Chan, 60, has worked for 38 years in the district as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and central office administrator in 1997 and was promoted to deputy superintendent earlier this year with a salary of $150,000. She will be the district's first Chinese American superintendent
Chan was born and raised in Chinatown to a grocer father and seamstress mother, both immigrants from China. She holds a bachelor's degree in Chinese and home economics, a teaching credential and a master's degree in education administration, all from San Francisco State University.
She taught homemaking, Chinese, English as a second language and English at various schools in San Francisco before becoming vice principal of Washington High in 1985 and principal of Lincoln High in 1992.
Her husband died of cancer in 1985. Chan is considered by many a good choice for the job because she is low key and steady, different from Ackerman, whose fighting with a faction of the school board has often overshadowed educational initiatives and ultimately led to her resignation. (Source: Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, Nov. 10, 2005).