Maria A. Casillas is President of Families in Schools (FIS), an organization created by the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project (LAAMP) in 2001 to engage parents in the education of their children and to strengthen the relationship among families, schools and communities. From October 2001 to June 2002 she served as the Executive Director of the Boyle Heights Learning Collaborative (BHLC), a community based school reform initiative in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District and supported through the generosity of the Annenberg Foundation. This initiative merged with FIS in July 2002 and focuses on mobilizing the Boyle Heights community to support families and schools. In addition to 20 years of service to education in California, Ms. Casillas spent time in Texas and in Guadalajara, Mexico, as a teacher and administrator. As Executive Director of Region XIX Educational Service Center, she worked closely with the Texas Education Agency, providing support to El Paso area schools and districts. She had a 20-year career as an educator with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).

Among her many assignments with LAUSD, she was a teacher, and an elementary school principal and a regional superintendent. In addition to her K-12 experiences, Ms. Casillas has taught teacher and administrator preparation courses at various campuses of the California State University system in the Los Angeles area. She has also collaborated with the Chancellor of the California State University system in the creation of special teacher development initiatives aimed at improving teacher quality by nurturing partnerships between universities and public schools. Ms. Casillas serves on various non-profit boards, commissions and advisory committees. She is a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Education and co-chairs the Los Angeles City Council Joint Presidents’ Commission on LAUSD Governance. She has held various leadership roles in California through the State Department of Education.

Throughout her career she has received various awards recognizing her dedication to all students and her contributions as a role model to the educational community. Ms. Casillas believes that the promise of our nation will be fully realized only when every student is provided the necessary opportunities to achieve academic success, when their families are respected as valuable partners in the learning process, and when communities uncompromisingly protect and nurture their children’s pathway to the future.