HISD’s deputy superintendent Rick Cruz joined the district in 2008 as a Teach For America corps member and bilingual fifth-grade teacher at Moreno Elementary School, where he was twice named Teacher of the Year. In 2010 he founded EMERGE, a program that helps first-generation and low-income students attend and graduate from the nation’s top colleges and universities. Since 2013 Cruz has been a member of HISD’s central leadership team, where he has implemented initiatives focused on ensuring that all graduating seniors are college- and career-ready. 

(Spring 2022)