Kate Ford, a lifelong educator and elected SBUSD board member since 2018, has a long family legacy in Santa Barbara as well as a professional career that has taken her many places. Kate was an English and drama teacher for fifteen years and then a school principal/director for twenty years in San Jose, Stockton, Phoenix, and, most recently, Peabody Elementary School in Santa Barbara. Before retiring from public education in 2018, Kate was the Area Superintendent for Aspire Public Schools in Los Angeles, where she led and managed eleven college preparation schools in the communities of Huntington Park, South L.A., and South Gate. Additionally, in 2011-2014, Kate held the position of Senior Program Officer for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, where she managed education grants to school management organizations and to the state departments of education for California, Tennessee, and New Mexico.
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