About me
Mary Gardner Briggs is Senior Director of Research and Education Policy Development at the California School Boards Association (CSBA), where she leads efforts to advance school governance and address critical policy issues facing California's TK–12 public schools. Since joining CSBA in 2016, she has guided research and policy work on school finance, assessment and accountability systems, governance, educator workforce issues, and student achievement. Her work includes publications such as CSBA's 2024 report about the impacts of reporting requirements on local educational agencies, Drowning in Documentation (2024), and the 2022 report, Beyond the Spreadsheets, which examined how LEAs used their pandemic relief funding. Her research continues to support CSBA's advocacy around more streamlined reporting requirements. Briggs represents CSBA members in statewide policy forums and work groups such as California's Educator Workforce Collaborative. Her most recent work includes collaborating with CSBA's Policy & Governance Technology Services team to develop the association's Board Policy Development Toolkit.
Before CSBA, Mary spent over a decade as an elementary teacher in the greater Sacramento region and later studied school organization and educational policy at UC Davis, researching school finance reform and districtwide transformation. She brings this combined experience as an educator and researcher to her work supporting county and district leaders across California.
