Board Member Joan Malczewski brings to the LBUSD Board of Education a distinctive blend of academic expertise as a historian of American education, financial fluency developed through her early career as a CPA, and direct classroom and teacher-mentoring experience. 

Dr. Malczewski joined the LBUSD Board of Education in December 2022. She moved to Laguna Beach nine years ago with her husband, who had been hired to serve as Dean of the University of California School of Education. Joan and her husband have a son who currently attends Thurston Middle School, and four older children who graduated from public high schools in New York City and are now pursuing graduate studies at UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia University.

Prior to joining the Board, Joan volunteered at Top of the World Elementary School, supporting both the science classroom and the library, where she observed firsthand the strength of LBUSD programs. Her service on the Board since that time has confirmed for her the exceptional quality of the LBUSD school system and provided valuable opportunities to build on that foundation through collaboration with teachers and staff on shared goals. 

Dr. Malczewski grew up in rural Michigan and attended a school district with limited funding and few advanced course offerings. As a first-generation college student, she was encouraged by a high school teacher who helped her find a path to the University of Michigan. She also watched her father, a detective with the Michigan State Police, devote free time to working with at-risk youth and their families. These early experiences shaped her belief that public schools are the most important civic institution for fostering democracy and engaged citizenship, and that strong schools play a central role in advancing economic opportunity and social mobility.

As a Board member, Dr. Malczewski views the Board's role as central to developing goals for stronger student outcomes and fostering collaboration across the district and school sites to achieve them. She believes effective board leadership means supporting teachers, valuing the expertise of all staff, and facilitating the Superintendent's work to deliver the high-quality educational experience LBUSD students deserve. 

Over her three-year term, Dr. Malczewski has served on the Endowment Committee, the Joint Fiscal Management Committee, the PTA Council, the Orange County CSBA Delegates Nominating Committee, and the joint subcommittee on the Aliso Property. She is committed to schools that prepare students to think critically, engage with diverse communities, and navigate the challenges of growing up today. Her specific interests include reading, instructional technology, and special education, as well as broader education policies that advance excellence for all students. She also sees her role as a steward of public funds, with a responsibility to ensure that LBUSD schools remain a public asset that benefits the entire community.

Dr. Malczewski is an associate professor of history at UCI. Prior to that, she was on the faculty at New York University. Her research focuses on the relationship between schooling and democracy, including civic engagement, the connections between schooling and the development of American government at the national, state, and local levels, and the role of organizations and interest groups in shaping education policy. She is the author of a book on American philanthropic foundations and the development of rural Black schools in the South during the era of Jim Crow segregation, and has published articles on California education fiscal policy reform and on the relationship between higher education and the state during the Cold War. 

At NYU, Dr. Malczewski supervised social studies fieldwork, partnering with New York City public school teachers to mentor teacher education candidates completing student teaching placements in middle and high schools across the city. She has also held a number of academic leadership roles, including assistant dean for faculty affairs at NYU’s Steinhardt School of Education, vice-chair of the NYU Department of Teaching and Learning, assistant dean of Teachers College at Columbia University, director of the undergraduate program in history at UCI, member of the Board of Directors of the History of Education Society, and member of the Advisory Board of the Rita Gold Early Childhood Center at Columbia University, which she helped to create and where two of her children attended preschool.

Before her career in higher education, Dr. Malczewski worked as a CPA in New York City and as a real estate financial analyst on the Times Square redevelopment project. She holds a Ph.D. in History from Columbia University, an M.A. in the History of Education from Teachers College at Columbia University, and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan.

Outside of Board service, Dr. Malczewski is enjoying her youngest son's middle school years and spends much of her time at his basketball and baseball practices and games. She and her family travel often to visit her older children and extended family, and she treasures the rare occasions when all her children can visit at the same time and fill the house.