Dr. Kim Lanoy-Sandoval is a proud New Mexican with over 20 years of experience in education. As Deputy Director at Future Focused Education, she co-designs educational systems with local expertise to ensure a more equitable, relevant, and engaging learning experience for youth. Kim is a mom, educator, and member of the Navajo Nation who grew up on the reservation. She is passionate about creating educational landscapes that value and affirm students’ identities, experiences, and learning well beyond standardized scores.
Kim began her teaching career as an alternative licensed teacher with a Bachelor’s in Psychology from Ft. Lewis College and completed her Master’s in Special Education at the University of New Mexico. She loved teaching at Albuquerque Public Schools as a special education teacher supporting youth needing specialized learning, mental health, and emotional support. After nine years in the classroom, Kim became a reading specialist and district trainer, co-creating a practitioner-based model for a special education licensure program for a district serving over 70,000 students that is still being implemented.
In 2016, Kim joined Cooperative Educational Services as their Senior Trainer, where she had the honor of collaborating with districts in every part of the state on professional development, curriculum alignment, student engagement, mentorship models, leadership development, and new teacher induction. The opportunity to train hundreds of educators and co-teach in classrooms across New Mexico solidified her passion for supporting the work of educators in rethinking and redesigning outdated and inequitable school systems. In 2019, Kim became the Co-Founding Director of LEAP, Leading Educators through Alternative Pathways, New Mexico’s statewide teacher licensure program, and completed her Doctoral degree in Educational Leadership at Gonzaga University.
Kim serves as Vice Chair for the New Mexico Indian Education Advisory Committee and is on the New Mexico Professional Practice Standards Board.
Strategy Development
Kim is creating and planning the organization’s growth strategy and overseeing the strategic plan’s implementation. She collaborates with colleagues to build management systems that improve efficiency for our team, partners, and clients. Kim also leads the organization’s financial viability beyond the day-to-day accounting and budget responsibilities.
Deepening Equity Culture
Kim works to collaborate, nurture, and support staff to help make the working environment safe, productive, and rooted in equity. Kim leads the partnering strategy to ensure Future Focused Education’s respect, reciprocity, relevance, and responsibility to the organization’s mission and values.