In this episode of the NCUST Review, we will hear from Dr. Francisco Escobedo, the Executive Director of NCUST. Dr. Escobedo has served as principal, and superintendent, and is currently a member of the California State Board of Education. He has earned numerous awards and led his previous school district to achieve the “positive outlier” status from the Learning Policy Institute in 2019. Prior to becoming the Executive Director of NCUST, Dr. Escobedo received the 2020 NCUST Ronald Edmund Award for his outstanding leadership in Urban Education. Find out what great schools and school districts do from the Executive Director of NCUST himself Dr. Francisco Escobedo! 

Dr. Helen Griffith is the inaugural executive director and now superintendent of the Preuss School UCSD. She has won numerous awards for her leadership in education, particularly around equity advancement and diversity. She has had the privilege of opening three new schools in the county of San Diego, leaving a legacy of educational excellence. Discover the practices and procedures that Dr. Griffith has successfully implemented to support particularly disadvantaged youth on this episode of the NCUST Review: What Great Schools Do!

Dr. Joseph Johnson is the founding executive director of the National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST) at the San Diego State University Research Foundation (SDSURF). While serving at NCUST, he was also a professor of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University (SDSU), then dean of the College of Education, and finally the university’s interim provost and senior vice president. Earlier in his career, he served as a teacher in Southeast San Diego, a school and district administrator in New Mexico, a state department official in both Texas and Ohio, a researcher at the University of Texas, and a Senior Executive Service Director at the US Department of Education where he led the nation’s largest federal elementary and secondary education programs.