Stephanie Gallardo Lara

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

ABOUT STEPHANIE GALLARDO LARA

With 15+ years of experience working in public education, I bring a wealth of knowledge, capacity, energy and an unwavering commitment to young people and their respective communities. I entered the field of public education in 2009 after witnessing the monumental community impact my parents made as K-12 and university-level educators throughout my childhood in the Pacific Northwest. As the daughter of a Chilean political exile and granddaughter of Mexican-American farmworkers, I was raised hearing the stories of our tumultuous sociopolitical histories and their influence on our present day realities. As early as six years old, I attended community gatherings where my grandfather would recite poetry describing his painful experiences being kidnapped, tortured, and held as a political prisoner for two years following the 1973 U.S-sponsored coup in Chile. These cuentos of our history, of our struggle, filled my childhood and helped ingrain purpose into my personal and academic endeavors. My family history fueled my desire to teach historical content that reflected the diverse experiences of students in the Southend. This eventually led me to becoming a History and Multilingual Learners (MLL) teacher at Foster High School in the Tukwila School District, where I taught for 5 years.During my time as a classroom teacher, I was also elected to the Board of Directors of the Washington Education Association (WEA) and National Education Association (NEA). As Board Director, I served as Chair for the Early Career Educator Committee, and coordinated large-scale workshops, organized a multitude of institutional stakeholders to meet collective goals, and delivered high-quality professional development sessions.My leadership at the state and national level prompted me to leave my teaching career in August 2021 to pursue federal-level policy work as a candidate for Congress in Washington’s 9th District. Although I did not advance to the general election in August 2022, I am proud to have led a historic campaign as a first-time political candidate that ultimately earned 22,570 votes, mobilized 167 south-end volunteers, and employed 5 campaign workers with health benefits and a generous salary. I also personally fundraised over ending my campaign in 2022, I began working as an Instructional Coach and Dean of Students at Highline Public Schools. In June 2025 I completed the UW Danforth Educational Leadership Program and I’m excited to begin my next chapter as Assistant Principal at Evergreen High School!