About Marlene Canter

Marlene Canter, overwhelmingly elected twice to the Los Angeles City Board of Education, served as Board Member for District 4 from 2001 to 2009 and as President from 2005 to 2007. The Los Angeles Business Journal named her Woman Executive of the Year in 2006 for her leadership of the Board. During her tenure on the Board, Ms. Canter made teacher quality and children’s health and well-being her top priorities. She authored resolutions to ban the sale of soft drinks and junk food in LAUSD schools – which passed in 2002 and 2003, respectively – making LAUSD the first large urban district in the nation to approve such bans. California and many other districts have since adopted similar nutrition reforms. Ms. Canter began her career in education as a special education teacher at Alta Loma Elementary School. She went on to co-found and serve as the co-CEO of Canter & Associates, now Laureate Education, Inc. The company became one of the world’s leading teacher-training organizations and trained more than 1 million K-12 teachers worldwide.

Marlene Canter supports the following educational non-profits:

• Teach for America