40th Anniversary Lecture Series

Josie Yanguas
Director
Illinois Resource Center

Wednesday September 22, 2021
4:00 pm

Josie became the Illinois Resource Center Director in 2006. She had served in various capacities at the IRC since 1989, including coordinating the annual State Multilingual Conference and various Title III projects. Josie is the chairperson of the Illinois Advisory Council for Bilingual Education as well as an member of the Illinois Early Learning Council. She serves on the executive board of the Illinois Association for Multilingual Multicultural Education. Josie’s areas of interest include policies and programs related to bilingual education, early childhood education, and dual language programming.

Nelson R. Amaro, Ph.D.
Wednesday August 25 at 4:00 pm

Dr. Nelson Amaro is an expert in state modernization, local government/municipal sustainable development, decentralization, civil society, citizen participation, education, transparency-anticorruption issues and evaluation. He has over 30 years of professional experience in development assistance. The UN appointed him in Mozambique and Guatemala, where he also worked on transparency and anticorruption measures in the context of decentralization policies. He has acted as a consultant and Senior Advisor on numerous education, local government and decentralization projects, including USAID-funded Municipal Development Projects in Honduras and Guatemala, and a number of World Bank and United Nations-supported projects, including those in Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, and Rome to name a few. With FAO, precisely, he was Evaluation Officer in the Evaluation Service of WFP.

Miguel Angel Valdivieso, Executive Director
Fundacion Ecuador
Wednesday July 21 at 4:00 pm

Miguel Angel Valdivieso, Econ.

Holds a master’s degree, in Economics (DePaul University), and a master degree in Business Administration (Governors State University); a B.A. in Economics, (Northeastern Illinois University).  His main areas of interest are Human Resource Development, Strategic Planning and Small Business Development. He has worked in these fields at the senior management level, as well as, as a consultant.

Professor Valdivieso has participated and published several studies on economic and educational issues, both in the United States and Ecuador. Most of his professional work has been within the international environment.

Since 1978 has been teaching economics and business courses at Elmhurst College, University of South Carolina, Brookdale Community College and at Universidad Espíritu Santo, (ICP).

He has been associated with Fundación Ecuador since 1994 and at the present time is the foundation’s General Coordinator.  Professor Valdivieso was nominated “Who is who among students in American Universities”, “Outstanding Young Men of America” and in 2007, he received the “Outstanding Citizen Award” given by the Major of Guayaquil.

Lt. Dinapoles Galvan
Wednesday, June 23, 2021
4:00 pm

I came to the US in 2003 at the age of 19. I started attending St. Augustine fall 2003 where I obtained an AA in LAS-interdisciplinary. Subsequently, I attended City Colleges of Chicago where I obtained a LPN in 2010 and an AA in nursing in 2011. I completed a bachelors in nursing at Northern Illinois University 2013 and a Masters in Nursing from Chamberlain College of Nursing in 2016. I will be completing a Doctorate in Nursing Practice and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner degree at University of Missouri Kansas in May 2021.
I am currently the Assistant Nurse Manager for the Behavioral Health Intensive Care Unit at VA Northern California Health Care System and a US Air Force Lieutenant.

My experience includes:
Lieutenant: Navy Nurse Corp.
Interim Dean of Nursing at Instituto del Progreso Latino
Nurse Faculty at Dominican University and City Colleges of Chicago
Clinical Nurse Specialist at Saint Joseph Hospital
Psychiatric Nurse at Hines VA, Garfield Park Hospital and Chicago Children’s Center for Behavioral Health
Medical Assistant Faculty at Sanford Brown College

Chef Geno Bahena
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
4pm (CT)

Chef Generoso “Geno” Bahena

Geno Bahena was born in 1965 in Tepatulco Guerrero, Mexico. His parents were hard working individuals that dedicated themselves to the dairy and beef production industry, with emphasis in the production of local cheese making “queso añejo”. Upon the example of his parents Geno at the young age of 12 years was drawn into the kitchen watching his mother and grandmother preparing the typical food of their area. His grandmother taught him the essence of preparing “mole” This emotion and the artistic nature of cooking made him desire to one day be a Chef. In his High School days in his native town, he began to receive his first cooking lessons. As many persons living in Mexico, Geno decided to make a better life and immigrated to United States, specifically to Chicago, Illinois.

Luis Chavez
Senior Director
Career Ladders Project
April 28, 2021
4pm (CT)

Luis Chavez, a senior director with Career Ladders Project, has worked with more than 75 community colleges across California, their partners in K-12 districts focused on equity-minded transformation redesign. He has a diverse and extensive background in building collaborative and innovative approaches to transform the student experience.

Luis has spent many years cultivating an equity-based statewide community of practice and network to support community colleges and their educational and workforce partners. He developed and leads the California Counselor Network (CaCN), which focuses on collaboration among counselors and student support services professionals at more than 80 high schools and community colleges with nearly 500 members.  Luis is a proven seasoned, energetic, and innovative professional whose driving mission is to ensure that Latinx students and other educationally underserved students have equal access to postsecondary opportunities to build familial prosperity, and to know their identities and communities are valued

Andrea Sáenz
Chief Operating Officer
The Chicago Community Trust 
March 24, 2021
4pm (CT)

Andrea Sáenz is chief operating officer for The Chicago Community Trust, where she partners with colleagues across the organization to deliver on the its mission and goals. Sáenz joined the Trust from the Chicago Public Library where she served as first deputy commissioner and chief strategy officer. She previously served as chief of staff to Chicago Public Schools’ CEO, leading planning and implementation of district-wide initiatives.

Sáenz’ previous roles include policy advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Career, Technical and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education and executive director of the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement, a national nonprofit working collaboratively with employers, universities and schools to increase Latinos’ entry and success in professional careers. She began her social sector career at Congreso de Latinos Unidos in Philadelphia, leading community-based adult education and workforce development.

Sáenz holds a Master’s degree in government administration from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor’s degree in Latin American studies from Scripps College. A 2010 Broad Resident and Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow since 2009, Sáenz serves as a mentor at 1871, Chicago’s tech entrepreneurship hub; serves on the National Board of the ACLU, and the boards of the Albert Pick Jr. Fund, Chicago Learning Exchange, Chicago Public Education Fund, Chicago Public Library Foundation, the James Dyson Foundation, and Instituto del Progreso Latino in Chicago.

Michelle Morales
President
Woods Fund Chicago
February 24, 2021
4pm (CT)

Michelle Morales is the President of the Woods Fund Chicago. Prior Woods Fund, Michelle led the Illinois chapter of the Mikva Challenge, a premier youth development civics organization that creates space for youth civic participation and leadership. Michelle’s background has been in the field of alternative education, focusing on and advocating for educational justice, first as a teacher at an alternative high school in Chicago’s Humboldt Park community and then as Associate Director at the Alternative Schools Network. In addition, she was an active community organizer for 16 years in Chicago’s Puerto Rican community, advocating for community development, education justice, economic justice, and against the rapid gentrification of the neighborhood. Michelle received a BA from DePaul University, a Master’s in Special Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Master’s in Educational Leadership from Northeastern Illinois University. She is a fellow of Leadership Greater Chicago and had the privilege of participating in the inaugural cohort of Cultivate – a women of color leadership program developed by Woods Fund, Crossroads Fund, Chicago Community Trust and the Chicago Foundation for Women.

Sindy M. Benavides
CEO
League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
January 27, 2021
4pm (CT)

To view the Lecture Series click here

Sindy Marisol Benavides is a Honduran-American immigrant who has experienced the American dream, and now devotes her career to public service, ensuring that countless young people, women, and immigrants have the same opportunity. She is currently Chief Executive Officer for the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the oldest Hispanic civil rights organization in the country. She previously served as the Chief Operating Officer and National Director for Civic Engagement and Community Mobilization for LULAC, Vice President of Field & Political Operations for Voto Latino and as Northern Virginia Political Director for the 2012 Kaine for Virginia senatorial campaign. She has also been National Director of Community Outreach for the Democratic National Committee, and Latino Liaison and Director of Gubernatorial Appointments for Governor Timothy M. Kaine.

Dr. Javier Cevallos
President
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
December 9, 2020
4pm (CT)

To view the Lecture Series click here

Dr. Cevallos was born in Cuenca, Ecuador and his family moved to Puerto Rico when he was 14. Dr. Cevallos earned his bachelor’s degree in 1976 at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. From Puerto Rico, he moved to Illinois where he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in 1978 and 1981, respectively, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His area of research is Latin American literature, with particular emphasis in the Colonial era.

He began his career in education in 1981 as an assistant professor of Spanish at the University of Maine at Orono. In 1984, he moved to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he was promoted to associate professor in 1988 and to full professor in 1992. In 1994, he was asked to serve as faculty advisor to the provost. In 1996 he was selected as a Fellow by the American Council on Education (ACE) and spent his fellowship at Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut. Upon his return to UMass, Cevallos became chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Soon after, he was appointed Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, a post he held until 2002, when he became President of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania for many years, until beginning his tenure as President of Framingham State University in 2014.

Antonio R. Flores Ph.D
President
Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
November 4, 2020
4pm (CT)

To view the Lecture Series click here

Antonio R. Flores has served as president and CEO of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) for over twenty years. Flores has been a leading voice of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). Advocacy efforts have garnered over $4 billion in federal funding for HSIs.

HACU’s membership represents more than 500 colleges and universities that collectively serve two-thirds of the nearly 4 million Hispanic students in U.S. higher education across 37 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico and includes 28 leading universities in Latin America and Spain.

Flores has received numerous recognitions and honors for his contributions to higher education. Flores earned a Ph.D. in higher education administration from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. He also received a Master of Arts degree in counseling and personnel from Western Michigan University, and undergraduate degrees in business administration and elementary education from Universidad de Guadalajara and Centro Normal Regional, Mexico, respectively.