The Board of Directors of the Latino Academy of Workforce Development announced that following a national search, Dr. Nydia Martinez has been appointed executive director. Dr. Martinez will succeed Baltazar de Anda Santana, who has stepped down after 12 years of service to the organization.
Dr. Martinez has over 10 years of leadership experience in post-secondary education and community engagement in the U.S. and Mexico. She comes to the Latino Academy from Spokane, Washington, where she was dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Eastern Washington University. While there, Dr. Martinez also served as director of the Chicano (Latino/a/x) Studies Program; academic director of the College Assistance Migrant Program; and co-chair of the university’s Presidential Hispanic Advisory Council.
Dr. Martinez also served as vice president on the board of directors of Nuestras RaĂces of Spokane, a nonprofit organization committed to empowering Spokane’s Latino community and promoting a more equitable economy.
Baltazar de Anda Santana leaves an organization that has transformed and expanded substantially over his 12 years of service to it. From its roots as a program of another nonprofit organization, Santana led the Latino Academy to increase its funding, capabilities, partners, staff, and stakeholders. In 2022, he led the Latino Academy to its goal of becoming an independent nonprofit organization. In 2023, in recognition of the success of the Latino Academy’s bilingual commercial driver’s license training program, the organization received a $2 million federal grant to fund the program’s expansion.
Dr. Martinez will start as executive director of the Latino Academy of Workforce Development on July 29.
