LUSD Board of Education

Julian Del Real-Calleros was appointed to the Board in 2021. He was raised in Lynwood with his sisters by proud Mexican immigrants and attended Will Rogers Elementary, Abbott Elementary, Lynwood Middle School, and Lynwood High School before graduating from Vista High School in 2008. Julian earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Davis, where he majored in English with an emphasis in Literature, Theory, and Criticism. While a UC Davis student, Julian joined the international law co-ed fraternity, Phi Alpha Delta, and served as its Community Service chair. During this time, he found a job as a high school tutor and discovered a passion for teaching. Julian returned to SoCal and worked for Volunteers of America Los Angeles while working on his teacher’s credential at Cal State Dominguez Hills. He is currently a full-time teacher with Los Angeles Unified School District. As a member of the school board, Julian hopes to inspire young Lynwood students to pursue higher education. In addition to being a board member and full-time teacher, Julian is also involved with the Lynwood community as a planning commissioner and baseball coach with Lynwood Youth Baseball & Softball.

Gary Hardie, Jr., has served on the Board since 2014 when he was elected at the age of 26. He is a proud product of Lynwood in the culturally rich Southeast Los Angeles, with demographics consisting of predominantly African Americans and Latinos, to which he credits his grit and resilience. After pursuing a degree in English at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Hardie dedicated his life to building healthy individuals and leading by example, to further promote the broader vision of community building and goals of society. Hardie enjoys more than 15 years of experience working and volunteering in public, non-profit, and school settings that include management, public relations, marketing, and administration. Before joining the Social Justice Learning Institute as Director of Policy and Advocacy, Hardie worked as a Policy Advisor to a member of the 115th and 116th Congress. Hardie has also served on several boards and commissions, including the City of Lynwood Personnel Commission, California Advancing Pathways for Students Joint-Powers Authority, President of the California Association of Black School Educators, and the California Student Opportunity and Access Program Advisory Committee. Hardie's vision to affect real change in his community has led him to launch The Village Project - in response to President Obama’s My Brother's Keeper initiative - to address the issues of equity and access for our most vulnerable student populations.

Gudiel R. Crosthwaite, Ph.D., was appointed Lynwood Unified School District Superintendent in 2017 and has enjoyed more than 25 years in education, including teaching, mentoring, and leadership focused on removing educational barriers. Crosthwaite has been aligned with Lynwood Unified since 2010, when he became the director of elementary reform, supervising all K-8 school operations. He was promoted to deputy superintendent of educational services in 2013. Crosthwaite was instrumental in helping to develop a new strategic plan for the District, dismantling student tracking typically required for entrance into honors or AP courses, and raising student achievement to garner the highest API gains in the state two years in a row for a K-12 urban district with more than 7,000 students. Under his leadership, Lynwood High School graduation rates climbed more than 25 percentage points, and Firebaugh High School rose more than 23 percentage points. The District was named a 2017 AP District of the Year by the College Board for expanding access to AP courses while simultaneously improving AP exam performance. Lynwood Unified was one of only three Districts in the nation – and only one in California – to receive this distinction. Crosthwaite received a Bachelor’s degree in sociology from UCLA; a Master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education; his teaching credential a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from CSU Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Claremont Graduate University.