Dr. Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana

Thelma Meléndez de Santa Ana, Ph.D., is the Superintendent of Schools for the Santa Ana Unified School District (SAUSD), the largest in Orange County with 56,000 students at 61 school sites throughout the Santa Ana community. The K-12 school district is the second largest employer in Santa Ana with approximately 4,500 educators and staff members. SAUSD boasts 28 California Distinguished Schools, five National Blue Ribbon Schools, and two 2011 National Blue Ribbon nominees.

Dr. Meléndez previously held the position of Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education at the United States Department of Education (USDOE) since 2009. During her tenure as the Assistant Secretary, Dr. Meléndez served as the principal advisor for Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education, on all matters related to elementary and secondary education.

While at the U.S. Department of Education, she played a critical role in the development of the Blueprint for Reform, the Department of Education's proposal to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA); she also successfully led the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education as it administered billions of additional dollars in grant funding appropriated through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. During her tenure as Assistant Secretary, she gave more than 85 speeches in 20 states and Washington, D.C., at events ranging from university commencements to back-to-school events. She also was responsible for implementing the signature program — School Improvement Grants.

Prior to arriving at the USDOE, Dr. Meléndez served as superintendent for the Pomona Unified School District in Pomona, Calif. In 2009, her success as an education leader was recognized by the American Association of School Administrators, which voted her California Superintendent of the Year. As an experienced leader, educator and an English learner herself, Dr. Meléndez has focused much of her work supporting diverse populations and has been especially instrumental in moving forward the national conversation on supporting English Language Learners.

Additional posts during her illustrious career include having served as program manager at the nonprofit Stupski Foundation, where she focused on creating high-performance learning organizations to raise student achievement and close achievement gaps; deputy and assistant superintendent and chief academic officer at Pomona Unified, where she redesigned instructional services to increase student achievement and support to school sites; and director of school-family initiatives at the Los Angeles Annenberg Metropolitan Project, where she oversaw grants for the Annenberg Foundation and implemented schoolwide accountability reform in 15 Los Angeles County school districts.