Gloria Martinez is a battle-tested educator, transformative union leader, and fearless advocate for justice in our schools and city. Gloria grew up in Southeast LA, the daughter of a garment worker and a school custodian. Within LAUSD, she was a Local 99-represented teaching assistant, and then taught in East LA, building experience in both general and special education classrooms. She brings a deep understanding of the challenges facing educators—and the courage to confront them head-on. Gloria cut her teeth in organizing early in her career by building super-majorities in school communities in East LA against charter co-locations. As the privatizers rose in strength in the 2000s, Gloria, as a young educator, did not sit idly — she helped build campaigns against privatizer Monica Garcia on the School Board.

Elected to UTLA’s Board in 2014 and becoming UTLA Elementary Vice President in 2017, Gloria helped drive the union’s transformation into a militant, organizing force rooted in community power. Gloria joined the bargaining team in 2017 and was an essential, frontline strategic leader in the historic 2019 strike and the 2023 solidarity strike. She was central to our contract victories in 2019 and 2023, and held the line at the bargaining table and in coalitions during the chaos of 2020’s distance learning crisis. Gloria is currently a bargaining lead, bringing tremendous experience and savvy to the role.

Gloria’s leadership doesn’t stop at the bargaining table. She did not hesitate to take it to the streets this summer as LA faced one of the most terrifying political climates in decades. Her organizing helped fortify our members and communities in the face of escalating attacks. She has been a relentless defender of special education—spearheading the creation of the first-ever Special Education Article in our contract to protect SPED educators and students, and ensure they’re no longer treated as an afterthought.

A national political leader on federal IDEA special education funding, Gloria understands that change happens when we build coalitions, as she led UTLA in doing with unions and organizations across the country in the late 2010s and early 2020s. She has brought the same coalition-building power to the housing justice fight in LA, building a broad front advocating for affordable housing for students, families, and educators. In all of these efforts, Gloria has led politically with elected officials.

Now as UTLA Treasurer, she is ensuring our union is financially resilient, strategically prepared, and unshakably strong. Gloria Martinez leads with clarity, courage, and an unrelenting commitment to the educators and students who make our public schools thrive. She keeps herself deeply grounded with an unrelenting connection to school sites, and she brings that passion into fighting tooth-and-nail as a bargainer and organizer for salary, healthcare, the common good, and for improvements in the day-to-day working conditions of educators. Gloria is not just ready to lead UTLA and ready to change the terrain in California and the US—she’s already doing it.