Mary Barlow

Superintendent, Kern County Superintendent of Schools

Superintendent since 2017, where her focus has been boosting student achievement, ensuring education equity and access, and implementing technology that helps children learn.
Created the Kern Education Pledge, a collaboration among school districts, CSU Bakersfield, and the Kern Community College District to steer kids from cradle to career. Barlow serves on numerous CSUB and community boards and has championed KCSOS courageously during the pandemic.
During COVID-19, Barlow worked with Kern's 47 school districts to develop the training and tools teachers need to implement distance learning.
Barlow got started in education teaching in Weldon and Kernville in the 1990s. At the Kernville Union School District, she founded the Kern River Valley Collaborative, a network of agencies, schools, nonprofits and businesses that provides social services to kids and families. Barlow served as superintendent of the Kernville district from 2002 to 2009 before joining KCSOS.
Barlow has devoted her career to making sure schools are a place where kids can reach their full potential; the way they were for her growing up in and out of poverty in a loving (but unstable) home.

Notable CSU Alumni in education