Summer Learning Institute 2025

Dr. Nancy Padilla has been passionate about teaching and learning for more than three decades, having worked collaboratively with thousands of students, hundreds of teachers, and dozens of administrators. With a Doctorate in Urban Educational Leadership from the University of Southern California, she has primarily worked with under-served student populations as a teacher, mentor, and school site administrator. An award-winning leader with K-12 principal experience, her schools were recognized for success at each level--elementary, middle, and high school for both academic and counseling excellence. After retiring, or rather ‘re-wiring,’ from public school service in 2013, Dr. Padilla founded her own company, Performance Education Partnership (PEP). She has been coaching district and site administrators, as well as teaching and counseling staff, throughout multiple school districts in California, Michigan, and Arkansas to foster capacity-building leadership, provide high-quality professional development, and facilitate system coherence with lead learners. With over three decades of experience serving K-12 schools, she pays close attention to the integration of socio-emotional system supports that are grounded in an equity-based lens within the academic program. She also has provided leadership coaching between pupil services, counselors, and site leaders. Ever the student, Nancy still actively engages in her professional growth by staying current on emerging educational research around social-emotional learning, closing equity gaps, efficacious teaching practices, and the use of technology to transform and inspire today’s learners. Consistently demonstrating energetic leadership, strong human relations skills, and a passion for the greater good of all in the education community, her participatory style builds a “let’s see what we can do” climate grounded in high integrity and trust.