Candidate for
Board Member; Hayward Unified School District

Dr. Gonzales received her B.A. in Spanish and M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction from San Diego State University. She also earned a second Masters (1991) and her Doctorate (1994) from Harvard University Graduate School of Education in Administration, Planning and Social Policy. She has spent the last three decades in urban public education as a teacher, personnel administrator, principal in San Diego and special assistant to the superintendent in the San Francisco Unified School District. She has served as Assistant Superintendent of Instruction for Santa Cruz City Schools and more recently, as Assistant Superintendent for Education Services in the Hayward Unified School District. She retired in December 2005 as a Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at California State University, East Bay. She currently is in her last year of a five-year term as a trustee on the Hayward Unified School District Board of Education.

Among her professional interests, Dr. Gonzales includes promoting equity in educational opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds. She has been recognized for promoting quality educational programs for language minority students and for advancing the status of young women in secondary schools, especially in the fields of Mathematics and Science. Her research interests include site-based shared decision making and the professional role for classroom teachers to impact learning and teaching.

In addition to her memberships in numerous professional organizations, Dr. Gonzales is also active in the Hayward and broader Bay Area community. Locally, she is a member of Hayward Rotary and the St. Rose Foundation Board of Directors. She also served on the Board of Directors of the Eden Youth Center Board of Directors and Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, which is part of the Graduate Theological Seminary. Dr. Gonzales is also active in local politics and was a founding member of the Chicano/Latino Democratic Club.