Board of Directors
Executive Commitee
Chair
Charlene Aguilar
Director of College Counseling, Lakeside School
(Seattle, WA)
Charlene L. Aguilar currently serves as the Board Chair for MALDEF. She observes, "I know firsthand how deeply rooted the values of access, equity and excellence are to the board's work in supporting education, employment, immigration, and voting rights." Confident that the communities MALDEF serves are the nation's future, Ms. Aguilar envisions a Board resolved to remain in possession of the nation's highest traditional values.
Cesar Chavez said, "We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community… Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own." Inspired by the vision of Chavez, and the values of her family, Aguilar began her career by connecting students to educational opportunities in her work with first generation students at her undergraduate alma mater. With the growth in the Latino community, Aguilar has devoted her professional life to education as crucial to the success of future generations. Therefore she moved from Associate Director of Undergraduate Admission at Stanford to Director of Undergraduate Admission at Santa Clara University. With a strong personal commitment of service to the Mexican American community of which she is a part, she also worked at the Stanford Center for Chicano Research and at the University of Washington, where she served as Director for Undergraduate Education Initiatives and Special Assistant to the Executive Vice-Provost.
Ms. Aguilar, a native of San Francisco, is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education. She is married to Luis R. Fraga. They have three children: Bernard, Isabel and Tomás.
1st Vice Chair
Patricia A. Madrid
Former Attorney General of New Mexico
(Albuquerque, NM)
2nd Vice Chair
Peter Villegas
Vice President, Senior Manager
Office of Corporate Responsibility
JPMorgan Chase
(Los Angeles, CA)
3rd Vice Chair
Lydia Camarillo
Vice President
Southwest Voter Registration Education Project
(San Antonio, TX)
Secretary / Treasurer & Fiscal & Fundraising Committee Chair
Hector J. Cuellar
President
RSO Gassó Capital Markets
(Newport Coast, CA)
Investment Committee Chair
Maria Estela de Rios
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
ORION International Technologies, Inc.
(Albuquerque, NM)
Program & Planning Committee Chair
Manuel Martinez
Attorney/Partner
Bryan Cave
(Denver, CO)
Community Education & Leadership Development Committee Chair
Theresa Fay-Bustillos
Principal and Co-Founder
IdealPhilanthropy, LLC
(San Francisco, CA)
Personnel & Nominations Committee Chair
Mickey Ibarra
President
Ibarra Strategy Group
(Washington, DC)
MALDEF Property Management Corporation Chair
Frank Herrera
President
The Law Offices of Frank Herrera
(San Antonio, TX)
Audit Committee Chair
Zachary Guevara
Retired Executive VP
Capital Group Companies
(San Marino, CA)
President & General Counsel
Thomas A. Saenz
(Los Angeles, CA)
General Members
Morris J. Baller
Partner
Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian
(Oakland, CA)
John Buckley
Managing Director
The Harbour Group
(Washington, DC)
William Candelaria
Partner
Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP
(New York, NY)
Norma Cantú
Professor of Law and Education
University of Texas at Austin School of Law
(Austin, TX)
Gloria Castillo
President & CEO
Chicago United
(Chicago, IL)
Maria Estela de Rios
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
ORION International Technologies, Inc.
(Albuquerque, NM)
Maria Echaveste
Co-Founder
Nueva Vista Group, LLC
(Washington, DC)
Margarita Flores
VP of Community Affairs
Anheuser-Busch, Inc.
(St. Louis, MO)
Jan Jones
Former Mayor of Las Vegas
Senior VP of Communications &
Government Relations
Harrah’s Entertainment
(Las Vegas, NV)
Raul Lomeli-Azoubel
Executive Chariman & Co-Founder
SABEResPODER
(San Antonio, TX)
Eva Longoria
Actor/Producer
UnbeliEVAble Productions
(Los Angeles, CA)
Lidia Martinez
Manager of Corporate Community Affairs & Grassroots
Southwest Airlines
(San Diego, CA)
James Mejia
CEO
Mejia Associates
(Denver, CO)
Gloria Molina
Supervisor
County of Los Angeles
(Los Angeles, CA)
Martín Montes
Assistant General Counsel
Manager, Client Services
Exelon Corporation
(Chicago, IL)
Carlos X. Montoya
Chairman & CEO
AztecAmerica Bank
(Chicago, IL)
Regina Montoya
Senior Vice-President & General Counsel
Children's Medical Center of Dallas
(Dallas, TX)
Michael A. Olivas
William B. Bates
Distinguished Chair in Law
Director to the Institute for Higher Education Law & Governance
University of Houston Law Center
(Houston, TX)
Thomas B. Reston
Attorney at Law
(Washington, DC)
José R. Rodriguez
Senator
State of Texas
(Austin, TX)
Jose Sanchez
Partner
Sidley Austin, LLP
(Los Angeles, CA)
Miguel Santana
City Administrative Officer
City of Los Angeles
(Los Angeles, CA)
P. Alex Vasquez
Associate General Counsel - Class Action Division
Wal-Mart Legal Department
(Bentonville, AR)
Mary Rose Wilcox
Supervisor
Maricopa County
(Phoenix, AZ)
