Luisa Santos, District 9 School Board Member, is a proud product of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Luisa moved to Miami from Bogota, Colombia as a child. After discovering she was an undocumented student in high school, college seemed an impossibility, but she persisted and began higher education at Miami Dade College. While completing her studies at Georgetown University, Luisa worked with the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, DC, and saw first hand how teachers and school staff can change lives while leading a program for historically underserved students. Luisa came home to Miami to launch her own business, Lulu’s Ice Cream, where over the course of 8 years she reimagined what students could learn in the workplace before selling the business. Luisa’s story has been featured in Forbes, Glamour, and even the White House, where she spoke during the Latinas in the U.S. Summit. She was named the Florida Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Luisa’s career narrative as a change-agent, thought-leader, mentor, and education advocate was built on what our public schools taught her.