Marlene Canter was overwhelmingly elected to the Los Angeles City Board of Education in June 2001 and again in March of 2005. On July 5^th, 2005 she was elected Board President by her peers.

She represents students and their families in neighborhoods stretching from the Valley to the Pacific Ocean, including the communities of Encino, Tarzana, Woodland Hills, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Miracle Mile, Pacific Palisades, Brentwood, Westwood, Venice, Westchester, Mar Vista, Marina Del Rey, and Playa Del Rey.

Ms. Canter has made children’s health and well-being one of her top priorities, spearheading the successful effort to ban the sale of soft drinks and junk food in LAUSD schools. Ms. Canter’s initiatives in nutrition, nutrition education, and physical education help to combat the fastest growing health threat in the United States – obesity. Research clearly links good nutrition with student achievement and by limiting students’ access to unhealthful foods on campus, Ms. Canter hopes that students will be better prepared for learning.

Recognizing that the District’s most important asset is its employees, Ms. Canter created the Board’s Human Resources Committee. The committee, which she chaired for 4 years, reviews and creates policies related to attracting, hiring, training, retaining, and evaluating teachers, principals, and all District employees. The committee’s strong focus on issues around teacher quality resulted in a Teacher Quality Strategic Plan as well as impressive improvement in the recruitment of highly qualified teachers. Ninety-two percent of the District’s new hires for 2003/04 met the State’s definition of highly qualified compared to sixty-four percent of new hires in 2002/03.

As Board President, Ms. Canter will work with her colleagues to fulfill the Board’s vision of becoming one of the top urban school districts in the country. To do that, she will focus on ensuring student safety, eliminating the achievement gap, completing the massive school construction program, and engaging parents, teachers, principals and the community in the work of school reform.

Ms. Canter began her career in education as a special education teacher at Alta Loma Elementary School. She went on to co-found and serve as the co-CEO of Canter & Associates, now Laureate Education, Inc. The company became one of the world’s leading teacher-training organizations and trained more than one million K-12 teachers worldwide. It developed an extensive catalogue of professional development programs, distance learning graduate courseware and resource materials for teachers, administrators, and parents.

Ms. Canter sits on the Board of Directors for her alma mater, Pacific Oaks College and is an advisor to the Children’s Partnership. Ms. Canter also has served on the Boards of Directors for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation and the Kehillath Israel Synagogue of Pacific Palisades.