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Los Angeles County, CA November 3, 2009 Election
Smart Voter Full Biography for Layla Avila

Candidate for
Governing Board Member; South Whittier Elementary School District

[photo]
This information is provided by the candidate

BIOGRAPHY

  • Vice President, The New Teacher Project
  • Member, South Whittier School District Board of Trustees, elected 2005
  • TEACHER, 2nd grade, Augusta A. Mayo Elementary School, Compton Unified School District
  • TEACH FOR AMERICA, Los Angeles Corps 1997
  • HARVARD University, 1997, Master's in Public Policy (Concentration in Education)
  • COLUMBIA University, 1995, BA in Economics

Layla Avila has dedicated her career to improving educational quality for students across the country. In her current position as Vice President of The New Teacher Project, a national nonprofit working to ensure that all children get excellent teachers, she oversees high-quality teacher recruitment and training programs in more than 20 of America's most challenged school districts with a staff of more than 90 and a $17 million budget. Each year, these programs bring approximately 3,000 top-quality teachers to schools serving high-poverty communities.

Before joining The New Teacher Project, Layla worked as a bilingual and ESL teacher at Augusta A. Mayo Elementary School in Compton, CA, where she also served as an English Language Development specialist on the school's Leadership Team.

In addition, she served as an analyst for the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence For Hispanic Americans, an interagency working group established by President Clinton to increase educational opportunities and achieve educational excellence for Hispanic Americans.

Layla was elected to the South Whittier School District Board of Trustees in November 2005. She also volunteers her time by serving as Vice President of the Board of SPIRITT Family Services, a community nonprofit working to strengthen families by promoting mental health and well-being through proactive programs of education, prevention, intervention treatment, and recovery.

In 2008, Layla was one of 10 women honored by Maybelline and People en Espaņol magazine with the "Beauty of Education" award, created to recognize outstanding individuals who are having a significant, positive impact on education in America. Recently, she was named the 56th Assembly District's 2009 Woman of the Year in the field of education and has received recognition from the community for her contributions to education including receiving the Education Award from the American GI Forum, El Camino Real Chapter and the Golden Apple Award from the South Whittier Literacy Project.

Layla holds a BA in Economics from Columbia University and attained a Master's degree in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University before joining Teach For America in 1997.

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 17, 2009 11:32
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