Dennis De Guzman Caindec
Dennis De Guzman Caindec joined the Wallace Foundation in September 2024 as a program officer in education leadership. He brings a wealth of experience from public schools, district leadership, policy, research, and the nonprofit sector. At Wallace he is responsible for supporting the grants management and goals of the foundation’s Equity-Centered Pipeline Initiative.
Before joining Wallace, De Guzman Caindec served as the director of school support for the Internationals Network, where he worked closely with school and district leaders and local and state partners. His work included leading school leadership meetings among New York City International schools network, playing a key role in opening and supporting two school programs for multilingual learners in West Contra Costa Unified School District, establishing an equity leadership pipeline for teachers and support staff in New York City, and leading a systemwide professional learning series that included New York City teams from three districts and ten schools.
De Guzman Caindec began his education leadership journey as artistic director of Culture Shock Los Angeles, a nonprofit arts education organization that used street dance and music as a vehicle for social change and youth empowerment. He then worked as a high school math teacher for recent immigrant students in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, and eventually transitioned to district leadership with New York City Public Schools. He managed the city’s Common Core Lab Schools initiative and helped ensure its learning experiences were available to schools citywide. After that he moved to the San Francisco Unified School District, where he redesigned and led the district’s summer learning program for newly arrived multilingual learners and oversaw its English Learner policy and accountability portfolio.
De Guzman Caindec holds a doctorate in education leadership from UC Berkeley, a master’s degree in education from Pace University, and a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from UCLA. He continues to explore his passion for dance by supporting performances of fellow artists and attending dance events.
