Ext: 415-405-0512
E-Mail: jsantana@headstart.sfsu.edu

Juanita Santana, Executive Director of San Francisco State University Head Start/Early Head Start program is a graduate of the University of Northern Colorado with a Masters in Science Business Administration.  She has well over twenty years of experience working as chief executive with programs operating with budgets ranging from 10 to 37 million dollars. Ms. Santana was a VISTA volunteer in the state of Colorado.

As the Executive Director of the SFSU Head Start/Early Head Start program, she is responsible for the overall program operation including planning, implementation, and evaluation of program goals and objectives. She serves as the link to the Head Start program governing bodies, funding agencies, staff, parents, community agencies and San Francisco State University. The program operates with a budget of over $18 million dollars.

Before coming to San Francisco State University, Ms. Santana was the Executive Director of the Oregon Child Development Coalition. She was responsible   for providing leadership for all aspects of state wide, multi-funded programs and for directly overseeing fiscal and program compliance with local, state and federal regulations applying to funded programs with an operating budget of over $37 million dollars.

Ms. Santana is recognized nationally for her commitment to and success in developing collaborative approaches to address challenges faced by low income families and children.  The Oregon Child Development Coalition (OCDC) under Ms. Santana’s leadership and in collaboration with Oregon Health and Science University participated in a Community Based Participatory Research project “Reducing Pesticide Exposure in Minority Families” funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health and Sciences. One of the many outcomes of this project is “A Safe Place for Your Children” an 18-minute video illustrating how to protect children from pesticides and how to reduce potential pesticide exposure in the home environment.          

Special Recognitions:

2003 – Ms. Santana was featured in Oregon Business Magazine in their May 2003 issue, Women Inc. as one of eight businesswomen “Changing the face of leadership across Oregon”.

1999 – Received “The Plate of Bounty Award” presented by the National Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Association in Washington, D.C. for making significant contributions to improve the lives of migrant and seasonal farm worker families at the national level.

 1991 - Selected to participate in the first Head Start – Johnson & Johnson Management Fellows Program through the Anderson Graduate School of Business at UCLA. She continues to attend Advanced Management Institutes offered to Fellows annually.

1989 – Received plaque and letter of recognition and appreciation from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Head Start Region VIII for “Leadership and Support of Head Start in the local, state, regional and national levels”.

1977-1978 Ms. Santana was selected by the Head Start Bureau through a national competitive process to participate in the National Head Start Fellowship Program. Ms. Santana spent a year working as Special Assistant to the Chief of Program Management and Operations Branch of the Head Start Bureau in Washington, D.C.