Board of Directors
Gloria Flores-Garcia Assistant Executive Director, El Concilio of San Mateo County
Nuestro Canto de Salud Project
In her position for over 10 years, Gloria has directed programs that promote health prevention, education, outreach, and case management for San Mateo County's Latino and other underserved communities. She is the co-founder of Nuestro Canto de Salud Health Project that is a multi-disciplinary collaborative effort that envisions all community as key stakeholders in the rhythm and harmony of a healthy community.
Gloria has a long history of working in the community and is committed to social justice issues. She has served on several boards and councils, including the Spanish Speaking Citizens Foundation, American Diabetes Association, American Cancer Society, West Bay Breast Cancer Early Detention Program, KCSM's Community Advisory Committee, and currently serves on the LifeLong Medical Care Board in Alameda County. She was a past KQED Local Hero for Hispanic Heritage Month as well as the private sector Local Hero award for Peninsula Interfaith Action . Gloria is a Past-President and is current Secretary of the Chicana/Latina Foundation, and resides in Berkeley.
M. Guada(Lupe) Gallegos-Diaz Director, Chicano/Latino Affairs
University of California, Berkeley, CA.
In her present position, Lupe advocates for Chicana/Latino undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) and also serves as a community affairs liaison. She has a Masters from the University of California, Berkeley in Social Work and is a PhD candidate working on - Chicanas in the Nonprofit Sector: A Case Study of the Bay Area. As an instructor at UCB her courses include: Community and Leadership Development, and Fundraising and Philanthropy in Latino communities. She has served as a council member of the North Fair Oaks Advisory Council and commissioner on the Commission on the Status of Women in San Mateo County. Among many commitments she has also served as chair to the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies and is currently the national treasurer to Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) a national Mujeres higher education organization. Lupe is currently the Vice-Chair of the Chicana/Latina Foundation, and resides in Berkeley.
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Blanca HernandezImmigrant Rights' Activist
Blanca is an immigrant rights' activist with a special focus on student rights. As an undergraduate, she was heavily involved with an AB 540 (undocumented) student support and advocacy group where she gained experience in the legislative process advocating to state and federal representatives for the passage of the Federal DREAM Act (Development Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act) as well as the CA Dream Act.
Upon graduation, she returned to her hometown of Richmond, in the East Bay where she has continued to spread awareness of the AB 540 law, which allows undocumented students to access higher education while paying in-state tuition. She has presented to schools as well as community organizations such as El Concilio Latino, the Latina Center, and College is Real among others. She has traveled to Washington D.C. to lobby Congress members to become co-sponsors as well as volunteered for a bike tour, Tour de Dreams, from Berkeley to LA for two consecutive years as a way to raise funds for AB 540 students in CA. For the same reason, she became a co-founding member for the Bay Area DREAM Act Coalition, which has staged several rallies outside of Senator Feinstein's office urging her to move the DREAM Act out of committee.
Blanca's goal is to become an immigration attorney to further continue helping her community. As a beneficiary of the DREAM Act, she will continue to fight for its passage as well as that of a Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Blanca received her B.A. in Chicana/o Studies from the University of California, Davis in 2008 and was a CLF scholarship recipient in 2006. She currently lives in the city of Richmond.
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Beatriz Leyva-Cutler Executive Director, The Bay Area Hispano Institute for Advancement (BAHIA)
Beatriz Leyva-Cutler is the Executive Director of The Bay Area Hispano Institute for Advancement, Inc. (BAHIA) located in West Berkeley. BAHIA is one of the only full time bilingual child development programs providing vital early to school age care services to the Hispano/Latino familias in Northern Alameda County. She has been with BAHIA since 1980 and the Executive Director for over 18 years. Her primary responsibility is supervising, administering and managing three programs, Centro VIDA, Bahia School Age Program and La Academia.
Beatriz has taught Child Development in Spanish in local community colleges as a way to bring more Latinas into the position of Teachers and Directors, she is a mentor to early childhood Directors and a member of the Latinos Unidos de Berkeley (LUB) and United in Action (UIA). Both LUB and UIA are groups that advocate for the improved quality of life and education of Latino and African America students and their families living in Berkeley. Beatriz was honored in 1997 as Berkeley's Outstanding Woman, in 2004 as Exemplary Child Care Worker in Berkeley, and in 2005 recognized as Woman of the Year by Honorable Assemblywoman Loni Hancock and in 2006 as KPFA's Peace and Social Justice Awardee, recently elected as Democratic delegate for District 14. She graduated with her BA from San Francisco State in La Raza Studies, received her Master of Arts in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, California. Beatriz is also the Board Chair of the Chicana/Latina Foundation which provides scholarships to undergraduate and graduate Latina students in nine surrounding counties. She is graduate fellow of LeaderSpring which provides a two year fellowship for non-profit Executive Directors and currently a fellow with Emerge California which prepares democratic women for political office.
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Ludmyrna Lopez Principal Financial Analyst
City of Oakland
Ludmyrna Lopez was recently elected to the Richmond City Council and is currently the Principal Financial Analyst for the City of Oakland. Previous to this, she served as the Assistant Chief of Finance and Administration for the San Francisco Department of Child Support Services. Ludmyrna has worked for Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr. as a fiscal analyst for the City and County of San Francisco, advising department heads, the budget director, and the mayor during all phases of the budget, including fiscal planning of new programs. Prior to this position, she served in several leadership positions within the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. in particular related to the Superfund and Brownfields programs. She has also worked with the California State Assembly. Ludmyrna works with the Chicana/Latina Foundation because it encourages and validates Latinas' pursuit of higher education as a way to increase economic and political empowerment for the Latino community.
Ludmyrna holds a Masters of Science in Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. She first began her association with C/LF as a scholarship recipient while a student at California State University, Hayward.
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Ortensia Lopez Executive Director, El Concilio of San Mateo County
Ortensia has been directing El Concilio, an umbrella organization of Latino service providers that improve the quality of life for Latinos, for over 10 years. Previously she was a co-founding member and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Bay Area Latino Non-Profit Association, and CEO of the North Peninsula Neighborhood Services Center. In these capacities she was responsible for developing and managing successful and innovative programs for the poor and disadvantaged. She serves as Chair of the CPUC Low-income Oversight Board and on the Advisory Committees for Comerica Bank and One California Bank. Among the organizations for which Ortensia performs volunteer work are the Greenlining Institute, Latino Issues Forum, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, California Energy Efficiency Commission, California Community/Business Partnership on Diversity, and many more. Ortensia has received awards from Hispanic Magazine (Hispanic Achievement Award), Woman's Foundation, the San Mateo County Women's Hall of Fame, and many more. Her most recent recognition is The Women Who Could Be President award. Ortensia is a Past-President and Vice President and currently serves as Treasurer of the Chicana/Latina Foundation, and resides in Belmont.
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Maria X. Martinez Deputy Director of Community Programs
San Francisco Department of Public Health
Maria X. Martinez is currently Deputy Director of Community Programs, a division of the San Francisco Department of Public Health that includes prevention, behavioral health, primary care, maternal/child, supportive housing, and urban health services. In addition to her administrative responsibilities, Ms. Martinez has provided leadership for many regional and community-based initiatives and public policy developments on behalf of the Department of Public Health, including the 2001 Latino Health Summit, Families with Children Living in SRO's in San Francisco, SSI Advocacy, and welfare-to-work health programs. Ms. Martinez has worked for many years as a performance improvement consultant serving healthcare and financial organizations throughout the United States.
She is a 2004 recipient of the Iron Advocate Award from Positive Resource Center given in recognition of her advocacy on behalf of people affected by or at risk for HIV/AIDS. A community arts activist since 1991, she championed public policies, legislation, and charter reform to ensure long-term cultural equity in arts funding. She has served as a San Francisco Arts Commissioner, former President of the San Francisco Consortium of Community Cultural Centers, past President of the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, past President of the San Francisco Arts Democratic Club, and past board member of BRAVA for Women in the Arts. Most importantly, she is the proud mother of her nine-year-old daughter, Paloma.
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Delfina Martinez Geiken Employment Programs Administrator
City of Berkeley
A native of El Paso, Texas, residing in Berkeley since 1990, Delfina is the Employment Programs Administrator for the City of Berkeley, overseeing adult and youth employment programs since 2001, administering multi-faceted Adult and Youth Workforce Development programs in the Office of Economic Development and Department of Health & Human Services. In addition to program design, planning & development, Delfina has also provided leadership on special projects and initiatives such as, the Cesar Chavez commemorative period activities, working with Day Laborers and Latino Health Month/Bi-national Health Week.
Prior to joining local government, she worked in the non-profit sector for thirteen years, managing the Center for Employment Training, a full-service job-training program targeting individuals with multiple barriers to employment. As the Director of CET in San Francisco, she served on Private Industry Council as the Community-based agency representative, participated on the Program Coordinating Committee for the San Francisco Housing Authority's Family Self-Sufficiency Program and was a Board Member of the Central Employment Brokerage Association.
Currently, Delfina serves as Vice President of Public Employees Local One, City of Berkeley Chapter; is a community representative of the Berkeley/Albany YMCA Head Start Policy Council; Healthy School Food Advisory Group of the Berkeley Unified School District; and serves on the Parish Council of St. Joseph the Worker Church in Berkeley, CA. She resides in Berkeley with her husband, a middle-school Spanish teacher, and her teenage son.
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Rosa G. PérezHigher Education Consultant
A passionate, energetic educator and leader, Rosa G. Pérez has earned a reputation as an innovator in postsecondary education at the community college level throughout her career.
As former Chancellor of Evergreen Community College District, Rosa Pérez worked with her two campuses, San José City College and Evergreen Valley College, to create strong institutions that respect the value of every student and employee. Her everyday actions express a deep commitment to social justice and a grass roots approach to the work of education and community building partnerships.
An enthusiastic advocate and spokesperson for immigrant rights and access for low-income people to higher education, Chancellor Pérez developed her insights as the daughter of immigrants who was the first person in her family to graduate from high school and go to college in her hometown of San Francisco. Chancellor Pérez was named by KGO-TV as one of the Bay Area's Outstanding Hispanics, and has made numerous television news appearances discussing issues of higher education, multiculturalism, equal opportunity and student rights. She is frequently called upon by local media and community service organizations to speak about important community college issues, including diversity, leadership, workforce education, and providing opportunity to the underserved.
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Belinda ReyesDirector, the César E. Chávez Institute
Associate Professor, Latina and Latino Studies Department, College of Ethnic Studies, San Francisco State University
Belinda Reyes is the director of the César E. Chávez Institute and Associate Professor at the Latina and Latino Studies Department, College of Ethnic Studies, San Francisco State University. Before joining San Francisco State she was a Founding Faculty member at the University of California, Merced, and a Research Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.
Dr. Reyes' work focuses on immigration, education, political representation and the socio-economic progress of race and ethnic groups. She has extensive research experience often combining secondary and primary data. Her publications include: Holding the Line? The Effect of the Recent Border Build-up on Unauthorized Immigration and A Portrait of Race and Ethnicity in California: An Assessment of Social and Economic Well-Being.
Her research focuses on the policy issues confronting the Latino and immigrant population in the United States. She has briefed various federal, state, and local governmental bodies and addressed numerous civic organizations. She holds a B.S. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
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Olga Talamante Executive Director, Chicana/Latina Foundation
Olga Talamante became the first Executive Director of the Chicana Latina Foundation in January 2003. Prior to this position, she was the Western Region Vice President of INROADS, a career and leadership development organization aimed at Latino, African American and Native American college students pursuing careers in business and engineering. In that position, she supervised the organization's 12 regional offices located throughout the western United States and in Mexico.
Ms. Talamante is well known for her community activism and has worked with several service-providing and public advocacy agencies, including Head Start, the YMCA, the American Friends Service Committee, and the Argentine Commission for Human Rights.
Some of her awards include: "Most Influential Latinos in the San Francisco Bay Area", from the SF Business Times and SF Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, "Heroes and Heroines of the Latino Community", from KQED-TV, the Diversity Award from Hispanic Magazine, the San Francisco Bay Girl Scout Council DAISY Award, and the "Women Making History Award" from the San Francisco Commission on the Status of Women.
Currently she serves on the boards of the National Center for Lesbian Rights; El Concilio of San Mateo County, and the Friends of the Commission on the Status of Women. She is also active with GELAAM, a Latino LGBT organization in San Mateo County and with the Latino Forum of the San Francisco LGBT Center.
Ms. Talamante's family came from Mexico to Gilroy in the early 1960's and worked as farmworkers in the Santa Clara Valley. She received her B.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
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Olga E. Terrazas, Ph.D. Educational Psychologist
Olga works with preschool through middle school students, with an emphasis on primarily non-English speaking students. She is a spiritual advisor, and performs meditation and Reiki workshops. Olga has been employed as an employment counselor and college instructor. She is committed to performing volunteer work with Latino organizations. In the past, she has volunteered with Comision Feminil, Spanish Speaking Unity Council, Spanish Speaking Citizens Foundation, and United Way. She is one of the founders of the Chicana/Latina Foundation, and chairs the Scholarship Committee. Olga resides in El Cerrito.
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M. ZamoraAdministrator: Stanford University Program in Feminist Studies
Michelle Zamora, or "Zamora", is currently an administrator at Stanford University's Program in Feminist Studies. She has had a history of being a Chicana feminist writer and campus organizer while studying transnational feminisms and postcolonial theory at the New School for Social Research where she received her M.A. in Gender Studies and Feminist Theory. Zamora has been an active organizer in the Chicano, Native American and LGBT communities. She has been awarded the Jerry I. Porras Award for Visionary Leadership in 2003 and The Renato Rosaldo, Jr. Award for Intellectual Leadership in the Chicana/o Community in 2005.
She is currently writing her dissertation and finishing her Ph.D. in Modern Thought & Literature at Stanford University. Zamora's dissertation work examines the indigenous painted books of central Mexico and focuses on a set of Mexica symbols/ideas from these codices related to women's sabiduría and female knowledge carriers. Her work traces indígena knowledge and leadership, specifically in spiritual and performance traditions, through a genealogy of ideas about the body's relationship to spirit.
Zamora, currently resides in the East Bay where she is a ceremonial singer/drummer within her prayer communities of the Bay Area and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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