Carmelita Reyes

Carmelita Reyes has a diverse work experience spanning over several years. Carmelita began their career as a Corporate Finance Analyst at PwC in 1998, before transitioning into the field of education. Carmelita served as a History teacher at Mother Cabrini High School from 1999 to 2001, where they primarily worked with immigrant students. Following this, Carmelita played a key role in the establishment of Life Academy High School, where they served as a Founding Humanities teacher from 2001 to 2007. At Life Academy, they taught a variety of subjects and coordinated professional development for staff. In 2007, Carmelita became the Founding Principal of Oakland International High School (OIHS), a school dedicated to serving newly arrived immigrants and refugees. Under their leadership, OIHS has grown into a full-service community school with 400 high school students and 60 parents from 32+ countries. Additionally, they have been involved with Oakland International Learning Lab since 2017, where they serve as the Director of Continuous Education, overseeing a teacher-to-principal administrative pipeline program. Carmelita then joined the Oakland Unified School District in 2019 as the Senior Operations Director Strategic Initiatives.

Carmelita Reyes earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Economics from Princeton University in the years 1994-1998. Carmelita later obtained a Master of Arts (MA) degree in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University from 2000-2001. Currently, they are pursuing a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) degree from the University of California, Davis - School of Education, beginning in 2020 and ending in 2023.