Our Principal

Meet Principal Dr. Kathleen Gallagher

Dr. Kathleen Gallagher

Dr. Gallagher was born in Santa Monica, California in 1963. She grew up in Huntington Beach, California, but spent her high school years in New Orleans, Louisiana. As a child, she loved to read, swim in the ocean, and play street games with her friends like Hide-And-Go-Seek and Kick the Can. She loved living in New Orleans where she learned to have a passion for history, Cajun food, and Jazz music.

Dr. Gallagher worked hard her whole life. When she was in middle school, she was the first girl in the city to have a paper route. She delivered newspapers on her bike every evening after school and early in the mornings on Saturdays and Sundays, making $40/month. After high school, she returned to California and worked at Stater Bros. Grocery store to pay her way through college. She attended California State University, Fullerton and graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology.

Dr. Gallagher always knew she wanted to be a teacher so she continued her education at California State University, Long Beach, where she earned her teaching credential. She began teaching in Oceanside, California in 1986 and taught all grades, Kindergarten through Grade 6. She earned her Master's Degree at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in 1990, which was the same year her first son, Eddie, was born. His sister, Kate, came along two years later and both of them attended college at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).

In 1999, Dr. Gallagher began teaching in the San Diego Unified School District. She taught Reading, English, and History at Kroc Middle School. She earned her Mathematics Specialist Certificate form San Diego State University (SDSU) in 2001 and began working as a Math Specialist at Kennedy Elementary School and Washington Elementary School. After earning her Administrative Services Credential, she became the Vice Principal at Porter Elementary, Bell Middle School, and Zamorano Fine Arts Academy. In her free time, she loves to read, write, hike, bike, cook, and spend quality time with her cherished family and friends.

In 2008, she began working on her PhD at the University of San Diego (USD). She graduated in 2013, which is the reason people now call her Dr. Gallagher. She conducted extensive research on the relationship between student achievement and instructional quality in the classroom. Dr. Gallagher is now focused on working with the Baker Team to ensure all of our students leave elementary school with the skills they need for success in middle school, high school, and beyond. Her most important goal is to ensure that teachers love teaching, students love learning, and parents love being an integral part of both processes.

Dream, Believe, Achieve. That's the Baker Way!

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