Five Things We Learned About the Garden Grove Unified School District’s Superintendent

The Garden Grove Unified School District is marking its 60th anniversary this year. The district serves roughly 36,000 TK-12th-grade students across more than 60 campuses in Garden Grove, Stanton, Santa Ana, Westminster, Fountain Valley and other parts of Orange County. Nine of the district's campuses were named 2026 California Distinguished Schools. GGUSD was recently profiled in The Orange County Register as a district demonstrating student outcomes that challenge the longstanding academic divide tied to income in the region.

Spotlight Schools’ contributor Germaine Neumann recently spoke with Superintendent Gabriela Mafi, Ed.D., for a phone interview. She started off by confirming how to say her name, “It’s like mafia, but Mafi,” the longtime educator explained. 

Here are five other things we learned about Dr. Mafi and her leadership over the past 13 years. The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity and flow.

• Dr. Mafi loves math. 

“I was a math teacher and for the last 20 years, prior to my time as superintendent, I oversaw all of the placement of all of the secondary curriculum. I talk about [math] every week with our teams, so that's why I feel comfortable. And I will look at the data, and I feel comfortable knowing how our kids are performing.” (Garden Grove Unified’s 2025 CAASPP test scores show 50.71% of students tested met or exceeded standards in math, above the state and county average.) 

• Dr. Mafi has a mentorship program with GGUSD students. 

“I call it ‘Dr. Mafi's Mentees.’ It started 13 years ago when I became superintendent. I started with sixth graders. I had 35 sixth graders, and the next year I took another 60. Those kids have all graduated. They were the class of 2021 and when the class graduated, I took on this last group in sixth grade. They're now in 11th grade. What I do is, I am just a bossy lady and a mom, and my kids are grown, so I go out and I meet with [the mentees] once a month, I monitor their grades, I meet with their parents. It's important for my role as a superintendent for me to know what's happening. ... I have to be making sure that everything for our kids, as if they were my own children, is the best it can possibly be. I know other superintendents feel that way, but you know, some, they get caught up in different things. I just find time to do this because it also feeds my soul. Because having board meetings and meeting with politicians, that kind of stuff doesn't feed your soul the way meeting and knowing kids and their families does."

• You can often find Dr. Mafi in the classroom not just observing, but actually substitute teaching. 

“I sub all the time. And so I went to sub in an elementary school. It is fun. It keeps me connected, but I also sub in Algebra 2/Trig classes.”

• Dr. Mafi said her leadership approach is rooted in "a responsibility to these families."

“I like to say I'm micro-interested, which means I'm not a micromanager, but I'm micro-interested in everything that happens within the district, because that's my role. I have a responsibility to these families. The majority of our families are immigrants and so they trust us that we're going to do the best for their children, and we're going to inculcate all of the learning and the citizenship, and all of the things that these kids need to be successful adults. My mom's from Mexico, and I remember my mom trusting the school system in L.A. Unified, I don't think they deserved a lot of trust back then, but she did. And so I feel a very heavy sense of—well, not burden, but responsibility.”

• Dr. Mafi knows when she plans to retire.

“This is my 13th year as superintendent. I'll retire in two years. My predecessor was 15 years [as] superintendent. We have a lot of people come to Garden Grove and they stay, so that allows us to have a lot of coherence, a lot of longevity to be able to pursue goals over a period of time.” (The district's three core goals: "equipping all students with the academic skills (Goal 1) and personal skills (Goal 2) for lifelong success (Goal 3)" are outlined in a video released last month.)

Garden Grove Unified will celebrate its 60th anniversary with a celebration on Friday, May 15, 2026, at Bolsa Grande High School. Details at this link and in the flyer below.

Editor's Note: This article was updated to include a more current enrollment number from the GGUSD. It previously stated 39,000 students are served by the district, but current enrollment is closer to 36,000.