Jorge A. Aguilar began his career in education as a Spanish teacher at South Gate High School. He is currently the superintendent of Wonderful College Prep Academy in Sacramento, California. Prior to this position, he served as the superintendent of the Sacramento City Unified School District, with responsibility for over forty thousand students and seventy-five schools. Previously he served as Associate Superintendent in Fresno Unified School District and Associate Vice Chancellor for Educational and Community Partnerships and Special Assistant to the Chancellor at the University of California, Merced.

Under his leadership, Aguilar has supported educators to significantly increase high school completion rates, dramatically reduce dropout rates, raise student performance, and improve post-secondary entry and success. He recently forged a historic agreement with the region’s major higher education institutions to enable Sacramento students to seamlessly transition to higher education. Aguilar is a champion for equity and access in education and has guided Sacramento City Unified in the creation of an award-winning Facilities Master Plan, which serves as a model for other districts for reimagining how construction and improvement projects are prioritized with a focus on schools that are historically underserved.

Aguilar also serves as a Commissioner on the Carnegie Postsecondary Commission, a Carnegie Learning Leadership Network member, and he provided plenary remarks for the 10th Anniversary Carnegie Foundation Summit on Improvement in Education. He is recipient of the Winston Doby Impact Award for exceptional professionals chosen by their colleagues for commitment to improving educational opportunities for California students. In 2015, Aguilar was invited by first lady Michelle Obama to present on education equity and access as part of a White House initiative. The same year, he was appointed by California State Superintendent to the state’s Advisory Task Force on Accountability and Continuous Improvement.

He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in Latin American Studies and Spanish and Portuguese and earned his Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. He is the son of farm workers in the central valley of California and a product of the Migrant Education Program. He spent his early childhood migrating back and forth between Parlier, California and the state of Michoacán, Mexico.