Ray Cortines To Deliver GSE Commencement Address

March 30, 2011 - Ramon Cortines, the former superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, will deliver the 2011 Penn GSE Commencement address on May 14 at Franklin Field on the Penn campus. 

A career educator, Cortines started out in the classroom, teaching sixth grade and high school English, before moving into administration. He has served as superintendent in Pasadena, San Francisco, and San Jose, and as the New York City Schools Chancellor. 

Cortines was appointed superintendent of the LA school district for the second time in January 2008. He first served as L.A. schools superintendent on an interim basis for six months in 2000. Before returning to the district in 2008, he served as LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s Deputy Mayor for Education, Youth and Families, overseeing oversaw education policy and various agencies whose work impacts children and families. 

In addition, he has worked at numerous universities, including Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, and Brown, and served as an advisor to Richard Riley, the U.S. Secretary of Education in the Clinton Administration.

Media contact: Jill DiSanto-Haines / jdisanto@upenn.edu / 215-898-4820