Celia Pascual is Chief Academic Officer at Yu Ming Charter School, a network of two K–8 dual-immersion schools across four campuses in California. She leads the organization’s academic strategy, designing the systems, and leadership structures that enable multilingual learners and historically underserved students to achieve at the highest levels. Through the supervision and development of principals and directors, Celia builds aligned, equity-driven schools that deliver rigorous, culturally responsive instruction. Under her leadership, Yu Ming has earned national and state recognition, including designation as a 2019 National Blue Ribbon School, a 2020 and 2023 California Distinguished School, and a 2025 California Blue Ribbon School.

Previously, Celia served as principal at Yu Ming, where she strengthened instructional coherence and developed leadership capacity to drive equitable outcomes for students across grade levels. Earlier in her career, Celia was a district mathematics specialist in Oakland Unified School District. She led the development of Common Core–aligned curriculum and assessments, facilitated professional learning for hundreds of teachers annually, and coached both teachers and school leaders across multiple elementary school sites to strengthen instructional practice and leadership effectiveness.

Celia began her career in the classroom, grounding her systems-level leadership in the daily realities of teaching and learning. She is a former Project GLAD trainer with expertise in second language acquisition and instructional design for multilingual learners and is a National Board Certified Teacher.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in educational leadership from the Reach Institute for School Leadership, along with a California administrative services credential.