Joel Portillo

After earning his bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Spanish Literatures from UC Berkeley, Joel Portillo joined KIPP in 2007 as the Founding Operations Manager at KIPP King Collegiate High School in San Lorenzo, CA. After two years, he transitioned to the roles of Assistant Director of College Counseling and Grade Level Chair. He left KIPP in 2011 to obtain his Master’s degrees in Education and in Business Administration from Stanford University. Upon graduating, Joel happily joined the KIPP family again as the Founding Operations Director at KIPP San Francisco College Preparatory in 2013, later transitioning into teaching Algebra 1 and AP Calculus while serving as Grade Level and Math Department Chair. Joel has served as Assistant Principal for the past 2 years. Outside of work, Joel enjoys hiking, running, doing CrossFit, skiing, snowboarding, watching sports, and spending lazy days watching shows on Netflix. He hopes to do as much of these as possible before opening the next KIPP high school for KIPP Bay Area Schools.