida’s largest and most diverse school districts to an “A” rating with a nearly universal (96%) graduation rate. Dr. Vazquez has served at every level of the education system and has extensive expertise in curriculum and instruction. After beginning her career as an elementary school classroom teacher and resource teacher in reading and language arts, Dr. Vazquez served as an assistant principal and principal in OCPS. She served the district across multiple roles including area superintendent and chief academic officer before being promoted to deputy superintendent in 2018. During her tenure at OCPS, Dr. Vazquez has developed a proven track record of leadership for educational equity. She has expanded access to advanced coursework for historically underserved students, recruited great teachers to the most vulnerable schools, and reprioritized the district’s budget to support teaching and learning. In 2019, Dr. Vazquez was selected to participate in the prestigious Chiefs for Change Future Chiefs program.
Read About our Future Chiefs in the News
