Areas of expertise:

• Strategic leadership and planning
• Business development
• Community outreach and engagement
• Program and systems management
• Employee development

Iris Aguilar is Senior Director, Equity and Community Impact at the Foundation for California Community Colleges. California Community Colleges, their students, and surrounding communities benefit from Aguilar’s keen leadership of programs to improve equity, student services, and the environment, and her holistic support for disadvantaged groups through community outreach; student leadership training; and implementation of other special projects.

Aguilar joined the Foundation as a student assistant in 2004 and has served in several capacities in student services, workforce development, community outreach, and environmental programs. As the Foundation’s former Director of Community Impact, Aguilar and her team significantly expanded partnerships and implemented effective statewide awareness campaigns, leading to her appointment as Senior Director in 2018.

Foundation Highlights:

• Spearheads the California Community College Dreamers Project, a collaborative, systemwide project to nimbly respond to the needs of undocumented community college students through research, planning, and project implementation
• Active member of the Environmental Equity Advocacy Group, which is developing tools for low-income and disadvantaged communities related to environmentally-friendly transportation options
• Launched the Student Ambassador Program to increase a wide range of student and family resources across the state
• Dedicated more than 15 years of service to the California Community College system

Aguilar earned her bachelor of arts in Chicano/Latino Studies, Native American Studies, and Spanish from the University of California, Davis.