Ana L. Martinez

Ana Martinez is a first generation, native Angeleno who attended Los Angeles public schools her entire K-12 experience. She Joined Teach For America in 2003 and began her teaching career as a 6th grade math and science teacher in the same district she attended, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD).

During her time working at LAUSD, she served as a teacher, a dean of students, the PTA school representative, and the girls’ flag football coach. Ana’s early career experience included working in two different, multi-track middle schools in South Los Angeles – Bethune Middle School and Los Angeles Academy Middle School.

At Los Angeles Academy Middle School, she embarked on turnaround work and grew her experience with culture and systems change. Her goal was to interrupt systems marked by continuous suspensions, opportunity transfers, and expulsions of students of color that perpetuated the school-to-prison pipeline. In her time serving at LA Academy she also launched and facilitated additional support for 7th and 8th grade male students through extracurricular activities and leadership opportunities, as well as hosting family events that strengthened the partnership with the school.

In 2009, Ana transitioned to Aspire Public Schools at their sole secondary campus that served students in grades 6-9 in Huntington Park, where she continued her work as Dean of Students and then Assistant Principal.

Ana then became founding principal to open up and lead the new Aspire Public Schools Juanita Tate Academy (now Aspire Slauson Academy) in South Los Angeles. This new school was in partnership with LAUSD under the Public School Choice 2.0 initiative. While a “school of choice,” 85% or more of the student population was from the local community. Within three years, Aspire Tate Academy was outperforming all local elementary schools and offered a robust amount of extracurricular activities after school, as well as classes such as art, physical education, and dance.

After serving eight years as principal, Ana transitioned into organizational leadership and served as the Chief of Staff to Aspire’s Chief Schools Officer.

In 2021, Ana moved to California’s Central Valley to serve as Chief Academic Officer and then Superintendent of a charter management organization that served students in two distinct rural communities.

She now proudly serves as Lead Executive Officer at Bright Star Schools, a nine school charter public school organization that serves over 3,700 students across Los Angeles. Ana holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a master’s in education from Loyola Marymount University. She is a 2019 Pahara fellow, a member of Education Leaders of Color, a representative on the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) membership council, and a member of the Los Angeles Coalition for Excellent Public Schools (LACEPS).