Superintendent, Gwinnett County Public Schools
Dr. Calvin J. Watts has served as superintendent of Gwinnett County Public Schools - Georgia's largest school district, the eleventh-largest and seventh-most diverse district in the Nation—since July 30, 2021.
As a former GCPS leader who served in varied leadership roles for 13 years, Dr. Watts rejoined the district after serving as superintendent of Kent School District for six years. His career as an educator also includes positions with the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Seattle Public Schools, Atlanta Public Schools, and Carrollton City Schools.
Dr. Watts' leadership philosophy has always been to reach and teach all students as if they had his last name. With this philosophy in mind, he and his wife have expanded their "family" to include the nearly 183,000 children served in GCPS.
As superintendent of GCPS, Dr. Watts is focused on building the bridge from empathy to excellence, along with listening and learning to engage more people in the school district's work and the strategic plan. Under his leadership, the school district has brought new voices into the conversation about how GCPS can better serve the whole learner in terms of what our students need to be successful academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally so that we can ensure that each and every student thrives.
Chairperson, GCPS BOE
District V Representative
Dr. Tarece Johnson, who prefers to be called Dr. Tarece, joined the School Board in January 2021. She is the first African-American woman to lead the county’s Board of Education. Dr. Tarece earned a BA from La Universidad del Sagrado Corazón (Puerto Rico) and a MPA (Columbia University), a MBA (Emory University), and an EdD. She is an educational leader, entrepreneur, and teacher. She is a diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice professional. Dr. Tarece is an advocate, activist, author, and artist. She is passionate about ethnic and global education and dedicated to multicultural and multilingual learning.