Carmen Farina

Carmen Fariña (née Guillén) is a veteran New York City educator and former chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, where she led the nation’s largest school district from 2014 until her retirement in 2018. Over a career spanning more than five decades, she worked as an elementary school teacher, principal, district superintendent, deputy chancellor, and ultimately schools chancellor, building a reputation as an innovative instructional leader focused on teacher development, school collaboration, and student success. She is the co-author, with Laura Kotch, of A School Leader’s Guide to Excellence: Collaborating Our Way to Better Schools (Heinemann, 2008).

A first-generation college graduate and daughter of Spanish immigrants, Fariña earned a Bachelor of Science from New York University and three master’s degrees: in bilingual education from Brooklyn College, in gifted/arts education from Fordham University, and in administration and supervision from Pace University. Her work has emphasized bilingual and bicultural education and the expansion of dual-language programs, and she has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Sloan Public Service Award for exemplary civil service. While information is available about the book Classroom Management Matters: The Social-Emotional Learning Approach Children Deserve, current sources attribute that title’s authorship to