Career Path of a School Board Member at Los Angeles Unified School District
Tanya's career path began with after-school tutoring ("my foray into teaching") through America Reads, followed by five years teaching middle school with Teach for America before a layoff during the Great Recession. This led to law school at UCLA, aiming to effect systemic change in education, culminating in work with a public school management organization and ultimately a school board position at LA Unified, the district where Tanya was a student and teacher.
Education, Law, Public Service, Advocacy, Leadership
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Tanya Ortiz Franklin
School Board Member
Los Angeles Unified School District
Columbia University 2005
Loyola Marymount University, MA Elementary Education; UCLA School of Law JD, Public Interest Law & Policy, Critical Race Studies
Political Science, American Studies
Education
Education
Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School, First Generation College Student
Video Highlights
1. Tanya's work-study job with America Reads provided early experience in teaching and working with children.
2. After teaching, Tanya attended law school to address systemic issues in education.
3. Tanya's career path demonstrates a commitment to improving education, progressing from teaching to advocacy and ultimately to a school board position within the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Transcript
Can you walk me through your career path, starting with your experiences in college and then any internships or jobs you had before your current role?
In college, my work-study job was with an organization called America Reads. It was an after-school tutoring program and field trip planning service for kids in Harlem. I attended school at Columbia, and that was my real introduction to teaching after undergrad.
I joined Teach for America and taught sixth-grade English and history for five years before I was laid off. This was during the Great Recession. After that, I went to law school at UCLA.
I wanted to change the education system that made things difficult for me as an educator. More importantly, I wanted to help kids who had a lot stacked against them because of public institutions. I can elaborate on that later.
After law school, I worked for an organization that managed public schools. We focused on teacher education and advocacy with LA Unified, the district where I was a kid, a teacher, and now a school board member.