Patti F. Herrera, EdD, Executive Vice President, brings over two decades of experience in public education policy and finance. Dr. Herrera’s background includes leading the Governmental Relations Division as the Chief Governmental Relations Officer for the Riverside County Superintendent of Schools and over a decade at Murdoch, Walrath & Holmes and the Coalition for Adequate School Housing, where she specialized in the State School Facility Program.

Through her work on public policies that maintain and advance the interests of Pre-K to grade 12 and community college students, Dr. Herrera has worked and developed relationships with key policymakers and staff in and around the state Capitol, including legislators, the Department of Finance, the State Board of Education, the California Department of Education, the State Allocation Board, and the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Dr. Herrera graduated cum laude from the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), with a Bachelor of Arts in both International Relations and Chinese and Russian History, as well as a Doctor of Education. Dr. Herrera helps to build the knowledge and practice of Pre-K to grade 14 leaders by teaching and lecturing on public school finance at UC Davis, and presenting on policymaking at Azusa Pacific University, the University of Redlands, UC Davis, and annually for the Association of California School Administrators Business Academy, the FCMAT CBO Mentor Program, the FCMAT CBO Induction Program, and the USC School Business Management Certificate Program. Dr. Herrera also coauthored the policy brief “Prosperity or Hardship: Equity-Driven Education Funding in the Era of COVID-19” for the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research, as well as contributed to several Pre-K and K-12 publications.