Dr. Amanda Gonzales is managing director of schools and programs at Moonshot, where she leads the organization’s strategic work to recruit and develop a strong, diverse pipeline of leaders and to sustain alumni in positions of influence across youth-serving systems.
Amanda is the founder of Ollin Educational Consulting, serves as adjunct faculty at the University of Northern Colorado Center for Urban Education, and is a board member of the Denver Healing Generations Network. In two thousand twenty-two, she was named Educational Leader of the Year by the Colorado Association of Bilingual Educators for her advocacy alongside bilingual students and families in Colorado school systems.
Over the past twenty-nine years, Amanda has worked across education and community systems as a high school principal and founder, middle and high school administrator, special education teacher, and program developer, as well as in gang outreach and violence response, field-based mental health, and youth mentoring. She has taught across all secondary content areas and gets excited about special education policy and practice for adolescents with affective needs and significant mental health disabilities.
A first-generation college graduate and child of a Displaced Aurarian, Amanda earned a Bachelor of Arts in Special Education and Linguistically Diverse Education from Metropolitan State University of Denver and a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and Special Education Administration from the University of Northern Colorado. She earned a Doctor of Education in Leadership for Educational Equity from the University of Colorado Denver. Her scholarship is grounded in Latina/o Critical Theory, Chicana feminism, and TribalCrit and examines Indigenous-rooted, healing-centered educational spaces for young women.
Amanda navigates life as a mother, partner, eldest child, and community leader, guided by ancestral wisdom and a deep commitment to movement, possibility, and collective well-being.