Tom Johnstone, superintendent of the Wiseburn School District in the South Bay of Los Angeles, has been selected as the School of Education’s 2013 Educator of the Year. An SOE alumnus, Johnstone is being recognized for his distinguished career dedicated to increasing educational opportunity for all students.
Johnstone became superintendent of Wiseburn in 2008 after a 28-plus year education career in the Lennox School District. As superintendent of the Wiseburn School District, he leads a public school system in the El Segundo/west Hawthorne area.
The SOE gives this award annually at its Kappa Delta Pi & SOE Awards Ceremony to extraordinary leaders in the field of education who embody LMU’s mission: the encouragement of life-long learning and academic excellence, the education of the whole person and the promotion of service and justice for all. View photos from the event.
Johnstone began his education career as a middle school social studies teacher and has served as a middle school counselor, elementary assistant principal and principal, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment and for ten years was assistant superintendent of human resources – all in the Lennox School District.
A strong believer in lifelong learning, Johnstone earned his bachelor’s degree in History at the University of Santa Clara, master’s degree in Counseling from the Loyola Marymount University School of Education, master’s degree in Latin American history from UCLA and a doctorate in institutional management from Pepperdine University.
Johnstone actively gives back to his community, serving on the board of the St. Margaret’s Center in Lennox and as chairman of the board for Diabetic Camping and Education Services, which supports outdoor science programs for children with diabetes. He has been an active member of the Hawthorne/LAX/Lennox Rotary Club for the past 12 years.
Past recipients of the SOE’s Educator of the Year Award include Father Gregory Boyle, Gov. Roy Romer, Steve Barr, Marlene Canter and Judy Burton among others.
