Experience & Education

Sandra Manzieri at work teaching

Career History

  • Miami Dade County Public Schools, Teacher, August 2000- Present
  • Florida International University, Miami, FL – E.D. Specialist Educational Leadership 2011
  • University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL – M.S. Education – ESOL/Reading – 2005
  • Barry University, Miami Shores, FL – B.S. Elementary Education – 2000
  • Coral Gables Senior High School – Class of 1983

Sandra’s Story

Sandra Manzieri with her husband, son and the family dog.

Sandra Manzieri is a teacher. A mother. A product of public schools. An informed citizen willing to roll up her sleeves and work for our children, our families, our teachers, and accountability.

For more than two decades, Sandra has been a Miami Dade County Public Schools teacher in District 6. Teaching is not a career she fell into or stumbled upon—education has been and continues to be her passion. She took a pay cut to become a teacher.

To Sandra, the notion that education is the great equalizer is not a clever line in a speech. She has lived it. Having lost her father at a young age, school was where Sandra found stability, where she discovered interests and abilities, where she derived hope for a brighter future.

Sandra was the first in her family to graduate college, and it was not a straight path. Along the way, she became a mother. Invested in her own children’s learning, she finished her bachelor’s in education then went on to earn master’s and specialist degrees, and numerous certifications.

Sandra sought out opportunities to serve—in the PTA, as a mentor, on the Educational Excellence School Advisory Council—and, like many parents of special needs children, she had to learn to advocate for unmet needs.

If you believe in parental rights, in fair pay and improved benefits for teachers, in meeting the needs of our most vulnerable students, in transparency and holding decision makers accountable, Sandra is ready to serve you.