Welcome to Chavez Education Institute

Current Faculty

• Paul F. Chavez - NFWSC President

Since 1991, Paul Chavez has led the National Farm Workers Service Center Inc., an organization his father founded in the 1960s.

Paul, the middle son of Cesar Chavez, has spearhead the impressive growth of NFWSC in key areas, dramatically impacting the lives of farm workers, Latinos and other working families.
Under his leadership, its housing portfolio which started with 245 rental units, has since built and sold more than 600 single-family homes for low-income Latinos and other working families. Additionally, the organization has preserved, developed and rehabilitated more than 2,200 units of high-quality affordable rental housing.

His efforts led to the expansion of Radio Campesina, the Spanish educational Farm Worker Radio Network, from two modest stand alone stations to a nine-station network featuring satellite programming, state-of-the-art digital technology and centralized network operations listened to by roughly 450,000 Latinos in California, Arizona and Washington state.

Chavez's responsibilities include strategic and operational planning, budgeting, results management, and board and government relations. To manage the multifaceted and ambitious NFWSC agenda, Chavez also oversees the development and direction of top management and support personnel.
Before taking over NFWSC, Chavez worked with the United Farm Workers. His assignments included worker organizing, labor negotiations, managing the union's direct marketing operation, serving as the UFW's political director and lobbyist in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., and serving as personal assistant to union founder Cesar Chavez.
Paul Chavez earned an associate degree in negotiations and collective bargaining from the Fred W. Ross Labor Education Center.

....

“Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read.”

~Cesar E. Chavez

"It is the goal of the institute to work with families to ensure their children graduate from high school and enter a university fully prepared to succeed in their studies. It is the dream of all parents for their children."

~Sonia C. Rodriguez
Education Director

• Sonia Rodriguez - Executive Vice President

Sonia Rodriguez is currently serving as coordinator for education initiatives for the National Farmworker Service Center in California.

Previously, Rodriguez served as President and CEO of Education Associates of America, a private consulting firm located in Los Angeles, California. In 2000, she was named President and CEO of a non-profit organization, the LAAMP/LEARN Regional Education Reform Alliance, founded by a group of business, civic, and education leaders in Los Angeles for the purpose of advocating for the school children in Los Angeles county. Previously, Rodriguez joined the Office of California's Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin as Chief Advisor and Policy Coordinator to the Superintendent in 1995. In July of 1996, Superintendent Eastin appointed her to the position of Deputy Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction at the California Department of Education. Prior to her work in California, Hernandez was in the Office of Texas Governor Ann Richards as Secretary for Education for the Office of the Governor.

In July of 1994, Rodriguez was appointed Vice Chair of President Clinton's Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. As Chair of the Commission's Assessment Committee, she was instrumental in developing a report on policy issues associated with testing Hispanic students in the public schools of this country.Previously, Rodriguez was Chief Liaison at National Center on Education and the Economy in New York and served as a consultant to the National Alliance for Restructuring Education. She is a member emeritus of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Rodriguez has worked as a teacher, principal, and central office administrator for school districts in Texas and Colorado. She has held numerous leadership positions in community-based, state, national and international organizations.

• Additional Staff:

• Julie Rodriguez – Director of Service Learning
jrodriguez@nfwsc.org

• Delia Torres – Arizona State Programs Director
dtorres@nfwsc.org

• Cristina Sandoval – Director of Administration
cristinas@nfwsc.org

• Jessica Ashford – Executive Assistant
jashford@nfwsc.org

• Stephanie Ybarra – Administrative Assistant
sybarra@nfwsc.org

• Lupe Ponce – Clerk
lsponce@nfwsc.org

• Ana Escandon – Regional Education Coordinator
aescandon@nfwsc.org

• Angela Castellon – Regional Education Coordinator
angelac@nfwsc.org

• Angelica Gomez – Regional Education Coordinator
agomez@nfwsc.org

• Erik Gonzalez – Regional Education Coordinator
erikg@nfwsc.org

• Daniel Hernandez – Regional Education Coordinator
danielh@nfwsc.org

home .....about us .....academic program.....instructors .....parents .....contact us