Ricky Hernández currently serves as the chief financial officer of the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD). He is a lifelong public servant in his 20th year of service in public education, primarily in K-12 education.
Before being named CFO in April 2022, Ricky was the assistant vice president (AVP) of financial operations at the University of Arizona Foundation and the chief operating officer (COO) of the Arizona Alumni Association. In his dual role, he was responsible for all the operational aspects of the Alumni Association. He played an instrumental role in the merger of the Alumni Association with the Foundation in 2020. In his role at the Foundation, he had operational oversight of the University’s financial contributions to the University Development Program (UDP). In addition, he ensured that the assets of the Alumni Association were properly stewarded and merged with the operations of the new organization under the Foundation.
Prior to joining the University of Arizona, Ricky was appointed deputy county school superintendent and chief financial officer in the Office of the Pima County School Superintendent. He worked for a county elected official serving over 155,000 students in public and private schools across Pima County. He was responsible for being the fiscal agent for over $950 million in financial assets of 15 of 17 school districts in Pima County. Among his pivotal functions was to support and execute the election for school districts for their elected school boards and their special elections for budget overrides and bonds. He spent a decade working for Pima County.
Ricky earned as Master of Administration with an emphasis in Public Management from Northern Arizona University, where he graduated with distinction. He earned a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Spanish with a literature concentration from the University of Arizona. He is also a certified public manager from the Bob Ramsey Executive Education program at Arizona State University.
Outside of his professional roles, Ricky has proudly given of his time to various community-based organizations serving on boards of directors for organizations like the Arizona Association of School Business Officials, Ben’s Bells, the Educational Enrichment Foundation, most recently appointed as chair of the Metropolitan Education Commission and selected as a Flinn-Brown Fellow.
Ricky is a native of Nogales, AZ. He lives in Sahuarita with his wife, Vanessa, their two boys – Diego and Adrian, and their dog, Luna.
