Meet the Director

Cristina Sanchez Serrano

Cristina Sanchez Serrano is an immigrant educator from Madrid, Spain, who moved 15 years ago to the USA as part of a Ministry of Education and Culture program which offers professionals, like her, the opportunity to take steps to further their careers. For four years, she worked as the ESL (English as a Second Language) Department Head and LEP (Limited English Proficient) Chairperson in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, and she was also the co-founder and volunteer coordinator of the group “College Access para Todos” (CAPT) from the Latin American Coalition, which prepared undocumented students to pursue a college education.  When she was in Charlotte, she was nominated twice as Teacher of the Year at Vance High School,  International Teacher of the Year in 2011, and Mentor of the Year in 2012 by the Charlotte Mayor, Anthony Foxx.

In June of 2012, she was offered the opportunity to newly implement the English Language Acquisition (ELA) program at John F. Kennedy High, a Denver Public School, where 4 years later and for 3 years she worked as Career Technical Education (CTE) Director and Assistant Principal in charge of Career Technical Education,  ELA,  Special Education, and Student Services. Thanks to her expertise in all these areas, she could really make the difference for JFK students by providing them with a quality education founded and led by equity. For her work for Denver Public Schools, she was recognized in May 2016 during the Teacher of the Year event at the White House for her tireless work on behalf of her students. 

After obtaining her permanent residency for employment and for the last 3 years,  she worked as a CTE Director for the 27J School District, also in Colorado, leading the planning and design of three new College and Career Centers for the district; all existing CTE program management; as well as acting as a resource and liaison to all district administrators on CTE, post-secondary and workforce readiness, CTE/Industry Certificates as a graduation requirement, instruction, and other areas as appropriate. She also represents Colorado as a Mentor for the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) IAED (Inclusion, Access,  Equity, and Diversity) Advisory Group.

With a Master’s Degree in English from the Autonoma University of Madrid,  a Master’s Degree in Diversity and Equity in Education from the University of Colorado Boulder, a Master’s Degree in Executive Leadership Administrator with the Principal Licensure Program, the RELAY Principal Fellowship and the licenses of Principal, CTE Principal and CTE Director for the states of Colorado and Massachusetts, she continues educating herself to keep finding more and more ways to help students, teachers, parents, and administrators.