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Hello,
Hello! I’m Dr. Adriana Chavarín-López, Founder and CEO of Sabbaticalize. Educated at USC, Stanford, UCLA, and Harvard, I bring a career shaped in classrooms, schools, nonprofits, and district leadership. I help leaders and teams transform their systems from the inside out—leading with clarity, purpose, and lasting impact.
My Story
Dr. Adriana Chavarín-López is a leadership coach, systems strategist, and educator who partners with senior leaders to do the deep inner work required for transformational change.
A daughter of Mexican immigrants and a lifelong educator, she brings lived experience, academic rigor, and real-world leadership to every coaching relationship. She believes that sustainable systems change begins with self-awareness, aligned action, and values-driven leadership — because you cannot transform a system until you first transform yourself.
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Adriana began her education career as an instructional assistant and bilingual teacher, experiences that shaped her lifelong commitment to equity, inclusion, and student-centered learning. As a school principal, she led with a whole-child philosophy, championing culturally affirming and joyful learning environments. She spearheaded initiatives in art, music, yoga, social-emotional learning, and dual language immersion, while also building an Apple Distinguished technology program, a Latina mentorship initiative, and an award-winning school garden. She forged strong community partnerships and empowered families as co-leaders in school transformation.
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Dr. Chavarín-López earned her Doctor of Education Leadership degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where her dissertation, Transformation by Design: Leading and (Un)Learning at the Logan Memorial Educational Campus and the San Diego Unified School District, focused on designing and implementing systems and structures for transforming prenatal-to-12th grade education. She was also a recipient of Harvard’s Education Entrepreneurship Fellowship for her innovative work redesigning early childhood systems. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Southern California, a Master’s in Education Administration and Policy Analysis from Stanford University, and an Early Childhood Management Certificate from UCLA Anderson School of Management.
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A former Senior Director in the San Diego Unified School District, Adriana currently serves as Senior Facilitator for the Public Education Leadership Project (PELP) at Harvard University, a lecturer in Advanced Studies/School Law at CSU Stanislaus, and CEO and Founder of Sabbaticalize, LLC — a leadership development company dedicated to transforming leadership through deep reflection and powerful coaching, empowering leaders to move forward with renewed purpose and bold vision.