Margarita Pinkos

Assistant Superintendent Global Ed
School District of Palm Beach Co./National Association of Bilingual Education (NABE)

Dr. Margarita P. Pinkos currently serves as Assistant Superintendent - Global Education and Community Outreach for the School District of Palm Beach County, where she focuses on supporting district partnerships and building relationships that support the District’s mission to develop globally competent students equipped to succeed in the 21st Century. She is an educational leader whose remarkable 30-year career has been dedicated to building the capacity of students and families, and the educators who serve them. Her professional journey started in 1984 as an elementary school ESOL teacher and includes service as a school principal and district level executive in the School District of Palm Beach County, Florida- the 11th largest public school system in the United States. Pinkos’ path as an educator has taken her from principal of a small agricultural community’s elementary school to traveling nationally and internationally to share exemplary practices and research-based strategies with other educators. In 1993, at Gove Elementary School in Belle Glade, Florida, she implemented the district’s first Dual Language program, transforming the school’s linguistically diverse and previously failing student population into a high-performing, bilingual, bi-literate school within two years. That program has mushroomed throughout more than 20 schools in the South Florida school district, replicating academic success everywhere the program is being conducted with fidelity to the frameworks. One career distinction is Dr. Pinkos’ White House appointment as assistant deputy secretary and director of the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) in the United States Department of Education (USDOE) where she worked with state and local education systems across the country to support high quality instructional programs for linguistically and culturally diverse students. In 2009, she returned to Palm Beach County from Washington, D.C. resuming her leadership as executive director of the Multicultural Education Department. She continues to be active in National and State organizations, currently serving as President of the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE).