Meet Ellen Goodman, our Palm Springs Person of the Year for 2025

In a region defined by rapid change and reinvention, some of the most consequential work happens far from the spotlight. For more than a decade, one Palm Springs resident has quietly helped the community recognize a truth many overlook: the future of the Coachella Valley is already here, learning and growing in its public schools.

For her work elevating that reality — and for connecting residents to the children who will one day shape the valley — Ellen Goodman, executive director of the Foundation for Palm Springs Unified School District, has been recognized as our 2025 Palm Springs Person of the Year.

The honor is fitting for someone whose impact rarely comes with fanfare. Goodman does not lead from a podium or through public campaigns. Instead, her work unfolds quietly across the district, which stretches from Palm Springs to Rancho Mirage and up to Sky Valley, serving more than 20,000 students whose needs and experiences often go unseen.

Early lessons

Goodman grew up in Baltimore during the late 1960s and early 1970s, a time she describes as full of possibility and change. “There was this real sense of freedom,” she said in an interview. “I was given permission to live loud, to live bolder, to be more free.”

But even as a child, she understood that not everyone experienced Baltimore the way she did.

“Baltimore was very segregated,” she said. “There were neighborhoods where young people didn’t have that safety or freedom. I know now that I was privileged to grow up where I did.”

Her family emphasized empathy and awareness — lessons that echo in her work today in a district where many students live in poverty, their struggles often invisible to the community around them.

“We grew up understanding differences,” she said. “We grew up understanding who didn’t have what we had. That was woven into our family.”

Building skills

Goodman’s early career was rooted in the beauty industry, where she managed franchises, trained new owners and ran large conventions. “I really believe that understanding a business model — how you go from startup to legacy — prepared me for everything I do now,” she said. “In franchising, you have to know how to get something off the ground, how to keep it growing and how to reinvent it when it gets stale.”

Her move into public service began in Washington, D.C., where she volunteered on a crisis hotline — an experience she described in a June 2025 interview with the Coachella Valley Independent as transformative. “For three hours, Ellen disappeared,” she told the Independent. “I was totally connected to whoever I was speaking with.”

During the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, she transitioned into full-time nonprofit work. In that same Independent interview, she reflected that the experience “strengthen[ed] that fire in the belly” that still drives her.

Later, in San Francisco, she led regional operations for youth-centered nonprofits, learning how to support diverse communities and navigate complex systems — skills she now uses daily in the Coachella Valley.

“I specialize in startups,” she said. “So when I saw the district was looking for its first foundation director, I knew I could build something meaningful here. I had the skill, and I had the endurance.”

A pivotal moment

Palm Springs wasn’t part of any long-term plan. Goodman had visited the city with her sister, as many do, for a quick getaway. After they returned home, it was her sister who spotted the posting for a new role: the Palm Springs Unified School District was hiring its first foundation director.

“She sent it to me and said, ‘This seems perfect for you,’” Goodman recalled.

On a whim, Goodman applied. The district hired her.

“Ellen took a small, volunteer-run operation and turned it into a powerful force for students,” said Richard Clapp, a current board member of the Foundation and former School Board member. “She has an energy that brings people in. It’s involving energy. She makes people want to work with her.”

“She’s the one who keeps the plates spinning. She makes small ideas big, and big ideas sustainable.”

— Richard Clapp, Foundation for PSUSD board member

Under her leadership, the Foundation has raised millions for programs not funded by tax dollars — and many of those programs are unique in the Coachella Valley. Clapp noted that some exist only because Goodman made them possible.

“She’s helped create things that don’t exist anywhere else in the valley,” he said.

Those include Musical Theater University, a regional program drawing professional-caliber arts talent; SMART mentoring, which pairs students with caring adult mentors; the district’s growing eSports program; and drone and robotics initiatives that expose students to technology fields early. Goodman also helped support programs responding to student trauma and social-emotional needs — efforts that laid the groundwork for the district’s wellness centers, which now serve thousands of students a year.

“She’s the one who keeps the plates spinning,” Clapp said. “She makes small ideas big, and big ideas sustainable.”

Goodman also built a board with members from across the valley, many of whom have no children in the district but join after she helps them understand the scale of student need.

“You have to find the heart of each community,” she said. “You have to speak into their listening. People will care if they understand what the need really is.”

Seeing clearly

The greater Palm Springs area is known internationally for its resorts and lifestyle. But Goodman spends her days in classrooms and hallways that rarely make the brochures.

“People say, ‘We have kids here?’” she said. “Yes — thousands. And many are living in poverty that’s invisible to most residents.”

She often hears residents assume their property taxes fully fund the schools.

“They don’t,” she said. “And once people see our schools, see our kids, see the reality — everything changes for them.”

Goodman regularly leads school tours for donors and community members, watching their assumptions fall away.

“The kids are polite. They’re smart. They’re joyful,” she said. “You can feel the possibility. And you can feel the need.”

Lasting influence

Goodman’s work now touches nearly every community the district serves: Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage and Sky Valley. She has partnered with the Cahuilla tribe on Native Studies programs, collaborated with city committees and cultivated cross-community relationships that help the Foundation reach beyond traditional boundaries.

“I love this community,” she said. “People might go about it differently, but everyone here wants the best possible life. And I get to be part of that.”

Her influence is not loud, but it is lasting. Programs that once existed only as ideas are now woven into the district. Students find opportunities that once seemed out of reach. Donors feel connected to a mission that was invisible before she arrived.

And slowly, steadily, the valley is beginning to see its children — and to see itself — with more clarity.

For her leadership, compassion and belief that every child deserves to be seen, Ellen Goodman is The Palm Springs Post’s 2025 Palm Springs Person of the Year.

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