Amber Young Medina is the Chief of Schools with KIPP SoCal Public Schools. In this role, she leads the school management and the student services teams. For six years, she was the founding school leader of California’s first KIPP elementary school, KIPP Raíces Academy, founded in 2008 in East Los Angeles. KIPP Raíces Academy was a 2015 National Blue Ribbon Exemplary High Performing School and when receiving the California Distinguished School award was the only school in the state to do so with the additional distinction of Exemplary Arts Education Program and Exemplary Physical Activity and Nutrition Program. Prior, Amber was a teacher and the interim principal at Ralph J. Bunche Elementary School, her original Teach For America placement and Compton Unified’s first California Distinguished School. Amber holds a master of arts in elementary education and a master of arts in school administration from Loyola Marymount University. She received her bachelor of arts in history and sociology from Amherst College.