Our First Annual Report: A Letter from our CEO - Latinos for Education

By: Amanda Fernandez

Over the last five years, Latinos for Education has remained steadfast in our commitment to inform our work through our lived experiences and honor where we came from. Our team is made up of professionals who often see our own experiences growing up in the U.S. education system reflected in the very students and teachers we serve. Our work hits close to home and that fuels us everyday. 

Since  2017 we have been dedicated to the ideal that education is the single greatest investment we can make in our future, the future of our families, and the future of our country. We are guided by an unwavering belief that equitable education is the bedrock of our democracy and our economy, and that when Latino students succeed, we all succeed. Yet, the voices, needs, and influence of Latinos has been missing for far too long within the education sector and we are committed to changing that.

We have made tremendous progress in creating the conditions and change needed for Latino teachers, students, and families to succeed in our education system. In the past year alone we have:

• Continued to build leadership pipelines to increase the voice and influence of Latinos at all levels of the education sector. To date, more than 450 fellows have participated in one of our core fellowship programs – Latino Board Fellowship, Aspiring Latino Leaders Fellowship, Latinx Teachers Fellowship, and Familias Latinas Por La Educación – and stepped into critical leadership roles within the education sector as principals, educators, school leaders, advocates and members of nonprofit boards impacting over 26,000 students.
• Advanced bold policy proposals that ensure Latino students can achieve educational equity. We have built momentum in Massachusetts and created model policy through the Educator Diversity Act that can ensure states invest in educator diversity, while at the same time securing millions of state funds to support educators of color.
• Built on our national network of Latino educators who want to lend their talent, experience and voice to transform our education system. We now count on over 2,300 members in our EdCentro network.
• Ensured that the voice of Latinos is core to any conversation about education equity. We launched our first ever State of Latino Education to spotlight both the challenges that remain for Latino students and educators, but also to celebrate the legacy of Latinos championing education equity and doing the hard work to support Latino students.

None of this work would be possible without the growing and tremendous team of diverse Latino leaders I get to call colegas.

—————————-

Amanda Fernandez is the CEO and Founder of Latinos for Education, the first Latino-founded and led national organization dedicated to creating leadership pathways for emerging Latino education leaders and diversifying education nonprofit boards.  El Planeta has twice named her one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in Massachusetts and she is a Senior Fellow at FutureEd. Amanda has over 25 years of experience in the areas of recruiting, diversity, organization development, change management, strategic planning, and Latino community relations.