Dr. Natasha Baker is the Superintendent of the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District located in Los Angeles County. She assumed the post of the 15,000-student school system on January 1, 2025. Since then, Dr. Baker has developed districtwide focus areas, presented a data-informed 90-day entry plan, and finalized labor contracts with increases in salaries and health benefits for all employee groups while implementing deficit elimination plans to decrease historical deficit projections.
Prior to her appointment as Superintendent, Dr. Baker was the Chief Academic Officer in the Fresno Unified School District, where she led the Instructional Division that supports nearly 70,000 students across more than 100 schools with a combined departmental budget of over $580M. In that role, Dr. Baker supported eight departments, improved protocols and service delivery models for special education, and implemented a quarterly data system for principals.
Dr. Baker also served as the Superintendent for the Banning Unified School District, a public school system in Southern California with 4,500 students, 500 staff and a $70M operating budget. She completed the Performance Arts Career Technical Center construction project, negotiated labor agreements after the district’s long history of impasse, and supported data-driven progress monitoring to improve special education and graduation rates. Her professional experience also includes serving as the Deputy Superintendent of Hazelwood School District where she facilitated partnerships with a community foundation to open the district’s school-based health center and worked collaboratively to develop and implement the district’s five-year strategic plan, which supported 18,000 students and 2,200 staff with an operating budget of $200M. Additionally, Dr. Baker served as the Michigan Department of Education’s Deputy Superintendent of Education Services and as the state’s School Reform Officer where she led aspects of the state’s legislated accountability system impacting over 100,000 students across 72 school districts in 186 public schools.
Academically, Dr. Baker holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, a master’s degree in English from Howard University, a bachelor’s degree in English education and a teaching credential in English from California State University, Long Beach. In 2024, Dr. Baker graduated with a Master of Science degree in finance from Johns Hopkins University’s Carey Business School.