Leadership
Jose Zapata Calderon is the President of the Latino and Latina Roundtable of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valley and Emeritus Professor in Sociology and Chicano/a Latino/a Studies at Pitzer Colleg.
As the son of immigrant farm workers from Mexico, he has had a long history of connecting his organizing and academic work with community-based teaching, participatory action research, critical pedagogy, and engagement.
Julissa Espinoza helps drive one of the University of La Verne’s core values of civic and community engagement by developing mutually beneficial relationships between the university and local community partners to collectively address the region’s most pertinent issues.
Her passion to be an agent of change in the community is evident in her roles as an established leader in the nonprofit sector. Julissa is a bridge, making connections and strengthening communities for a more just and peaceful world.
"I’ve been a community activist for 45 years. I started my activism in the Chicana/o movement and for the working class and poor in Colorado and continued my activism when I moved with my husband and children to southern California."
Rose has been the treasurer of Latino/a Roundtable for almost 12 years. Since becoming a board member, she has headed up the Cesar Chavez Breakfast where it has grown from an annual fundraising event of 75 to 600 attendees and the development of a social justice scholarship.
Fabián Pavón was born and raised in the city of Pomona. He received an AAT in History from Mt. San Antonio College and received his bachelor's degree in Chicana/o/x Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
He is currently a Student Services Support Staff at Mt.SAC’s El Centro: Chicanx/Latinx Student Support Program. He is also a board member of the Latina/o Roundtable of the San Gabriel and Pomona Valley and serves as the Chairperson for the Parks and Recreation Commission for the city of Pomona.
After raising her children, Maria decided to go back to school, and is now a student at Mt San Antonio College.
"I would like to see that all k-12 students learn their rights to be involved in a democracy. It is my pleasure to be working with the Latino/a Roundtable of the SGV/PV in improving communities."
