Luis Chavez

senior director


Luis Chavez, a senior director with Career Ladders Project, has worked with more than 75 community colleges across California and with many of their partners in K-12 districts and the community on issues related to student success and equity. He has started several stand-alone mentoring programs and numerous chapters of the Puente Project across California. He serves on local, regional, and statewide advisory boards for business groups and educational institutions.

At CLP, Luis coordinates and facilitates capacity-building with educational institutions and their partners. He is cultivating and manages a statewide community of practice to support community colleges and their educational and workforce partners as they work to improve student success and equity. With support from CLP, he developed and leads the California Counselor Network (CaCN), which focuses on collaboration among counselors and student support services professionals at high schools and community colleges.

Before joining CLP, Luis led training and professional development for 16 years at the Puente Project, an initiative co-sponsored by the University of California and the state’s community college system. His work supported college and high school leaders and coordinators, along with college and high school counselors, teachers, and other staff, who collaborate on the work of the Puente Project to support college access and completion for Latinx students.

Luis is a founding member of the Latino Institute for Corporate Inclusion, which he has led since 2011. And he helped create the Latino Tech Summit to foster diversity and inclusion in Silicon Valley.

A transfer alumnus of Mt. San Antonio College, Luis holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Irvine and a master’s degree from California State University, Dominguez Hills. His training also includes programs with the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education, the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, the Harvard Business School, and UCLA Anderson School of Management’s Latino Leadership Institute.