Latinos for Education Continues to Grow as the Need is Increasingly Urgent

By: Samantha Ader, Managing Director, People & Organizational Effectiveness

As the Latino community continues to grow in the United States, accounting for 25% of school children and a third of the student population by 2050, the need for our work at Latinos for Education is increasingly urgent. Latinos have been underrepresented in critical leadership positions in the education sector, and our community’s voice has often been left out of important policy decisions and discussions. We are proactively changing this.

Over the last year, Latinos for Education has made significant strides in expanding our programs, advocacy and policy efforts nationwide. In order to do so, we invested in the growth of our team through key roles across programs, advocacy and policy, fundraising, and internal infrastructure.

With the expansion of our national policy and advocacy team, we were able to host our first congressional briefing on educator diversity where we shared innovative solutions and initiatives that can guide national efforts to increase diversity within our nation’s educator workforce.

With the addition of our Director of Online Learning and Technology, Elvira Salazar, we expanded the capabilities of EdCentro, our online platform for Latino education leaders.

Our new Family and Community Organizer, Mara Gilyard, in Houston helped grow our Familias Latinas por la Educación Fellowship to a second neighborhood and supported participants in advancing key advocacy priorities within the Houston Independent School District. 

Growing our national program team allowed us the capacity to bring one of our flagship programs, the Aspiring Latino Leaders Fellowship, from the east coast to the west coast by expanding the program to the Bay Area.

As our programs have grown, so too has our base of alumni across the country. We ended 2022 with over 500 alumni serving 300,000+ students who will continue to drive impact from classrooms to board rooms for Latino students and families.

In 2022, we also made major investments in our internal infrastructure to ensure we have talent, systems, and resources for sustained growth. Our newly formed development team raised nearly $11M last year, including a $5M investment from MacKenzie Scott to advance our mission.

As we kick off 2023, we are excited for new opportunities to build the team we need to break down barriers to educational opportunities for Latino students and families. Our focus will be on strengthening our infrastructure, advancing our capabilities, increasing our reach, and deepening our impact – and we couldn’t be more excited.

If you or someone you know is interested in being a part of our trailblazing work and joining our familia, visit our career page to learn more about career opportunities and to apply.

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Samantha Ader serves as Latinos for Education’s Managing Director, People & Organizational Effectiveness. In this role, she ensures we have the talent and culture to drive toward our mission. Samantha brings over 10 years of experience in nonprofit management. She also serves as a Board of Education member for her local school district in Palatine, IL. 

Prior to joining Latinos for Education, Samantha was the Director of Development at Teach For America – South Carolina and held professional roles with United Way and Butler University. She graduated from Indiana University as a Hudson and Holland Scholar and is currently pursuing her Masters in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University.