A longtime resident of San Diego, California, Chuck Podhorsky holds a bachelor of science in education from the University of California, San Diego, and a master of educational administration from San Diego State University. In the early 2000s, he relocated to Los Angeles to earn a doctorate in educational leadership at the University of California, Los Angeles. After completing his dissertation on lesson study as a method of academic facilitation, Chuck Podhorsky returned to the San Diego area to spread a pedagogical approach to learning that combined the collaborative classroom inquiry of lesson study with a belief that a larger collaboration with the surrounding community can truly reform education.

A school administrator with the San Diego Unified School District, Chuck Podhorsky has served as principal of La Jolla High School since 2014. In addition to instituting a range of student support initiatives at La Jolla, he has created a comprehensive plan for professional development that has engaged the school’s certificated and classified staff in its entirety.