A native of San Diego, California, Eastin graduated from the University of California at Davis in 1969 with a bachelor’s in political science. She received a master’s in political science from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1971 and joined Pacific Bell as a corporate planner in 1979. Eastin left Pacific Bell as an accounting manager in 1986 following her election to the California State Assembly. Eastin returned to private life in 2003, joining the National Institute for School Leadership as its executive director. In 2004, Eastin began teaching Educational Leadership and Women in Politics at Mills College as a distinguished visiting professor. Eastin left the National Institute for School Leadership in 2005 to found Delaine Eastin Consulting. Eastin was twice elected to Union City Council and was the first and only woman to date to be elected California State Superintendent of Public Instruction (1995–2003) under Governors Pete Wilson and Gray Davis.
Pact Press is proud to be publishing Step Up to Run: Women Shaping the Future of Politics and Public Policy, with Myel Jenkins, Tara Sreekrishnan, Delaine Eastin, Dionne Ybarra, and Jacalyn Smith in the spring of 2023.
