Alison Diaz

Alison Suffet Diaz is the Founder of Environmental Charter Schools. With a dynamic team and under Alison’s leadership as the Executive Director & CEO for the majority of the last 20 years, ECS has flourished into award-winning schools. Environmental Charter High School is ranked in the top 3% of U.S. public high schools by U.S. News & World Report, and was chosen as one of three finalists in President Obama’s Race to the Top Commencement Challenge. ECS was in the first round of schools to be given the Department of Education’s inaugural Green Ribbon Award in environmental and sustainability education and Environmental Charter Middle School – Gardena received the 2015 California Gold Ribbon Schools Award for academic excellence.

In June 2019, Alison transitioned into the role of Director of Growth and Sustainability. In this role, she focuses on school growth, leading the expansion of high quality charter school seats into which ECS middle schoolers may matriculate through the launch of ECHS #2 in 2020-2021. She also manages mission-aligned green school facilities development, management and operations, spearheads sustainability initiatives, liaises with national and local green school partners and oversees development, partnerships and advocacy.

A teacher and lawyer by training, and mother at heart, Alison set out to create a different kind of educational experience for students, which has evolved into a model for schools across the country. Steps from Los Angeles’ major freeways, Environmental Charter Schools campuses are oases in an urban landscape and incorporate sustainable green features in their designs. Alison’s favorite spots are the bubbling stream that trickles out to a dry river bed, the student-designed playgrounds, the classroom garage doors that open up to patios, and of course, the chickens.

Alison holds a Bachelor of Science in Business from the State University of New York, Albany, and Juris Doctorate