Alana Gonzalez has as a tough road ahead as a new member of Richmond Public Schools’ executive team.

As the new chief operating officer, Ms. Gonzalez is second in command and responsible for the day-to-day operations of the school system as it prepares to reopen.

She started her new job March 1.

RPS officials have not provided information on her annual salary.

Ms. Gonzalez comes to RPS from New York, where she was executive director of community reconstruction and infrastructure for the New York State Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, helping communities affected by Superstorm Sandy and hurricanes Irene and Lee.

She held various executive leadership roles, including chief of staff to the general manager of the New York City Housing Authority.

A lifelong New Yorker, Ms. Gonzalez earned a bachelor’s in sociology from the State University of New York at Albany and a master’s in public administration from the University of Albany’s Rockefeller College of Public Affairs &Policy.

Ms. Gonzalez is no stranger to Richmond. She has family that relocated to the area and she and her husband, Alan, and their 2-year-old son, Benjamin, have visited them here during the last 15 years.

“I have always loved Richmond,” she said. “And over the years, we have talked about where we want to raise our son as well as the kind of family life we want.”

She says the timing was right with her son turning 2 and Richmond was the right opportunity to transfer her skills to the education field. She said she believes the COO position will provide an opportunity to impact Richmond children.

“There was nothing more important after becoming a parent as I saw Richmond’s opportunities for our family,” she told the Free Press. “The position was more enticing to me with a bonus of being closer to my family.”

She succeeds Darrin Simmons, who left RPS eight months ago, to devote more time to his family.

Superintendent Jason Kamras said he is impressed with Ms. Gonzalez. “She has cut her teeth on the rough and tumble world of New York and believes she can handle the district’s myriad of and sometimes overwhelming issues.”