SMMCTA LEADERSHIP TEAM
 
PRESIDENT  -  Claudia Batista-Nicholas  (term ends 2026)
VICE PRESIDENT - Elizabeth "Liz" Cowgill (John Adams) (term ends 2026)
TREASURER - Grant Clark  (Franklin Elementary  (term ends 2026)
SECRETARY  - Jorge Cierra (John Adams) (term ends 2025)

HIGH SCHOOL REP - Ned Acker (SAMOHI) 
HIGH SCHOOL REP - Amy Golden-Malone (SAMOHI)
MIDDLE SCHOOL REP - Esther Anderson (Lincoln)
ELEMENTARY REP - Catherine Handelman (Roosevelt)
ELEMENTARY REP - Lindsay Okumura (Music)
MALIBU REP - Julia Jones (Malibu MS)
CDS REP - ​Roxanna "Roxie" Patton, (Will Rogers Elementary)

Claudia Bautista-Nicholas has been part of the SMMUSD district as an immersion teacher at Santa Monica High School since 2002. She came from El Salvador and has always valued education, being the first one in her family to attend a four year college. After graduating from UCLA with a BA in History, Claudia attended Yale to study Spanish. It is at UCLA where she began teaching back in 1990 as a graduate student and fell in love with the profession. In 2015, she started teaching Social Studies in Spanish at Samohi and in 2020 was honored by Facing History And Ourselves along with her students as Educator of the Year. 


Her devotion to social justice led to her involvement with the local teachers union SMMCTA. First serving as an executive board member representing SAMOHI for 6 years, then as vice-president until assuming the duties of the President in July 2021. In June of 2022 she was elected as president of SMMCTA by her peers. She looks forward to working on behalf of all the talented teachers and the students of the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District for her next term 2022-2024.