Born and raised for 12 years in Massapequa, Long Island, administrator and union president Greg Luongo was the sixth of seven children in a “very typical Roman Catholic family.” Before becoming an aeronautical engineer, his father, John, taught math in Catholic high schools and the City University of New York system. Greg’s mother, Hope, taught second grade briefly and, later, would go on to work in early childhood education and for Head Start.
When Greg was 12, the family moved to Northern Virginia for a year. In fact, they moved so often that Greg went to three middle schools in three years. He says, “My family was my constant.” He followed his father and siblings’ example in many things, including reading fantasy and sci-fi.
Then, in 1996, at only 49 years of age, Greg’s father died of cancer. His mother soon moved to Northern Virginia as the children dispersed to college, the first three to Duke, the next two to James Madison University. The youngest would go to Georgetown.
Having lost his father, Greg entered the University of Delaware, but he soon thought of dropping out. One of his father’s closest friends, Stan, an English teacher, talked him out of it. “He stabilized me,” Greg says. “Without him, I wouldn’t have gone back to college and my whole life would have been different.”
Although not crazy about it, he majored in hospitality management and went into the field “for a hot minute,” as a restaurant manager in D.C. He didn’t like it at all, and at 23 he began exploring education and soon became an English teacher: “I was a huge nerd and read a lot.”
He went back and read all the classics and named one of his sons Holden for the hero of Catcher in the Rye.
For seven years, Greg was a highly successful teacher: “I focused my English teaching on reading books as a reflection of our times.” For the first four years, he taught at Westfield High School in Fairfax County. Then Greg and his wife, Holli, with whom he’d fallen in love at first sight in college, moved to Northern New Jersey to be near her family. Greg worked in the family’s factory.
“It really wasn’t for me,” he says, so they returned to Northern Virginia, and he went back to Westfield High School for three more years until he earned his Education Specialist degree in administration and supervision. He already had a master’s in curriculum and instruction.
“My last two years in the classroom, I worked with struggling students, teaching two years in one,” he says. “We had a 100% success rate. I loved working with struggling students.”
As a principal, he holds struggling students as a top priority.
“Submit and subvert is a motto I learned from my sister Kathie, who was studying educational philosophy at UNC while I was teaching,” he says. “This means if you want to subvert the system, you’ve got to join it. The motto has guided me as an educator and a union leader.”
In 2015, Greg was named assistant principal at South Lake High School, and in 2021, he was named assistant principal at Thoreau Middle School.
His crowning achievement came when he was put in charge of Marshall Governor’s STEM Academy in Falls Church, a school-within-a-school at Marshall High School. Here, he is in charge of industry-aligned career pathways and work-based learning opportunities for students to gain certifications and experience that prepare them to start careers straight out of school or support them in college. These include cybersecurity, cosmetology, culinary arts, auto tech, criminal justice, engineering and robotics. There are also two world languages, Chinese and Arabic.
“I liked being a school leader from the start and still do,” he says. “By helping teachers be successful, I can have an impact on and help more students. I have to be in the thick of it to change it. Remember, submit and subvert.”
While at Marshall Academy, Greg negotiated the first union contract for administrators and supervisors for the Fairfax County Federation of Principals, Supervisors and Administrators. Two and a half years ago, AFSA Local 147 was founded, and today it represents one of the largest school districts in the country. In this right-to-work state, they managed to hammer out their first collective bargaining agreement. It went into effect in 2026.
“I threw my name in the hat for president because the best way to improve the system is to become part of it, and I ran unopposed,” he says.
“My focus is ensuring we can be the best leaders for our teachers and our students. Our school board supports us in this. I’ve always been motivated to help others out in the world, in school and through the union.”
Greg is still a full-time principal at Marshall Academy. He says, “We are very successful. Two years ago, we had 1,100 students with 800 industry certifications. One of our most outstanding cybersecurity students graduated with a six-figure offer.”
He adds, “Students are the beauty of my current job. I get to see the passion in these kids for their area of study.”
His eldest son, Aidan, is thriving at South Lakes High School as he searches for colleges that offer majors in automotive engineering. The twins Holden and Julian and the youngest, Ashton, also attend area public schools. Holli is a registered dietitian who works from home and looks out for the boys. Greg says she is the sole female influence. Even the dogs, Stanley and Wally, are male.
The family has dinner together every night of the week, no devices allowed. Greg says, “We are overly connected even though we know it’s sometimes detrimental to our kids. We must focus on educating kids and figure out how to cut out the other noise.”
As a school leader, Greg Luongo wants to get back to real instruction and believes that the way is by elevating the education profession to “one of the most important in the land.”
