Dr. Chad E. Gestson has served as superintendent of the Phoenix Union High School District since the fall of 2015. Under his leadership, Phoenix Union has launched five new schools, from a Gifted and Talented academy, to a college preparatory academy in one of the city’s most underserved communities, to the Phoenix Coding Academy. The district has seen tremendous increases in graduation rates, scholarship totals, and college matriculation rates. Prior to being named superintendent, Gestson was the district’s director of school leadership. In that role, he supervised principals and developed future principals and assistant principals through an Aspiring Leaders program that he created. He previously spent five years as the principal of Camelback High School, where he launched coding and engineering programs as well as the first and only Montessori high school program in Arizona.

Before joining Phoenix Union, Gestson was a middle school principal and elementary school assistant principal in the Isaac School District. An alumnus of Teach For America, he began his career in the Roosevelt School District in 2001.

Prior to his work in education, Gestson was a commercial construction superintendent in Seattle, Wash. He holds a bachelor’s in English from the University of Washington, an M.Ed. in curriculum and instruction from Arizona State University, and an M.Ed. in educational leadership from Northern Arizona University (NAU). He earned his doctorate in educational leadership from NAU, where he was named the Outstanding Doctoral Student of the Year. Gestson is also a member of the Chiefs for Change Board of Directors and a Broad Academy Fellow.