Under her leadership, San Diego Unified has emerged as the highest-performing urban school district in both California and the nation for two consecutive years, an achievement that reflects her unwavering commitment to excellence, equity, and innovation at scale.

A proud product of San Diego’s border community, Dr. Bagula’s bicultural upbringing informs her deeply human-centered and visionary approach to leadership.

She is the first Latina and only the third woman to serve as superintendent of the district—an honor she carries with a profound sense of responsibility to ensure students see themselves reflected in systems of power and possibility.

Across her career (as a teacher, instructional coach, principal, assistant superintendent, senior director of equity, deputy superintendent, and now superintendent). Dr. Bagula has built a reputation for leading transformative
change while cultivating trust across diverse communities. 

She leads one of the most progressive school systems in the country, advancing bold initiatives that redefine public education, including pioneering innovative housing solutions that have tripled employee housing capacity in California without use of district funds while preserving public land and creating long-term community investment.

Dr. Bagula was adjunct faculty for the Graduate Program in Educational Leadership and Emancipatory School Leadership at California State University San Jose, the School of Leadership and Educational Sciences (SOLES) at the University of San Diego (USD), and RISE San Diego, an organization that teaches adaptive leadership and equity-action research to aspiring leaders in the community. Dr. Bagula was faculty for school administrator credential programs for both San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) and USD- teaching classes for future principals such as Finance, Budgets and Taxpayer Stewardship, Ethical Decision Making, Family and Community Engagement and Evaluation and Assessment.

Her work at SDCOE allowed her to coach county superintendents and their cabinets on leadership, education, equity, and group dynamics. She worked closely with the following districts and superintendents: Poway, Encinitas, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Ramona, Coronado, Lakeside.
Dr. Bagula also led learning for Superintendents across the state of California.

As a leadership scholar, Dr. Bagula also launches and delivers keynote presentations across our county (Chula Vista School District, Coronado School District, San Ysidro School District, to name a few), state and some international locations such as Verona Italy, Vienna Austria, and Zurich Switzerland for the International Leadership Association (ILA).

Dr. Bagula was recently awarded the Leadership Luminary award from the LGBTQIA+ Center and she is also the current recipient of the Arts Schools Network Outstanding Superintendent award-a national award that recognizes visionary leadership and an unwavering commitment that ensures students have access to high quality and sequential arts education.
Dr. Bagula also received the USD BiGi (Black InGenius Initiative) award for her commitment towards the advancement of Black youth. She has been the recipient of the 2024 Finalist for the Matusak Award for Courageous Leadership, a 2023 “Cool Woman” Finalist from the Girl Scouts Organization, the 2023 California Association of Latino Superintendents and Administrators (CALSA) Central Office Administrator of the Year, the 2013 César Chávez Visionary leader award, a nominee for San Diego’s 79th district Educational Leadership Award from Representative Dr. Shirley Weber, and a former National Equity Project fellow.

Dr. Bagula is currently an AASA/USC leadership fellow and also a part of University of San Diego’s GLobal leadership network which expands leadership opportunities globally. Dr. Bagula was a Yale-Broad Leadership fellow and is connected to the Broad leadership network. She is the incoming chair for VEBA, who collectively ensures the best healthcare for Southern California educators and is also ex officio member of the San Diego Regional Housing Finance Authority as she continues to be a part of the solution to affordability in housing solutions.
Additionally, Dr. Bagula has served as a founding member of Action Research Network of the Americas (ARNA) and Board member of the Social Publishers Foundation (SPF), which supports practitioner-researcher projects and the democratization of knowledge around the world.

Dr. Bagula holds a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies from the University of San Diego.
Her research areas include leadership and identity formation. She has published both academic and literary works, including a chapter in the 2021 book, Latinas Leading Schools, two chapters in the 2022 book Recipes to Combat the ‘isms and one chapter in the newest 2024 publication, Hispanic Perspectives on Student Support and Community Empowerment. Likewise, she is certificated in Stakeholder Centered Coaching with The Marshall Goldsmith Group and certified in Leading Dialogue through Conflict with Public Conversations Project. Dr. Bagula frequently facilitates seminars on topics of educational and systemic equity, dialogue facilitation, authenticity, improvement science, and adaptive leadership.

Fabiola “Fabi” Bagula, Ph.D. serves as Superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District, the second largest district in California, serving over 95,000 students and employing more than 15,000 staff.