John E. Deasy serves as a deputy superintendent for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Prior to joining Los Angeles Unified, Deasy served as the Deputy Director of Education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He has previously served as superintendent of the Prince George’s County, Maryland., Public Schools. Before taking the stage to talk about teacher rankings, he took our In The Green Room Q&A.
Q. What’s the last habit you tried to kick?
A. Eating excessive sugar.
Q. What surprises you the most about your life right now?
A. The enormity of the challenge in front of me in my job.
Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. Tibet.
Q. Who was your childhood hero?
A. My dad. And my non-dad answer is Robert F. Kennedy.
Q. What do you consider to be the greatest simple pleasure?
A. Skiing.
Q. Where would we find you at 10 a.m. on a typical Saturday?
A. At work.
Q. What do you do to clear your mind?
A. Athletics.
Q. What do you wish you had the nerve to do?
A. Speak with ease in Spanish in public.
Q. Who is your favorite fictional character?
A. Underdog.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. Martini straight-up. Gin.
Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. Three pacifiers from my three children, and two photographs: one is a photo of Bobby Sands, who died in prison ousting the British from Northern Ireland, and the second is a photo of Bobby Kennedy breaking bread with Cesar Chavez after his fast.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead that you would most like to meet for dinner?
A. Nelson Mandela.
To read more about Deasy’s panel, click here.
*Photo by Aaron Salcido.