Board President Bakersfield City School District Trustee Area 3
Dr. Chris Cruz-Boone is an award-winning educator and community activist. Her leadership journey started in 2003 when she was accepted for the National Hispanic Leadership Institute in Washington, DC. Chris is a first generation college graduate and earned her Master of Arts in Communication Studies from California State University, Northridge. In 2014, she earned a Doctorate in Education Leadership from Fresno State University. In November of 2020, she successfully unseated the incumbent and was elected Trustee of Area 3. In 2023, she was elected as the President of the Bakersfield City School District School Board.
Christine Arlene Cruz-Boone was born and raised in Bakersfield by a single teenage mother. She and her family attribute some of her professional success to the opportunities afforded her in Bakersfield public education. Chris and her twin sister were both part of the Performing Arts Magnet Program at Mt. Vernon Elementary. Chris met her future husband and best friend John Boone at Compton Jr. High school. John and Chris attended East Bakersfield High School together class of 1999 (Go Blades). At East they both competed and qualified for state in History Day and Bicentennial. Chris and John went on to be married in 2003. They live downtown with their two children, ample board game collection and their rescue dog Rupert Giles.
Since 2006, she has been teaching full-time throughout Kern and has been a speaker at dozens of professional education conferences. In the 2019-2020 school year, she was accepted as a Stanford University Community College EPIC fellow. In 2023, Dr. Cruz-Boone was selected as the statewide Higher Educator of the Year by the California Teacher Association and in the fall went on to earn the Human Rights Champion award by the Sierra Service Center.
