Sari Pascoe
Helping children excel is Sari Pascoe’s passion.
She has found a way to live that passion with Communities in Schools of Renton (CISR). Pascoe was recently hired as the organization’s executive director.
Former executive director Susan Richards left in June. She is now executive director for Communities In Schools of Washington State.
Richards was hired just after CISR’s creation in 1994.
Pascoe, 37, says she’s thrilled to take the helm of CISR, a nonprofit that supports Renton families and students with family liaison and mentor programs. CISR has five family liaisons and about 135 mentors.
“I think it’s a wonderful fit with my passion, my values and beliefs and education, and I strongly believe I can help the organization grow and make changes in Renton,” she says.
Although Pascoe’s been on the job only about a week, she already has a number of ideas to grow the 14-year-old CISR. She sees this as a year of transition.
“It marks a new stage in the growth of the organization, and I’m very excited to be a part of it,” she says.
Pascoe has earned multiple education and business degrees and a doctorate, from places, including her native Mexico City, plus Pennsylvania, San Francisco and Indiana. She has a dual-major bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and organizational management; a multiple-subject teaching credential with an emphasis in Spanish BCLAD (Bilingual Cross-cultural Language and Academic Development); a master’s in instructional technologies; and a doctorate in instructional systems technology.
Pascoe is a recent transplant from Texas. There she worked at the University of North Texas, for the division of equity and diversity and the department of library and information sciences. She turned down another job offer there to move to Seattle with her husband Daniel, who took a job as executive director of career services at Seattle University.
Bob McBeth is glad Pascoe moved west. McBeth chairs the Board of Directors of Communities in Schools.
“I’m really excited,” he says. “I think she brings enthusiasm; she is dynamic; she will attract the kinds of people who will be supportive of our program. I couldn’t be more excited.”
McBeth is also looking forward to Pascoe’s fresh blood and ideas.
Pascoe says her new job includes “everything.”
“Anything and everything that has to do with making the organization prosper,” she says.
Emily Garland can be reached at emily.garland@rentonreporter.com or (425) 255-3484, ext. 5052.
