Katherine Leiva

Chief Of Staff

Office of School Board Member

Luisa Santos, District 9

Katherine Leiva is a fierce social innovator, a dedicated educator at heart, and serves as the Chief of Staff for the Office of School Board Member Luisa Santos, District 9 in Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

As a first-generation Nicaraguan American and Miami native with big dreams for Educational Equity in the 305, Leiva spent the first seven years of her career advocating for students as a teacher and leader in South Florida schools, with a particular focus on equity and social justice. She then went on to serve as the Senior Manager for Leadership Innovation at Radical Partners, a social impact accelerator in our region. As the head of all leadership development and main facilitator at RP, Leiva was responsible for the overall strategic planning and partnerships, program creation and design, and content curation for all their Leadership programs.

As a Chief of Staff, Leiva leads the overall strategic planning and implementation of key priorities across all aspects of the School Board Member’s work. As a key advisor to School Board Member Santos, she uses all her talents to oversee and develop policy, head office-wide operations, staff development, and financial management. She has a Masters in Education from Johns Hopkins University, claims Spanglish to be her first language, keeps everyone laughing at the office, and is a natural born storyteller.