Melbo Chair in Education Administration

• Title XI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for K-12 Leaders
• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for Educators
• Highlights from a Primer on Opportunity Gaps for District Leaders
• Highlights from a Primer on Opportunity Gaps for Educators 

Karla V. Estrada, has spent over 25 years as an outcome-focused leader delivering educational excellence and opportunity for all students because it was education that changed her life trajectory. A proud graduate of Los Angeles Unified School District, she currently serves as the school district’s Deputy Superintendent of Instruction, which includes supervision and support to the over 1,000 schools. In the second-largest school district in the country, Dr. Estrada leads a team of committed district and school leaders focused on attaining the educational outcomes of the over 460,000 diverse students of the Los Angeles community. In partnership with families, students, and staff, she is responsible for the day-to-day and long-term instructional efforts with the aim of boldly meeting the strategic goals set by the Superintendent and Board of Education that ensure students are Ready for the World!

Previously, Dr. Estrada was the Chief Academic Officer of the Council of the Great City Schools, a national organization supporting and advocating for the largest urban school districts in the country. Dr. Estrada has also served as the Deputy Executive Director for the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence (CCEE), a statewide agency charged with leading instructional improvement and transformation support provided to school districts and charter schools, especially those addressing academic inequities among student groups. Dr. Estrada worked collaboratively with national content experts and other state agencies such as the California Department of Education, County Offices of Education, and Special Education Local Plan Areas. Before working at CCEE, Dr. Estrada served in Boston Public Schools as the Deputy Superintendent of Academic and Student Support for Equity Team (ASSET), which included the offices of the Opportunity and Achievement Gap, English Learner Supports, Special Education Services, Social Emotional Learning and Wellness, and Academics and Professional Learning. 

As the daughter of immigrants, a graduate of an alternative education program, and a student who once experienced homelessness, she believes deeply in the power of access to educational opportunities in ensuring all children attain their greatest potential.
 

Guadalupe Guerrero is Chief Executive Officer of the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. The Partnership is a non-profit organization that provides direct support to a network of 20 high-need school communities located in Watts, South L.A. and Boyle Heights, and supports 40 additional schools throughout LAUSD with teacher training and curriculum implementation.

Guadalupe is a highly experienced educational leader with over 30 years of experience in improving the quality of education in urban public schools. He holds degrees from both UCLA and Harvard, and has professional experience as a Spanish bilingual elementary classroom teacher, school principal, and central office administrator in the Boston and San Francisco public schools. 

Most recently, he served as superintendent of the Portland Public Schools, the largest school system in Oregon. During his tenure, he led the district through the pandemic, opened seven newly modernized schools, and placed an emphasis on core instruction, arts education, career technical education, as well as the equitable funding and staffing of schools in underserved communities. 

Guadalupe Guerrero has served as Chair of the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the Council of Great City Schools, representing the 78 largest urban school districts in the country. Guadalupe was named the 2021 National Superintendent of the Year by the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents.

Pedro A. Noguera is the Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean of the Rossier School of Education and a Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Southern California. Prior to joining USC, Noguera served as a Distinguished Professor of Education at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Before joining the faculty at UCLA, he served as a tenured professor and holder of endowed chairs at New York University, Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of 15 books. His most recent books are Common Schooling: Conversations About the Tough Questions and Complex Issues Confronting K-12 Education in the United States Today (Teachers College Press winner of the Association of American Publishers 2022 Prose Award) with Rick Hess and City Schools and the American Dream: Still Pursuing the Dream (Teachers College Press) with Esa Syeed. In 2022 he was ranked 3rd in the nation for influence and impact in the field of education, by Education Week.

Maria Gutierrez Ott holds the Irving R. and Virginia A. Melbo Chair in Education Administration at the USC Rossier School of Education. In addition to her years as a classroom teacher and site and central office administrator, Dr. Ott served more than 40 years as an educator in K-12 urban systems. That includes, fourteen years as a superintendent and five years as senior deputy superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Her transition to higher education was an opportunity to apply her practitioner experiences to the preparation of leaders for school systems, colleges and universities, and other organizations.

In 2019, Dr. Ott was asked to advise LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner and his senior leadership team as Executive Mentor in Residence. Dr. Ott was approved to spend half of her USC assignment working directly with LAUSD leaders. This two-year experience moved Dr. Ott into the work of the second largest school district during major transformation of the district into a Communities of Schools structure. As an advisor to the leadership team, Dr. Ott provided connections between USC Rossier expertise and the work of the school system.

Ott designed and launched the USC Rossier Urban Superintendents Academy in 2015 in partnership with AASA to prepare diverse and equity-minded leaders for K-12 system leadership. She serves as a member of the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS) Board of Directors to promote the goal of advancing diverse leaders who work to close opportunity and achievement gaps for Latino and youth of color. She was honored with the 2021-2022 ALAS Lifetime Achievement Award and received the USC Rossier Dean’s Superintendents Advisory Group (DSAG) Achievement Award in 2017. Ott is recognized for her leadership and advocacy for bilingual education and programs for English language learners, leadership development for women, and public-private partnerships in education. She is a founding member of the California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators (CALSA).

Her work on cultural proficiency is detailed in her books, A Culturally Proficient Society Begins in School: Leadership for Equity (2011) and Now What? Confronting Uncomfortable Truths About Inequity in Schools (2023) with co-authors Carmella S. Franco and Darline P. Robles. Ott has presented to national audiences on the topic of her books and continues to contribute to the educational literature about the importance of cultural proficiency in closing achievement gaps. She is a member of the Ethical Educators Panel for AASA’s School Administrator Magazine and contributes ethical advice in response to real cases encountered by superintendents in their school districts.

Kimberly Jenkins Robinson is the Founding Director of the Education Rights Institute and the Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law and the White Burkett Miller Professor of Law and Public Affairs at the University of Virginia School of Law. She also serves as a professor at both the School of Education and Human Development, and the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. She is one of the nation’s leading education law and policy experts about equal educational opportunity, education and democracy, civil rights, and education federalism. Robinson won the 2023-24 All-University Teaching Award at UVA. 

In 2023, Robinson launched the Education Rights Institute with funding from an anonymous donor. The Education Rights Institute advances equal educational opportunity by bringing together research, law, policy, and practice across disciplines and engaging policymakers, K–12 educators, and families to ensure every student in the U.S. can attend a high-quality public school. Now in its third year, the Education Rights Institute equips educators to recognize and close opportunity gaps by delivering a high-quality education and advances educator capacity to interpret and implement protections against discrimination based on race, color, and national origin. 

Robinson also is a prolific scholar who has published two edited books and a diverse array of articles, book chapters and editorials. She is currently writing a book on education federalism for Harvard University Press. Robinson is a member of the American Law Institute and a senior research fellow of the Learning Policy Institute. Before Robinson began her career as a professor, she practiced law in the General Counsel’s Office of the U.S. Department of Education and as an education litigation attorney with Hogan & Hartson law firm in Washington, D.C. (now Hogan Lovells). She also served as a clerk for Judge James R. Browning of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. Robinson graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and with a B.A. in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia.