Three Latina superintendents share the stories of their childhoods, careers and challenges, and their


vision to transform schools into places of equity and excellence.


O


ur careers crossed and con- verged throughout the years we served as superintendents. When together, we of ten


shared our past histories and discovered how much we all held in common. We were together on many panels to discuss the role of the superintendent and the paths we fol- lowed to achieve this goal. When we finally decided to write our


stories with a commitment to help others achieve their leadership potential, we dis- covered through ref lection that our per- sonal and professional lives reflected our ap- proaches to leadership. We met and pledged that we would begin the process of develop- ing our book about leadership, published by Corwin Press in September 2011, titled Leadership for Equity: A Culturally Proficient Society Begins in School. Our personal leadership stories emerged


during conversations with Randall B. Lindsey and Stephanie M. Graham, who are renowned for their work on cultural proficiency. During our conversations, we discovered that our early life experiences shaped the leaders we became.


12 Leadership


In her foreword to our book, Thelma


Meléndez de Santa Ana writes: “These trail- blazing women chronicle their childhoods, careers, and challenges and share their vi- sion to transform schools into places of equity and excellence. Through the lens of cultural proficiency, their stories enhance readers’ understanding of barriers to edu- cational opportunity and equity, conditions that help promote success for underserved students, ways to leverage culture as an asset, and links between high-quality education for some and excellence for all learners.” Her words were humbling and reinforced


the importance of sharing our personal sto- ries in the hopes of inspiring colleagues to join us in this work.


Our personal journeys We are all baby boomers who lived


through major societal changes, including integration, demographic shifts in the na- tion’s population, and the focus on account-


By Carmella S. Franco, Maria G. Ott and Darline P. Robles


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