Written by Dianne Enriquez, Director of Opportunity Campaigns at CPD

During the leadership conference last week, I had the privilege of participating in a gathering of 20 Latinx executive directors and staff leaders from 13 CPD Network affiliates for the first time. Together, we learned more about each other’s personal stories and spent time thinking about the tremendous potential and opportunities available to us as a community within the CPD Network.

For leaders of color in this work and at the helm of organizations, there is a special kind of pressure that comes from the simultaneous need to break barriers stemming from institutional racism, all while doing our best to create a path for authentic leadership that is representative of our own communities. It is an opportunity to create more space for emerging leaders of color, and a responsibility that can be both invigorating and overwhelming.

As these strong and brilliant leaders walked into the room, it became clear that this was a space that many of us had been craving. This was more than a meeting; this was a family reunion.

We outlined parameters for our future work together and clarified commitments to put forward a bold and aspirational shared vision for social justice in the Latinx community to create stronger alignment in our work across the country. If you are a Latinx executive director or staff leader from a partner organization that wasn’t able to make it to the Leadership Council and would like to be involved, please contact Dianne Enriquez.