Meet Gonzalo La Cava ’97 ’01MEd ’09EdD, a Triple Knight on a Mission to Change Education
Three UCF degrees helped shape Gonzalo La Cava’s leadership journey, but his true mission has always been creating opportunities for students and communities to thrive.
For Gonzalo La Cava ’97 ’01MEd ’09EdD, opportunity has always been earned.
It began with two parents who left Uruguay in search of a better life, carrying little more than hope and an unwavering belief in the value of hard work. His mother worked at Burdines, the longtime Florida department store. His father worked in a factory. Neither attended college, but both taught their son that perseverance, humility and determination could open doors that once seemed out of reach.
“Make no excuses. Just work hard,” La Cava says. “That’s what I learned from watching my parents.”
A Different Vision for What Education Could Be
Today, the triple Knight has spent more than three decades working to transform schools and expand educational access for students facing poverty, language barriers and learning challenges. From classrooms to district leadership, La Cava has built a career on a simple belief: that when educators invest early, believe deeply and refuse to lower expectations, schools have the power to change the trajectory of a child’s life.
Along the way, he earned three degrees from the University of Central Florida, including a doctorate in educational leadership.
But the mission driving his work started long before he ever stepped onto campus.
As a first-generation college student, La Cava did not grow up assuming higher education was part of his future.
That changed during an unexpected conversation with a high school counselor.
“I remember I was walking through the hallway, and my counselor asked me what I was thinking about doing after high school,” La Cava says. “Nobody had really asked me that before.”
The counselor challenged him to think beyond what felt familiar.
“When your parents didn’t go to college and your friends aren’t going to college, your tendency is to just follow the path everybody else is taking,” La Cava says.
Instead, he applied to both the University of Florida and University of Central Florida.
UCF became home.
Finding a Home at UCF
What started as an undergraduate experience eventually turned into a lifelong relationship with the university. Over the years, La Cava returned to campus repeatedly, first earning a bachelor’s degree in special education, then a master’s degree in educational leadership and later a doctorate in educational leadership focused on leading organizational change.
The university’s influence extended far beyond academics. La Cava remembers football weekends, friendships that have lasted decades and professors who challenged him to think differently about the role education could play in students’ lives. Among those who had the greatest impact was Dr. Rosemarye Taylor, whose mentorship helped shape both his academic journey and his philosophy of leadership.
Taylor encouraged him to pursue a doctoral degree when he had not yet envisioned that path for himself, recognizing leadership potential he was only beginning to discover. Under her guidance, La Cava came to see leadership not simply as managing schools, but as inspiring transformational change—building systems that continually improve opportunities and outcomes for students, educators and communities.
Years later, La Cava still considers Taylor one of the most influential mentors of his life.
“She helped me understand that real leadership isn’t about maintaining the status quo,” he says. “It’s about having the courage to improve it.”
Equally influential were the internships and student teaching experiences UCF provided at Memorial Middle School and Winter Park High School. Those opportunities transformed what he was learning in the classroom into practical experience, giving him the confidence to lead and reinforcing his commitment to serving students with diverse learning needs.
When Winter Park High School later hired him as a special education teacher, it marked the beginning of a career dedicated to expanding opportunities for children and strengthening schools. Looking back, La Cava sees UCF as the place where his vision of leadership took shape. It was there that mentors challenged him to think differently, experiences prepared him to lead, and a lifelong commitment to expanding opportunity found its purpose.
“That really propelled me to where I am today,” he says.
Leading Change for Students Who Need It Most
La Cava began his career teaching students with disabilities, an experience that shaped how he viewed both education and leadership.
The classroom showed him how quickly students could fall behind when they lacked support early in life. It also showed him how transformative schools could become when educators believed deeply in students’ potential.
Wanting to make an even broader impact, he returned to UCF for his master’s degree before moving into school leadership. Later, his doctoral studies challenged him to answer a question that continues to guide his work today:
How can educational leaders create meaningful, lasting change for students who need it most?
That question has guided the rest of his career.
Throughout his leadership journey, La Cava worked extensively in Title I schools, which serve higher percentages of students from low-income families, and communities where many families faced economic hardship. He became known for helping transform struggling schools by building cultures centered on literacy, accountability and high expectations.
Under his leadership, both schools improved from state-designated low-performing campuses to high-performing schools while increasing student achievement and literacy outcomes.
But for him, the numbers only tell part of the story.
“What drives me is making sure kids who may not have the best resources still get opportunities,” he says.
He speaks especially passionately about literacy and the importance of reaching students early.
“We’ve got a short window,” La Cava says. “If children are not reading by third grade, they’re going to struggle for the rest of their lives.”
That urgency has shaped the way he approaches leadership.
While educational systems can sometimes move slowly, La Cava believes students cannot afford to wait years for change.
“We may have time as adults,” he says, “but our children don’t.”
Today, as chief of human resources for Fulton County Schools, La Cava’s mission has expanded beyond leading individual schools to shaping the educators who lead them. He is passionate about recruiting, developing and retaining exceptional teachers and school leaders, believing that every child deserves to learn from talented, caring professionals who inspire excellence and unlock potential.
Although his role has evolved, his purpose has not. La Cava understands that the most powerful way to change a student’s life is to ensure that every classroom is led by an outstanding teacher and every school by an exceptional leader. For him, investing in educators is ultimately an investment in children and the communities they will one day serve.
A Full-Circle Moment
Now, years after arriving at UCF as a first-generation student unsure of his own path, La Cava is watching the next generation of his family begin a journey of its own.
His daughter recently completed her first year at UCF and is beginning to chart her own future.
For La Cava, it is a full-circle moment.
The same university that expanded his own vision for what his life could become is now helping shape hers.
That ripple effect is one reason UCF’s Go for Launch campaign resonates so deeply with him.
La Cava says the university’s focus on expanding opportunity and preparing students for the future reflects many of the same values that have guided his career in education. He understands firsthand what can happen when educators, mentors and institutions choose to believe in someone before they fully believe in themselves.
And if La Cava hopes people take anything away from his story, it is that lives can change quickly when people embrace hard work, pursue growth and remain open to possibility.
“I hope people see that opportunity really can change the course of a life,” La Cava says. “My parents created opportunities for me through hard work. UCF opened doors I never imagined, and now I have the privilege of creating opportunities for children every day.”
Elevating Student Success, one of UCF’s four integrated campaign pillars, each essential to UCF’s ability to deliver impact at scale, ensures every Knight has the support, resources and opportunities to thrive, from enrollment through graduation and beyond. Campaign investments will expand scholarships, strengthen proactive advising and success coaching, enhance career preparation and sustain innovative support systems that remove barriers before they derail progress. This pillar reflects UCF’s commitment to access and outcomes, preparing graduates who are confident, career-ready and equipped to lead in a rapidly changing world.
