Dr. Chiung-Sally Chou is a life-long educator and learner. She has been a very strong supporter of public education as well as programs that support the students beyond the school day. Dr. Chou has had extensive experiences in the field of education. She retired in 2012 as the Chief Academic Officer of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District where she oversaw district’s educational services including student support services for about 12,000 students. Prior to that, she served as the Associate Special Trustee of Compton Community College District while it was under state intervention. She served as the Deputy Superintendent of Instructional Services and earlier, the Associate Superintendent for High Schools for Compton Unified School District when it was under state intervention.
She started her career as a high school teacher and then program specialist in the Washington DC Public Schools. She assumed the position of Program Specialist in the federal funded Title VII Technical Assistance Center in Hawaii and American Samoa; later, served as a Program Coordinator in bilingual education and an Assistant Principal at Alhambra School District (in both K-8 and high schools). In the early 2000s, she was the Associate Superintendent for Student Support Services for San Francisco Unified School District after serving as the high school principal at Galileo, transforming it from a traditional high school to an academy of science and technology. In 2019, Dr. Chou served as the Interim President of the University of the West shepherding the challenges of COVID. While working as a part time interim President, she also led a charter school organization in south LA serving as its executive director. She has also supported schools in the Philippines, China, and Taiwan. Dr. Chou was a student teacher supervisor in the Mandarin immersion programs with CSU Long Beach and Loyola Marymount University.
Born and raised in Taiwan with families in Shanghai, China, Dr. Chou was educated in Taiwan, Japan, and the United States. She holds a B.A. in Intercultural Studies from Warren Wilson College, a M.A. in Political Science from Appalachian State University, another M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Education Policy, Politics, and Organization from the University of Southern California. She possesses a teaching credential, a Cross Cultural, Language and Academic Development Certificate (CLAD), and an Administrative Services Credential in the state of California.
Dr. Chou currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Warren Wilson College (her alma mater) in Asheville, NC, and the Board of Directors, Global Education Collaborative – a charter school management organization in South Los Angeles. She volunteers as an advisor of the Emily Shane Foundation, and a member of the College Women’s Cub of Pasadena. Her pride and joy is to serve as the Executive Director (pro bono), for over thirteen years, of the AJ Wang Foundation Scholarship Fund which has awarded close to $2 million and about 400 students scholarships to local community college students as well as other four-year schools. During her spare time, she mentors other young educators, provides advice to budding entrepreneurs, tends her gardens, gives lots of love to her son’s family with two grandchildren and travels around the country and the world.
