Presented by Dr. LaTonya Goffney, Superintendent, Aldine Independent School District (TX); Dr. Javier Villarreal, Chief Human Resources Officer, Aldine Independent School District (TX); Dr. Todd Davis, Chief Academic Officer, Aldine Independent School District (TX); and Sheleah D. Reed, APR, Chief Communications Officer, Aldine Independent School District (TX)
Moderated by Dr. Gustavo Balderas, Superintendent, Edmonds School District (WA)

Hosted by AASA, The School Superintendents Association 
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Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.

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Please watch Aldine Independent School District’s Superintendent, Dr. LaTonya Goffney, Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Todd Davis, Chief Human Resources Officer, Dr. Javier Villarreal, and Chief Communications Officer, Sheleah D. Reed, as they share the district’s journey in creating equitable opportunities for all students. They are champions for equity, leadership, and literacy. In this recorded edWebinar, the presenters share stories and illuminate the issues that are most important in ensuring ALL children have choice, opportunity, and access from the very beginning of their lives as students. In the Aldine Independent School District, leadership matters, and everyone is a leader who makes a difference in the trajectory of a student’s life.

This recorded presentation will be of particular value to school superintendents, K-12 school and district leaders, and aspiring leaders.

About the Presenter

Dr. LaTonya M. Goffney serves as the superintendent of schools for the Aldine Independent School District. Since taking the helm in July 2018, Dr. Goffney has dedicated herself to nearly 67,000 students and more than 9,000 employees of the district as well as the entire Aldine community. She has increased student achievement in every district she’s served in by focusing on early childhood education, literacy, targeted professional development for teachers, and collaboration across the community, including developing business and school partnerships, parent engagement, and communication.

In recognition of her efforts, Dr. Goffney has received numerous awards and honors, including being named Superintendent of the Year by the Texas Association of School Boards in 2017 and the Texas Association of School Administrators nominee for the 2018 American Association of School Administrators National Superintendent of the Year award.

A native of Coldspring, Texas, Dr. Goffney is a graduate of Sam Houston State University. She earned her bachelor’s degree in history, a master’s in educational administration, and a doctorate in educational leadership. She served as Superintendent of Schools for both Coldspring-Oakhurst CISD and Lufkin ISD before becoming Superintendent of Aldine ISD.

Dr. Javier Villarreal was announced as the district’s new Chief Human Resources Officer in November 2018. Dr. Villarreal brings 19 years of educational experience to Aldine.

Prior to coming to Aldine, Dr. Villarreal served Fort Bend ISD as the assistant superintendent of school leadership. Dr. Villarreal has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston, as the principal of Edison Middle School and DeZavala Elementary School in Houston ISD, and as an assistant principal at Ortiz Middle School in HISD. He began his educational career as a first-, second-, and fourth-grade teacher at Franklin Elementary School and Wilson Elementary School. Dr. Villarreal earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Houston, his master’s degree in education from the University of St. Thomas and his doctorate of education from the University of Houston.

Dr. Todd Davis was named Chief Academic Officer in May of 2019. Dr. Davis has devoted all of his 28 years in education to Aldine ISD and has served in a variety of capacities. As CAO, he will be responsible for providing leadership in planning, developing, maintaining and evaluating all of the district’s curriculum and instruction. With oversight over several departments, he will provide direct supervision of curriculum staff and guide instructional development.

Sheleah Reed heads the Communications Office at Aldine Independent School District where she is responsible for providing leadership, vision, direction and execution of major district communication programs, strategies, events and activities.

For more than 15 years, Sheleah’s work focused on branding, crisis communications and marketing. She has had stints at The Princeton Review, Texas Southern University, Prairie View A&M University, Spring ISD and Houston ISD. Prior to joining AISD, Sheleah was the strategic engagement and outreach officer in business operations at Houston ISD. She oversaw the communications efforts of the Business Services unit, which included four departments—Nutrition Services, Transportation, Facilities and Bond.

Sheleah holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Prairie View A&M University and master’s degree in journalism and public relations from Texas Christian University. She is also an Accredited Public Relations practitioner.

The native Houstonian is active in professional and civic organizations including the Texas School Public Relations Association (TSPRA) where she serves on the Nominating Committee. Sheleah, a public education advocate, is a Leadership ISD Harris County Fellow (Class 2018).

About the Moderator

Dr. Gustavo Balderas began his life as the child of migrant farmworkers in Eastern Oregon and developed his love of learning and passion for education in Oregon Public Schools, from kindergarten through his doctoral degree in educational leadership at the University of Oregon.

Dr. Balderas has been an educator for 30 years. He started his career in education as a high school teacher and counselor in the Hillsboro School District after teaching briefly in Texas. He moved on to elementary and middle school administrative roles and then served as an area director overseeing a cluster of K-12 schools and coordinating district curricula, as well as serving as an assistant superintendent of support services, also all in the Hillsboro School District. He served as Superintendent in California and Oregon prior to beginning his tenure.

His career highlights include improving equity and culture proficiency in the state’s K-12 instruction through the Oregon Leadership Network and the Oregon State Action for Educational Leadership Project, and developing equal access and opportunity to instruction and equity systems around student behavior and hiring practices in the districts where he has worked. Dr. Balderas was appointed to serve on the Oregon State Board of Education in 2018.

Being engaged with the community is important to Dr. Balderas, and he has served on several local and state educational and civic boards to develop and grow community partnerships. In addition to serving on the Oregon State Board of Education, he was a board member of the Oregon Department of Education English Learner Advisory Group, Connected Lane County and Early Learning Alliance. Dr. Balderas is also a volunteer consulting superintendent for the Education Research and Development Institute and the Suburban School Superintendents national organizations. He is a founding member and past president of the Oregon Association of Latino Administrators. He currently serves as NW Regional Representative and Treasurer for the National Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents.

Dr. Balderas was named the Oregon Distinguished Latinx Educator of the Year, The Oregon Superintendent of the Year, and the AASA National Superintendent of the Year.

Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.

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