Hall of Fame Inductee: Amy Fong

Amy Fong

Prior to Amy’s appointment as the chief operations officer at FCMAT/CSIS in 2018, she held many positions in her 24 years of distinguished service with the organization, beginning as a database programmer analyst in 2004. Amy also spent more than five years at the California Department of Education.

In her leadership practice, Amy sought to empower others and build trusted partnerships. Her service mission was to help others by increasing transparency and access to data to create equitable opportunities for students and maximize future outcomes.

Along her path, Amy impacted many; her intellect was evident in everything she tackled, and her kindness so well honed. Amy more than accomplished her mission of empowering others. She was an intentional, highly effective mentor to many, taking us under her wing and gently guiding, even while she carried the burden of her own health challenges. Whatever came her way, she never stopped caring deeply for her colleagues and our collective work.

For nearly 30 years, Amy has been one of the leading experts on educational data practices. Amy taught us that data is not isolated from people; rather, that successful data practices are built on and modeled after positive relationships among the people who source and use the data.

Amy served on the CITE CTO Mentor steering committee. In this capacity, she offered insights to the program’s operational guidelines and expertise in the selection of cohort participants.

Amy’s enormous influence was acknowledged when she was selected as the founding board chair of the state’s newest student data initiative, Cradle-to-Career (C2C). She was the person everyone turned to in the beginning for leadership and organization, and she did not disappoint. She brought to C2C a thorough understanding of the careful consensus that was built to launch the collaborative effort, and thoughtfully guided colleagues on the board and staff to understand the importance of deep, shared compacts.

Amy loved Disneyland, cooking, and entertaining, especially for her close family. She passed away on October 11. Amy leaves behind her cherished daughter Genevieve, husband David, and her two caring sisters, Stephanie and Yvonne, and their families.