User Profile

Chief Operating Officer, IDEA Public Schools

Irma Muñoz is the chief operating officer at IDEA Public Schools, a fast-growing PK-12 network of public charter schools, home to more than 24,000 students in 44 schools throughout the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio and Austin (soon to be in Baton Rouge and El Paso). IDEA ranks in the top 1% of best high schools in the nation according to the Washington Post and the US News & World Report. For the past ten years in a row, 100% of their graduates have been accepted to colleges and universities throughout the US. IDEA is poised to have 100,000 students on the road to college in schools throughout the nation by 2022. Irma has served in this role for the last six years and oversees IDEA’s non-instructional work, specifically: Information Technology, Software Development, Construction, Facilities Maintenance, IDEA’s Child Nutrition and School to Farm programs, Health Services, Transportation, Campus Operations, including Student Recruitment and Front-office Management, Marketing and Communications. Prior to joining IDEA, Irma worked for GMAC, the financial arm of General Motors. In this capacity she oversaw housing development in emerging markets and spearheaded investment strategy in Latino hubs around the country. Before joining GMAC, Irma worked with Fannie Mae and the World Bank to implement a variety of housing policy initiatives throughout Latin America, including the development of Mexico’s first securitization platform. Her work led to the issuance of this country’s first mortgage back security and ultimately the establishment of a secondary mortgage market. Irma is a graduate of the University of California, Davis. She was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Public Policy Fellowship and obtained her MA from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. She was raised in Guadalajara, Mexico (home of the famous tortas ahogadas). Irma is married to Oscar Chapa and is the proud mom to Olivia Natalia (3yrs going on 17 – help!), and Cruz Mateo (9yrs). The Chapa- Muñoz family lives in Mission, TX and primarily speaks Spanish at home (with a lil’ Chinese). She is a Fellow of the 15th class of the Pahara - Aspen Education Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.