JACQUELINE BOCACHICA-VELÁSQUEZ

Dr. Jacqueline Bocachica-Velásquez is the owner and educational leader of JBG Leadership Development, LLC, a strategic planning and leadership development firm offering a range of school assessment and professional growth services for educators and administrators. A 35-year veteran of the New York City Department of Education, Dr. Bocachica-Velásquez has worked in the classroom, as a school-based administrator, and at the district level, and brings her broad expertise and deep knowledge of the educational system to her work in consulting. Her passion for education was inspired by her mother, a retired kindergarten teacher, and her first experience teaching was as a third grader, when she was allowed to tutor younger students in reading.

Dr. Bocachica-Velásquez credits many of her teachers with inspiring her to pursue her professional path and recalls feeling deeply fulfilled by helping others learn and understand from a young age. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Lehman College, a Master of Education from the New York Institute of Technology, and was awarded her Doctor of Education in educational leadership and administration by Fordham University in 2016. Dr. Bocachica-Velásquez has pursued extensive continuing education throughout her career and has completed a leadership certificate through the City University of New York and an advanced graduate certificate in educational supervision and administration at the City College of New York.

Dr. Bocachica-Velásquez began her career in 1985 as a math and science teacher at Junior High School 22 and taught bilingual and Spanish-language math classes at Middle School 143 from 1989 until 1996. Building on her bilingual classroom experience, she became a staff developer in the Community School District 10 Office of Bilingual and ESL Services in 1996 and moved into school administration the same year as assistant principal of Middle School 143. She continued to rise as an administrator and was named principal of Middle School 391 in 1999, Cypress Hill Community School in 2003, and Nyack Middle School in 2004.

Dr. Bocachica-Velásquez remained at Nyack Middle School until 2007, when she became a network leader for the New York City Department of Education’s Children First Network. She spent the next six years as a network leader for 15 district schools, and in 2011, she was named executive director of the New York City Department of Education’s Office of School Quality, where her work centered on performing assessments of school efficacy and compliance with educational benchmarks. Dr. Bocachica-Velásquez left the New York City Department of Education in 2016 to accept a clinical associate professor position at the Fordham University Graduate School of Education, where she taught until 2021.

Since 2018, Dr. Bocachica-Velásquez has run JBG Leadership Development, LLC, offering professional coaching to school administrators, including strategic planning support, professional and leadership development planning, and consulting on complex issues, including disciplinary procedures and compliance, equity, and communications skills. She is committed to growth in her field and is a member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the National Staff Development Council, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the Middle School Principals Association. As a subject matter expert in all levels of school administration, Dr. Bocachica-Velásquez is a manuscript reviewer for the Educational Leadership Journal.

Dr. Bocachica-Velásquez’s professional accomplishments have been honored with numerous awards and accolades, including an Educational Leadership Award from Phi Delta Kappa and the 2009 Women in Education Award from the New York chapter of the National Council of Puerto Rican Women. In the coming years, she hopes to continue her work and be an inspiration to emerging educational leaders, citing a desire to pass along the support and wisdom that she gained from her own professional mentors. She plans to mentor three or four new leaders within five years and has aspirations to write a memoir celebrating her culture, parents, and professional path. When Dr. Bocachica-Velásquez is not working, she enjoys spending time with her family, particularly her grandchildren, and contributing to the women’s ministry at El Santuario, where she is a church elder.