Meet Mary Stanton, College of Education Distinguished Alumna

Mary Stanton is a tireless educator whose extensive career has impacted countless students and improved the institutions of California’s third-largest school district, Long Beach Unified. She earned her degree in Elementary Education with a concentration in Music Education in 1965 and has been dedicated to the development of our school system ever since.

Stanton retired from 24 years as an elected member of the Long Beach Unified School District’s Board of Education. Her tenure was a period of reconnection for the district, and Stanton was a leader in the development of the Long Beach College Promise, which has famously shown significant gains in student achievement over the last decade.

Among many achievements, Stanton chaired the School Site Committee, which developed the Magnet program at Los Cerritos, saving Los Cerritos Elementary from closure. She worked to combat classroom overcrowding, launched the Jordan High Freshmen Academy, fought to restore instrumental and vocal music classes in all middle schools and made protection of the arts in Long Beach schools a top priority.

As a CSULB student, Stanton represented education students as an ASI Senator. She fondly looks back on the art and music history classes that prepared her for life’s adventures, and credits her music education at CSULB as foundational to her teaching career. She has worked to share the love of vocal music she found at CSULB with students from small art classrooms in San Francisco to one of the state’s largest districts in San Diego.

A lifelong learner, she proudly returns to CSULB today as a student through the OLLI Senior University and as a patron of performances on campus.

^{This article was reproduced with permission from the CSULB Alumni Office website.}