Jacqueline Elliot
President & Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Jacqueline Elliot, who currently serves as President and CEO of PUC National, emigrated to Los Angeles from Scotland at the age of 13 and attended LAUSD schools through 12th grade. She has been dedicated to public school reform since 1986 when she first became a teacher in Pacoima, California. She holds a B.A. in Anthropology, a Multiple Subjects Teaching Credential, and a Master’s degree in Educational Administration earned at CA State University, Northridge. She also holds a Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Change earned at Fielding Graduate University. She is a fellow of the Pahara-Aspen Institute’s Entrepreneurial Leaders for Public Education and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. Dr. Elliot also serves on the 501c4 board of the California Charter Schools Association and on the Los Angeles Advocacy Council. In addition, she is an adjunct professor in graduate studies for the Institute of School Leadership and Administration at Loyola Marymount University and has been a recipient of the Hart Vision Award from the California Charter Schools Association, as Leader of the Year.
Dr. Jacqueline Elliot was driven by an intense desire to improve the state of public education for the children and community of Pacoima, which she had grown to love. She founded Community Charter Middle School (CCMS) in 1999, which was the first charter middle school in Los Angeles County. The school became extremely popular very quickly and in response to community demand, she subsequently founded several more schools to serve the same geographic area. She began collaborating with Dr. Ref Rodriguez in 1998 when the two realized that they had identical visions for 2 communities to which each of them was respectively dedicated; the NE San Fernando Valley and NE Los Angeles. They began collaborating and supporting each other from the moment they met as they embarked upon what turned out to be parallel journeys in the two communities. After working together for 5 years, they co-founded Partnerships to Uplift Communities (PUC Schools) in 2003 as one umbrella non-profit organization for the schools and subsequently co-founded PUC National in 2013 to promote, serve, and replicate the Partnerships to Uplift Communities schools, mission, and vision. Combined, they have co-founded 15 highly successful PUC public charter schools located in NE Los Angeles and the NE San Fernando Valley and one PUC school in Rochester, New York.