Jon Gundry is a California native but he began his career in education as a classroom teacher in the Houston Independent School District where he taught Spanish and ESL in grades 6-12. In 1990 he was the recipient of the Texas Excellence Award for Outstanding High School teachers awarded by the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1991 he won a Fulbright scholarship and spent a year in Nicosia, Cyprus teaching English and consulting with the Ministry of Education on teacher preparation and curriculum development for the teaching of English as a second language.

He began his administrative career in 1996 as a high school Assistant Principal and later was an elementary school Principal, K-12 Executive Principal, and Regional Executive Director of the Houston school district’s Central Region. 

He returned to California in 2008 to work at the Los Angeles County Office of Education where he served as Deputy Superintendent and Interim Superintendent/CEO. Before he retired in 2018, he was also Superintendent of the Pasadena Unified School District and the Santa Clara County Office of Education.

Jon came to The SAE as a consultant in 2019 and decided to stay on full time as the Executive Director/CEO because he believes so strongly in the mission of The SAE to provide a high quality, innovative academic program and a world class arts experience for children who do not have those opportunities in their home schools.