President-Elect of the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents (ALAS)
Dr. Balderas began his life as the child of migrant farm workers 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 33 years. He started his career in education as a high school teacher and counselor in Oregon. He has served as superintendent in California, Washington State, and Oregon and is currently the superintendent of schools in Beaverton, the third largest school system in Oregon with 40,000 scholars.
His career highlights include being named national AASA Superintendent of the Year, the Oregon Superintendent of the Year, the Oregon Latino Educator of the Year, and receiving the ALAS Equity Leader Award and the ERDI Mike Kneale Excellence in Leadership Award. In every district he has worked, he has closed achievement and opportunity gaps for all students by infusing articulated systems to improve outcomes and using data to help inform all decision-making in the school system. He has worked diligently to diversify the workforce to be more reflective of the students each system has served.
Dr. Balderas has been and is involved in numerous state, regional and national organizations and committees, including having served on the Oregon State Board of Education as a superintendent liaison, the AASA Executive Committee, Chiefs for Change, is a co-founder and inaugural president of the Oregon Association of Latino Administrators and is president-elect for the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents. Dr. Balderas is also a volunteer consulting superintendent for the Educational Research and Development Institute, Suburban School Superintendents, and the Institute for Educational Innovation national organizations.
