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Meet Chris
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Chris and his wife Elyse have lived in Los Osos for over 34 years. They have a grown son who attended Monarch Grove Elementary School, Los Osos Middle School, and Morro Bay High School. He works as a supervisor for a Bay Area transit company.
Before her retirement, Elyse was an elementary school special education teacher. She helped hundreds of students achieve learning success at Baywood, Sunnyside, C. L. Smith, and Del Mar Elementary Schools.
From 2014 to 2018 Elyse supervised special education student teachers at Cal Poly. She is on the board of directors of the Community Foundation of the Estero Bay, an organization that provides children in need with funds for extra-curricular activities.
Chris and Elyse spend time walking, hiking, biking, traveling, reading, cooking, and solving puzzles.
Career Experience
A retired speech pathologist and special educator, Ungar is a past president of the California School Boards Association. As the 2016 president, he established a charter school task force whose findings identified legislative and legal remedies, several of which were enacted into law in 2019.
From 1996 to 1998, Ungar was president of the San Luis Obispo County Education Association (CTA).
In 1997 he earned his educational administrative credential from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
Ungar served on the CSBA board of directors from 2007 until 2013 when he was elected vice president of the association. He is currently a delegate at large.
From 2017 until 2020 Ungar served the National School Boards Association as a director of its Pacific Region (Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington). His federal advocacy included full funding for special education as well as additional resources for children in poverty.
Since 2000, Ungar has variously served as president of, a trustee of, and a clerk to San Luis Coastal Unified School District’s Board of Trustees.
Ungar is president of Project Surf Camp, based in Morro Bay, California, which teaches children and teens with disabilities how to surf and become comfortable with the ocean. He is a director of the Grizzly Academy Foundation which supports at-risk students enrolled in the Grizzly Academy at National Guard Camp San Luis Obispo. He serves as an ex-officio board member of the San Luis Coastal Education Foundation.
From 2014 until 2018, Ungar supervised special education student teachers at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
From 2004 to until his retirement in mid-2014, Ungar was executive director of special education for San Luis Obispo County Office of Education. He also served the office as a speech and language pathologist from 1989 until 2004. In 2007 Ungar received the “Order of the Flame” award as the outstanding special education administrator of the year.
Ungar earned an associate of arts degree in geography from Moorpark College, a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from California State University, Humboldt, and a master of arts degree in speech pathology and audiology from California State University, Los Angeles.