As a Camarillo resident and a parent of a Rio Mesa High School graduate, Socorro Lopez Hanson represents the interests of her community on the Oxnard Union High School District’s Board of Trustees.
But as the daughter of Mexican immigrants, Lopez Hanson also knows from personal experience the struggles facing Latino students, many of whom are English language learners. She sees herself as a voice for them and their parents as well.
“My goal is to provide the best quality education for all our kids,” said Lopez Hanson, “and to do it by integrating 21st century technology into our classrooms.”
Lopez Hanson, a member of the OUHSD board since 2002, also is a proponent of smaller learning communities such as academies, “schools within a school” that prepare students for careers in different fields. In the past two years, OUHSD has opened the Health Science and Teaching and Educational Career academies at Pacifica High and the Law Academy at Oxnard High. A Culinary Arts Academy is scheduled to open at Pacifica High in Fall 2008, the same time Rio Mesa High is set to begin its International Baccalaureate Program.
“I also want our schools to be as green, or ‘eco-friendly’ as possible,” Lopez Hanson said.
Lopez Hanson grew up in Long Beach and attended California State University at Northridge, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish at CSUN. Upon graduating from college, Lopez Hanson worked for several years at the Los Angeles Unified School District in its public health and English as a Second Language (ESL) programs.
Lopez Hanson moved to Ventura County from the San Fernando Valley in 1992, and worked at the Carden School of Camarillo, where she instituted a Spanish program. A year later, Lopez Hanson joined the Ventura County Public Health Department, where she served as community services coordinator.
Lopez Hanson later founded Alpha-Omega Enterprises, a bilingual health promotions firm, and currently is executive director for Community Action of Ventura County, a nonprofit group that helps low-income, disadvantaged and at-risk families and individuals to become self-sufficient through a variety of programs and services.
In addition to serving on the OUHSD board, Hanson is the board’s representative on the California School Board Association’s Delegate Assembly. She also is a member of Las Madrinas, a group that holds the Rebozo Festival each spring in Oxnard to raise funds for local organizations that promote Latino culture.
Lopez Hanson and her husband of 39 years, Richard, have two adult daughters, Anna Maria and Stephanie, and one grandson, Kenneth.
In her spare time, Lopez Hanson enjoys reading, particularly about California, as well as Mexican and Latin American history.
