Meet the CLP Familia

Community Learning Partnership Staff, Board, and Program Partners

CLP Board and Leadership

Get to know our CLP leadership.

Co-Chairs, Board of Directors

Denise G. Fairchild, Ph.D.

Co-Chair, Board of Directors
President Emeritus, Emerald Cities Collaborative
Climate Breakthrough 2021 Awardee

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Denise G. Fairchild, Ph.D.

– (she, her, hers)

Co-Chair, Board of Directors
President Emeritus, Emerald Cities Collaborative
Climate Breakthrough 2021 Awardee

From 2010-2022 Dr. Fairchild served as the inaugural President and CEO of Emerald Cities Collaborative (ECC), a national non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. with affiliates in major urban centers across the United States. She advanced ECC’s “high road” mission to green our cities, build resilient local economies and ensure equity and inclusion in both the process and the outcomes of a green and healthy economy. Dr. Fairchild focuses on building community-led partnerships with labor, environmental and business organizations to increase energy efficiency, clean energy, sustainable foods and clean water with a focus on low-income and communities of color.

Dr. Fairchild is nationally recognized and respected for her 40-year successful track record and innovative programs in sustainable and community economic development, domestically and internationally. In 1995 she founded and directed the Community and Economic Development (CED) Department at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College, as well as an affiliated non-profit community development research and technical assistance organization, CDTech. She founded the Regional Economic Development Institute (REDI), an initiative of Los Angeles Trade-Technical College to provide inner city residents with career and technical education for high growth/high demand jobs in the L.A. region, with a focus on the green economy. From 1989-1995 she served as executive director of LISC-LA helping to build-out the region’s community development industry creating non-profit housing, jobs and businesses that strengthened and improved the health and environments of L.A.’s low-income, communities of color.

Dr. Fairchild received her B.A from Fisk in 1972, a masters in City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania and doctorate in urban planning from UCLA. She holds a number of academic distinctions, including serving as a senior fellow at M.I.T. and U.C.L.A., and serves on numerous national boards. Her recent publication is entitled: Energy Democracy: Equity Solutions to the Clean Economy. She has lived, worked, and educated her sons in South Los Angeles since 1977.

Board Members

Angélica Esquivel

Chicanx and Latinx Studies, Faculty
De Anza College

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Angélica Esquivel

– (she, her, ella)

Chicanx and Latinx Studies, Faculty
De Anza College

Angélica Esquivel is a longtime advocate for undocumented immigrant youth and their families. She advocates for undocumented communities in higher education and grassroots organizing in the community. Angélica has been working as an educator for the past 5 years. Her work in higher education began as a community college student 10 years ago where she co-founded the first student run undocumented student resource center. That supports students, families and the community at large. She continues to work with students, colleagues and families to navigate higher education, access to resources and their rights as human beings. She has both the role as a program lead and professor to support students in and out of the classroom to create institutional change in higher education.

Rosa M. García

Executive Director, CLP and CYLC

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Rosa M. García, Ed.D.

– (she, her, Ella)

Member, Board of Directors/Executive Director of CLP and CYLC

Rosa M. García serves as Executive Director of California Youth Leadership Corps and Co-Executive Director of the Community Learning Partnership (CLP), where she collaborates with state agencies, two-year and four-year public institutions, social justice organizations, and other community partners to expand community change career pathways for marginalized students in California and across the nation.

Prior to joining CLP, Rosa served as Director of Postsecondary Education and Workforce Development at the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP). At CLASP, she worked to promote policies to expand access to postsecondary opportunities and to increase economic security for marginalized students, including first-generation students living in poverty, educationally underprepared adults, students of color, and immigrants.

Prior to joining CLASP, Rosa worked to promote access, affordability, equity and diversity, and student success in higher education through her roles as a public servant and advocate at the federal, state, and local level. Her previous positions include Deputy Chief of Staff/Legislative Director to a senior member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Executive Director of Legislative Affairs at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), Special Assistant/Legislative Aide to a County Councilmember in Montgomery County, Maryland and a gubernatorial appointment to the Maryland State Board of Education.

Rosa received a bachelor’s in History and Latin American Studies at Wesleyan University. She holds master’s degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University, UCLA, and Baruch College, CUNY. In 2015, she earned her Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Rosa has authored and co-authored numerous publications focused on advancing racial and economic justice in higher education and society and serves on the board of the Emerald Cities Collaborative. Rosa was born in East Los Angeles and is a proud daughter of Mexican immigrants.

Lena Jones

Political Science Faculty, Minneapolis College
Coordinator of the Community Development A.S. Degree Program

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Lena Jones

– (she, her, hers)

Political Science Faculty, Minneapolis College Coordinator of the Community Development A.S. Degree Program

Lena is a political science faculty member and coordinator of the Community Development A.S. Degree Program at Minneapolis College where she has been teaching since 2002. From 2006 to 2020, Lena was the Director of Race in America, Then and Now, a summer field study course of the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs. Lena was the recipient of a two-year Bush Leadership Fellowship, through which she explored concrete ways for higher educational institutions to build lasting partnerships with community organizations and governments to support the development of students into leaders who can tackle the challenges faced by low-income communities and communities of color in the Twin Cities. In addition to teaching about civil rights and social change in the US context, Lena has also participated in research projects exploring racism, immigration, and social movements in Western Europe and South Africa. Lena has an MA in Political Science with a focus on International Relations and Comparative Politics and a MS in Experiential Education from Minnesota State University-Mankato.

Andy Mott

CLP Board Member

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Andy Mott

– (he, him, his)

CLP Board Member

Andy is the founder and former Executive Director of the Community Learning Partnership. Before founding CLP, Andy served as Executive Director of the Center for Community Change, completing a total of 35 years as a specialist in building strong and increasingly sophisticated community organizations in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color. Andy was the founding chair of several national coalitions on issues affecting low-income people, including the National Low-Income Housing Coalition and the Coalition on Human Needs.

Brian Murphy

CLP Board Member

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Brian Murphy

– (he, him, his)

Emeritus President, De Anza College

Brian is the former president of De Anza College, where a key focus of his presidency was the preparation of students to be active, involved citizens committed to transforming their communities. Brian was instrumental in the development of The Democracy Commitment and served as executive director of the San Francisco Urban Institute at San Francisco State University. He has taught political theory at the University of California, Santa Cruz; Santa Clara University; and San Francisco State University.

Ken Rolling

CLP Board Member

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Ken Rolling

– (he, him, his)

CLP Board Member

Ken served as Executive Director for CLP from 2011 through June 2022. Prior to his work with CLP Ken served as Executive Director of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge; National

Executive Director of Parents for Public Schools; Associate Director of Woods Fund of Chicago; Co–founder of the Justice and Peace Center, Milwaukee; and board member of the Needmor. Ken lives in Evanston, Illinois.

Benjamin Torres

President and Chief Executive Officer of the Community Development Technologies Center (CDTech).

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Benjamin Torres

– (he, him, his)

President and Chief Executive Officer of the Community Development Technologies Center (CDTech)

Benjamin serves as the President/CEO of the Community Development Technologies Center (CDTech), a nonprofit organization focused on addressing issues of racial equity and economic justice in low-income areas of Los Angeles. Benjamin’s entire career has been focused on placing the tools of democracy directly in the hands of our most marginalized residents through education, training, engagement and multi-ethnic/racial community building. For the last 23 years, his leadership has supported the South LA region’s Black/Brown residents to increase their political capital and economic opportunity. He has developed efforts to create inclusive, democratic and power building strategies utilizing highly effective public, private, nonprofit and community partnerships. He is committed to progressive movement building efforts and serves on the Board of Directors of several key local and national organizations. He also serves as President of City of LA Commission on Community and Family Services and he also serves on the LA County Public Health Equity Task Force Commission.

Edmundo Norte

CLP Board Member

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Edmundo Norte

– (he, him, ese)

Senior Fellow

Born and raised in the heart of East LA, Edmundo identifies as a Chicano and is connected to his indigenous roots while holding multicultural sensibility. He has been both a student and teacher at every level of public and private education, from Kindergarten in South-East LA to graduate school at Harvard University in Human Development and Psychology. He served as the Dean of Intercultural and International Studies at De Anza College for 12 years and has now shifted to Emeritus status, where he continues to teach the year-long cohort courses for the College’s Certificate in Leadership and Social Change. He serves as a Senior Fellow for the Community Learning Partnership (CLP)––a national network of community colleges working closely with community-based organizations to develop educational pathways for organizers from historically marginalized communities. Through CLP he provides training and guidance for the California Youth Leadership Corps (CYLC) statewide project with the same mission, but with greater social-emotional/wellness and financial support for students and CBO’s.

Edmundo brings a critical, social-justice lens to his own integrated practice and teaching of Nonviolent Communication for personal and social transformation, with a focus on indigenously-rooted transformative leadership addressing race, class, difference, and power at the internal, interpersonal, and structural/systemic levels of human experience. He is an avid runner, writer, artist, and the father of two who has lived in Oakland, California for over 30 years.

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