About the Founder

Irasema Salcido’s life serves as true testament that individuals who start from humble beginnings can truly defy the odds and achieve the American dream. The daughter of Mexican, immigrant farm workers, Irasema came to the United States at 14 years old without speaking a word of English. Considering the language barrier and other obstacles facing immigrants, Irasema persevered through education and received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Cal State Fullerton’s College of Business & Economics in 1987.

Following the completion of her undergraduate work, Irasema left Southern California for the East Coast to attend Harvard University, where she completed her Masters degree in Education, Administration, and Social Planning. While other Harvard graduates were probably interested in using their ivy-league status to advance their own economic position, Irasema stayed true to her roots and focused on how to give back to society and open doors for others through education. Her desire to educate the less fortunate led her into her life’s work, a path that has been patterned after her role model, César Chávez. Paying tribute to her hero, in 1997, she founded the César Chávez Charter High School for Public Policy in Washington D.C. After much success she opened a second school and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Chávez Schools.

Prior to founding the first Chávez school, she worked for nine years in the D.C. public school system, serving for six years as an Assistant Principal at Bell Multicultural High School. Frustrated by the failures of the public school system, she has since become a nationally recognized expert and advocate for charter schools and underserved students, having addressed the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and the Workforce. Her mission in starting the first Chávez School was to create an institution where the poorest students received the best education.

Over the course of her career, she has received several honors and awards, some of which include being designated by the Caring Institute as one of the “Six Most Caring Citizens in the U.S.” of 1999. In 2000, Irasema was selected by the U.S. Department of Education to speak on a teleconference panel entitled “Charter Schools: New Choices in Public Education.” That same year, she received the “Principal of the Year” award from the Charter School Resource Center.

In 2001, she received the “Use Your Life Award” from Oprah Winfrey’s Angel Network for her dedication to the students of César Chávez. In 2003, she presented a paper at the Cato Institute on the first five years of Chávez Schools, which was later published in Educational Freedom in Urban America. Her commitment to the education of underprivileged youth is certainly evident in her recent collaboration with the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), in which she contributed to a report titled “The Civic Mission of Schools.”