Senior Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives

Joya Balk is the Senior Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives for the San Francisco Unified School District.  For the last 10 years, she has developed structures and strategies within SFUSD to tackle large scale change initiatives and lead our district towards our Vision.  Before SFUSD Joya started her career as a 6th grade math and science in East Palo Alto, coached teachers for a non-profit organization, and was a principal of an elementary school in San Jose. She believes that closing the achievement gap for our African American/Black students is the most important social justice issue of her generation. 

She is the mother of two SFUSD students, five and seven years old, who help her see the beauty in chaos, rethink her views on the world and teach her new things about children each and every day. 

She is a partner to an ICU nurse for the Veterans Affairs. His experience in public service health care has helped to shape my understanding of connecting with individuals and moving them along a continuum of emotional understanding as adult learners. 

Personally, she loves to dance, hike in the redwoods, and walk Ocean Beach at sunsets with her family. 

Email balkj@sfusd.edu.