Dr. Chad Gestson

Dr. Chad Gestson serves as the founding Executive Director of the Arizona Institute for Education and the Economy, a collective impact group with a mission of cultivating solutions that drive educational and economic equity and prosperity in Arizona. He also serves as the Special Advisor to the President on K-12 Initiatives at Northern Arizona University. Gestson spent 22 years in K-12 education, most recently as Superintendent of Arizona’s largest high school district, Phoenix Union High School District (PXU), from 2015-2023. Under his leadership, Phoenix Union also launched a new school concept never before seen in America – PXU City, a school that uses the city, not a campus, as the classroom.