Marlene Canter and Donna DeRoo have been appointed to the Board of Trustees of Fielding Graduate University.

Canter served two terms, from 2001 to 2008, on the Los Angeles Board of Education. She was LAUSD board president from 2005 to 2007 and represented neighborhoods from the valley to the Pacific Ocean. She chaired the new Charters and Innovation Committee, which she conceived to support efforts to create innovative partnerships, provide oversight for charter schools and facilitate reforms in the district.

DeRoo is the assistant director for the Central California Center for Health and Human Services at California State University at Fresno.

Canter, drawing on her 30-year career in education as co-CEO of a teacher training company, created the Human Resources Committee, which was responsible for the improvement in the recruitment of highly qualified teachers.

Canter began her career as a special education teacher and co-founded and served as the co-CEO of Canter & Associates. The company was sold to Sylvan Learning Systems, which became Laureate Education Inc. It is a leading teacher-training organization, having trained more than 1 million K-12 teachers worldwide and developed an extensive catalog of professional development programs, courseware and resource material for teachers, administrators and parents.

“Marlene has a reputation as one of the most knowledgeable people in the field of K-12 education,” Fielding President Richard Meyers said. “We are looking forward to her oversight in the many changes and growth areas we are planning for Fielding and to building on her previous association with Fielding and the meaningful connections she will make on behalf of our university.”

Canter has served on state Superintendent Jack O’Connell’s P-16 Council, the Children’s Partnership (a national nonprofit, nonpartisan child advocacy organization), and on the board of directors for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

Children’s health and well-being remain a top priority for Canter. She authored the resolutions to ban the sale of soft drinks and junk food in LAUSD schools, making it the first large urban district in the nation to approve such bans. She serves on the boards of Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services, City Year Los Angeles, Education Pioneers (advisory board), Green Dot Charter Schools and the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission.

DeRoo has more than 15 years experience in nonprofit management at the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, the Fresno Public Education Foundation and California State University at Fresno. She is a past president of the Junior League of Fresno.

“Donna may come to the board as a student trustee,” Meyers said, “but her knowledge of higher education and of advancement and development in the nonprofit sector is exceptional. Donna will be of great assistance as we fully develop our fundraising capacity to reduce Fielding’s dependency on student tuition.”

DeRoo is a doctoral student in Fielding’s Educational Leadership & Change program.

The terms for Canter and DeRoo as Fielding trustees will commence with the beginning of the fall meeting of the Board of Trustees on Nov. 5.

— Sylvia Williams is the communications director for Fielding Graduate University.