Candidate for
Board Member; San Francisco Community College District

Mary T. Hernandez is a founding partner of Garcia, Calderón & Ruíz, LLP (GCR), California's largest Latino-owned law firm. Ms. Hernandez received her J.D. from Stanford Law School in 1988 and her B.A., magna cum laude, in economics from Harvard University in 1985.

Ms. Hernandez is the head of her firm's Education Practice Group and has extensive experience with issues relating to general education policy, board governance, open meeting laws, accountability systems and legislative advocacy. Ms. Hernandez currently serves as legal counsel to a number of school and community college districts throughout the State of California.

Ms. Hernandez served as President of the Hispanic National Bar Association in 1994-1995. She was elected to the San Francisco Board of Education in 1996 and 2000, and served as Vice President in 1999 and President in 2000. Prior to serving on the SF Board of Education, Ms. Hernandez served on a number of nonprofit boards, including San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association, San Francisco School Volunteers, Friends of the Library and KQED. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Youth Law Center and a member of the Hispanic National Bar Association's Commission on the Status of Women in the Profession.

Ms. Hernandez began her legal career as a corporate attorney with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and spent over seven years counseling corporate entities in commercial transactions. From 2001-2004, Ms. Hernandez worked as a staff attorney for Multicultural Education, Training & Advocacy, Inc. (META). In 2004, Ms. Hernandez served as the Program Coordinator for a Parent Information and Resource Center funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Immediately prior to founding GCR, Ms. Hernandez was a partner in the Education Practice Group at Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP.

Ms. Hernandez is the proud mother of two children currently enrolled in middle and high schools in the San Francisco Unified School District.