About

Dr. Minerva Garcia-Sanchez is a respected and recognized bilingual district leader who brings multicultural awareness, gender sensitivity, and ethical appreciation to her leadership. With an ever-present 'serve students first' mindset, Dr. Garcia-Sanchez focuses on supporting school communities to build a culture of strong instructional leadership, collaborative environments, and holistic student opportunities. More importantly, she aims to instill a sense of belonging through her extensive understanding of social-emotional well-being's vital role in successful learning and student achievement. 

Dr. Garcia-Sanchez has nearly 30 years as a teacher, a school-level coach, and twelve years in district-level management positions, including three years as superintendent of the DeKalb CUSD 428 in 2021. Dr. Garcia-Sanchez completed her doctorate in urban education policy from the University of Illinois at Chicago in the spring of 2021. Her capstone supported the development of school leaders, “Case Study: An Analysis of the Principal Supervisor’s Role in Building Equitable Sustainable Practices.” 

Minerva is a founding board member of the Latino Leadership Pipeline (LLP) which supports leaders of color to build efficacy and supports the journey in moving into leadership roles.  LLP has served over 350 participants with a 70% promotion rate either in their districts or moving to other districts.  Dr. Garcia-Sanchez is also a member of various national educational leadership organizations that support equity and policy changes, such as Advance Illinois, Educational League of Illinois, National ALAS Policy Advocacy Committee, and more recently a partnership, Courageous Council, being formed by Discovery Education with Voice4Equity.

On a personal note, Dr. Garcia-Sanchez is married to Horacio Sanchez, and they have three adult sons, Horacio, Cristian and Jesse.