Twenty high-achieving Latino education leaders have been selected to participate in the first-of-its-kind leadership development program called the Aspiring Latino Leaders Fellowship located in the Greater Boston Area. Through the eight-month program, fellows will explore the assets and unique challenges of Latino leadership in the education sector. The fellowship includes individual and collective identity-based development as well as professional development designed to increase their impact and pursue senior leadership roles in education.
The Aspiring Latino Leaders Fellowship is one effort by a new national organization committed to increasing diverse senior leadership in the education sector. Latinos for Education (L4E) is the first nationally-founded education organization dedicated to creating leadership pathways for Latinos. Nationally, 25% of the student population identifies as Latino yet there are only 2% of Latino leaders on executive teams in education organizations. To address this leadership gap, Latinos for Education has created this innovative fellowship to support emerging Latino education leaders. Additionally, the national L4E network includes over 1,000 members from across the country who are being positioned to participate in national professional development opportunities.
“We believe that the next generation of education leaders needs to include more leaders that come from the same backgrounds of the students and families we educate”, says Amanda Fernandez, Chief Executive Officer of Latinos for Education. “To ensure that more Latino leaders see themselves as future school leaders, superintendents, and education nonprofit leaders, we must invest in their leadership now.”
The Aspiring Latino Leaders Fellowship brings together a cross section of leaders from across the education sector to foster collaboration and collective impact. The inaugural program kicks off on Friday, May 5, 2017, and programming will continue through December 2017.
For a complete list of the 2017 Aspiring Latino Leader Fellows, and access to bios and photos, click here.
To learn more about the work that Latinos for Education is doing to increase Latino leadership in the education sector, visit www.latinosforeducation.org.