Sanford attended
Brooklyn College, graduating in 1947 with a bachelor's degree in education. She earned her master's in education at
Wellesley College, graduating in 1950. She earned her Ph.D. in 1967 from
Fordham University. She has taught education courses at
Baruch College,
Mercy College (New York) and
Fordham University in New York City. She was a visiting education practitioner and teaching fellow at the Principals' Center at
Harvard University, Graduate School of Education. She has been a consultant for the boards of education in
Niagara Falls,
Connecticut,
Indiana, and
New Jersey. She has served on advisory committees for multicultural education for the National Associate of State Boards of Education. She has also served on the board of the
Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone. In 1986 she became Member-At-Large for the
Board of Regents of the State of New York. She was re-elected for a second term in 1993, and again in 2000 for a five-year term. In 2001 Adelaide was elected as Vice Chancellor of the Board of Regents. In 1990 Adelaide founded the Board for The Education Of People Of African Ancestry (BEPAA), an organization that provides programs and services for students, parents and educators. When explaining her rationale for founding BEPAA, she said, "There was a Jewish Board, a Catholic Board, all these Boards—yet nothing to represent and stand for us. It had to be done." She is the founder of the Sanford and Hines Families Award for Study and Research in the African Experience in New York State, the Americas and the Diaspora, which was started in 2011. The first recipient of the award was Mandingo Tshaka in 2011.
Adelaide L. Sanford Institute In 2006, over 1000 community leaders, educators, and residents in Central Brooklyn came together for a Black Brooklyn Empowerment Convention. The convention was held to address community issues related to education, employment, health, housing, and quality of life issues in Central Brooklyn. School and education disparities were a core concern at the convention. A recommendation to formulate an organization around this concern grew out of the meeting with the creation of the Adelaide Sanford Institute to honor Adelaide Sanford. In 2012, the Adelaide L. Sanford Institute (ASI) started community-round table discussions in Central Brooklyn. The goal of the round-table discussions was to provide community based organizations, elected officials, parents, clergy, and community leaders with a forum for discussions and strategies around State Standards in New York City public schools. == Personal life ==