A passionate educator, leader, and advocate for students, Dr. Marcey Sorensen joined La Joya ISD as Superintendent in February 2024 after serving as Deputy Superintendent for the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). During her time at VDOE, Sorensen focused chiefly on initiatives surrounding learning acceleration, early literacy, and special education for Virginia’s 1.3 million public school students enrolled across 131 districts. She launched Virginia’s high-intensity tutoring program to address learning loss in both reading and math for students across the Commonwealth in response to learning disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2019, Sorensen joined the Fort Worth Independent School District as Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning before being promoted to Chief Academic Officer. During her tenure, the district saw an 80% increase in the number of campuses that improved to a B rating while simultaneously seeing a nearly 90% decrease in the number of F-rated campuses. Sorensen reorganized the district’s special education department to better serve students with disabilities, overhauled instructional practices, led the adoption of aligned and nationally recognized, evidence-based curriculum in literacy, math, and dual language, and collaborated with Texas Christian University to establish a principal pipeline to help train the district’s future leaders. Dr. Sorensen also oversaw the Department of Multilingual Learners to ensure that students needing dual language services received evidence-based instruction and supports while aligning resources for families and caregivers so that multilingual learners had the resources needed to become more academically successful.
From 2017 to 2019, Sorensen worked at the Madison (Wisconsin) Metropolitan School District, joining as Executive Director of Curriculum & Instruction before finishing her tenure as Deputy Chief of Secondary Schools. Sorensen began her career in 1995 with Chicago Public Schools, spending 10 years as a social studies teacher before transitioning into an administrative role, where she led three campuses as principal for almost 11 years.
A 1995 graduate of Northern Illinois University, Sorensen obtained her Master of Education in Pre-K-12 Administration & Supervision from Northeastern Illinois University in 2004. She earned her doctorate in Educational Policy & Leadership from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2015 with her superintendency endorsement.
Dr. Sorensen, her husband, a lifelong educator himself, and her two children are thrilled to be a part of the La Joya ISD Community and to call the Rio Grande Valley home.