Karen Garza

Dr. Karen Kay Garza (1963 - ) is the Superintendent of the Fairfax County Public Schools system. She assumed that role on July 1, 2013.

She was born Karen Kay Franz in Canyon, Texas, the daughter of Betty and James. She grew up in Victoria, Texas, where her father was an English professor at the Victoria College. She graduated from Victoria High School in 1981, then attended the University of Houston – Victoria, eventually completing both her Bachelors and Masters degrees there. She later completed her Ph.D. at the University of Texas, Austin, submitting her doctoral thesis, "Superintendent Leadership for Developing School Districts As Learning Communities" in May, 2002.

She worked for the Texas Association of School Administrators in Austin, Texas, as the professional development coordinator and later as an associate executive director for governmental relations. During this time, she also worked as the Executive Director for Curriculum, Staff Development, and Accountability for the Katy Independent School District in Katy, Texas.

She next took a position as chief of staff with the Corpus Christie, Texas Independent School District in July, 2004. After less than a year there, she left to become the chief academic officer with the Houston, Texas Independent School District.

Following her marriage to banker and Corpus Christie School Board Member Louis J. Garza in February, Garza announced her resignation from the HISD on May 6, 2008.

Dr. Garza was previously the superintendent of the Lubbock Independent School District in Lubbock, Texas from July 1, 2009 to 2013. Although Dr. Garza signed a 3-year contract with LISD on June 30, 2012 that would have continued her employment with that district through 2015, she was the preferred candidate chosen by the Fairfax County School Board to replace the outgoing Dr. Jack D. Dale on April 9, 2013.

Personal
Garza married her first husband, Charles L. "Chuck" Soehnge, on August 14, 1982. They would go on to have two children, Eric and Karli. She is currently married to Louis J. Garza, whom she married in February 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada.