ACSA Educational Services Executive Mary Gomes retired in September after over 40 years in education, the last 18 of which were as a staff member at ACSA. Her work experience as an educator includes serving as a bilingual classroom teacher, principal and curriculum coordinator at the district level. As a principal in the Sacramento area, her school offered multiage programs and lead modifications that facilitated inclusion for students who use wheelchairs. Continuing the work of two previous principals, her site earned the designation as a California Distinguished School. Gomes went on to work for the California Department of Education as an Education Research and Evaluation Consultant responsible for the California Distinguished Schools Program. She worked with the state superintendent of public instruction and all 58 county offices of education to provide technical assistance, application evaluation, and site visit validation for the program, and also helped coordinate the annual celebration of Distinguished Schools at Disneyland. An ACSA leader at the charter, region and state levels, Gomes served as North Charter president, represented Region 3 on the state Curriculum and Instruction Committee, and served two terms as the Region 3 president in addition to serving on ACSA’s Board of Directors. Initially hired by the association part-time as a visiting educator through the El Dorado County Office of Education, she joined ACSA full time in 2012. Gomes led the association’s Academy Program, a specialized leadership development program that attracts hundreds of participants annually and was started by ACSA members in the 1980s. During her tenure, she worked with content expert teams to develop academies for additional leadership specializations, including classified educational leaders, equity administrators and English learners. She worked closely with ACSA-member Academy Directors to continue refining the program and would personally visit Academy cohorts up and down the state. During the COVID-19 pandemic era, Gomes launched virtual/online and hybrid formats that continue to be offered. In addition, she coordinated ACSA’s professional administrative services credential program authorized by AB 430 and helped ACSA earn accreditation as an administrative credential pathway from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Gomes also served as a staff liaison to ACSA’s councils for elementary, middle grades and secondary education leaders, and collaborated extensively with ACSA’s national affiliates, the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the National Association of Elementary School Principals. Derrick Lawson, NASSP board member and an Academy director, said Gomes’ influence on education leaders has been profound. “Her visionary leadership has transformed our professional development Academies into a model of excellence that other states now look to emulate. By connecting our three Principal Councils both statewide and nationally, she not only built a powerful professional network for site administrators across the state, but also paved the way for unprecedented national recognition of many of our members,” he said. “Her impact will resonate far beyond her tenure. It has been an honor to work with her and she contributed to the change in my own trajectory.” Gomes said ACSA has been a dream job that gave her the opportunity to be a part of the leadership journey of thousands of school administrators statewide.