Dr. Phyllis C. Pajardo

Phyllis Cofield Pajardo, Ed.D. has more than 40 years of experience in instructional leadership, leadership development, and operational management. Prior to retiring in June 2022, Dr. Phyll, as she is affectionately known, served five years as superintendent of schools in the City of Fairfax Schools (Virginia) serving 3000 students in four schools. She championed reflective leadership practices, capacity building for staff, and programming to provide student access and opportunity such as AVID (K-12), 1:1 technology initiatives, and advanced academics. 

For 35 years, she served Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS, Virginia), the 10th largest school division in the US serving nearly 190,000 students and 220 schools. While in Fairfax County, she was an assistant superintendent for 10 years. As FCPS Human Resources’ assistant superintendent, Dr. Pajardo oversaw the offices of talent acquisition and management, employee evaluation and relations, benefit services, and business services. She partnered with the department of Professional Learning on district-wide leadership development for instructional and support employees as well as succession planning programming. As the FCPS Cluster II assistant superintendent, she was “lead learner” for 28 schools/principals. In Fairfax County, Phyllis also served as an elementary teacher, assistant principal, professional learning specialist, career development coordinator, principal, LEAD Fairfax project manager, and cluster director.

Dr. Phyll has been an adjunct faculty with her alma maters, University of Virginia (UVA) and George Mason University. She has received specialized certifications from private and educational organizations such as Gallup, Center for Creative Leadership, UVA’s Darden School of Business, Aha!, and Center for Cognitive Coaching. 

A native Virginian, Dr. Phyll’s dissertation, A Case Study of a Full-time, Full-year Administrative Internship Program, was published in 2009. She co-authored The Principal Influence: A Framework for Developing Leadership Capacity in Principals, 2016. She’s presented at national education conferences and has consulted with school districts around the country, planning and facilitating professional learning and leadership development approaches. She is pleased to partner with Revolutionary ED, LLC as an executive coach.