President and Chief Executive Officer of LA’s BEST (Better Educated Students for Tomorrow) After School Enrichment Program for 21 years, Carla Sanger, M.Ed. has been a specialist in children’s education policy and advocacy for more than 40 years in the public and private sectors. Over the course of her career, she has been a public school teacher, curriculum writer, supervisor of day care services for the state of New Jersey, Executive Director of LA Child Care & Development Council, President of the California Children’s Council and co-chair of the California State Department of Education Task Force on School Readiness.

Ms. Sanger co-founded a K-12 school (Nuevo Colegio Bilingue Larchmont) in Bogotá, Colombia in 1969, which is still active today with 300 students.

Ms. Sanger has been a longtime activist on various community boards of directors, which have included the California Women’s Law Center, United Way Metro Region, Child & Family Services, Highland Hall School, Northridge Knights Youth Sports League, Getty House Children’s Committee and Dolores Mission Women’s Cooperative. Nationally recognized in the field of after school programs, she serves on numerous after school quality and evaluation advisory committees and task forces for the U.S. Department of Education, the State of California and the County of Los Angeles. Most recently, she was appointed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California State Advisory Committee on Before and After School Programs. She has also been appointed by the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction to several task forces, including the Title I Committee of Practitioners, as well as by Los Angeles Mayors James Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa to the LA President’s Joint Commission on LAUSD Governance.

Ms. Sanger has been honored by World Hunger Year with its Community Action National award and has received numerous government commendations from federal, state and local legislators, the Wishing Well award from the Los Angeles Women Police Officers, the Pursuit of Justice award from the California Women’s Law Center, a Treasure of Los Angeles award from the Central City Business Association of Los Angeles, an Angel award from the Child Lifesaving Foundation, an Arts & Entertainment Channel Community Hero award, and a Leading Boldly award from the Los Angeles Children’s Planning Council. Most recently, she was honored by PODER Magazine and the Boston Consulting Group with the 2007 Education’s Best Award and the planting of 1,000 trees in her name.

She has been a featured speaker and conference presenter for numerous school districts throughout California, keynote speaker for the California State Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Education and countless community-based after school organizations throughout the United States. She holds a B.A. degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a M.Ed. from Goucher College. Ms. Sanger is married to Academy Award–winning film producer Jonathan Sanger and has two sons, David and Christopher, two grandsons, Harrison and Miles, and two granddaughters, Zada Belle and Liliana Grace.

Show full bio

Hide full bio