User Profile

Executive Director, RGV FOCUS/Educate Texas

Luzelma Canales is executive director for RGV FOCUS, a collaboration with Educate Texas. Luzelma provides leadership for a large-scale collective impact initiative launched to transform college readiness, access, and success across a four-county region in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. The collaborative is comprised of over 40 partners including four postsecondary institutions, 11 school districts, two workforce boards, private funders, and numerous community-based organizations and nonprofits. Luzelma served as a community college and university administrator for over twenty-five years. She led numerous institutional community college national reform initiatives including Achieving the Dream, Breaking Through, and several with Excelencia in Education. Luzelma serves on local, state and national boards related to closing equity gaps in voter turnout and educational attainment. She was born and raised along the Texas-Mexico border in deep South Texas. She and her family migrated to Washington and Oregon to work in the fields during the 1960s and 1970s. Her lived experience includes participating in the integration of schools and witnessing the efforts of the United Farm Workers to bring to light concerns over working conditions of migrant farm workers. These and other experiences formed her commitment to work with organizations to identify and eliminate barriers faced by Latino students as they navigate the high school and college experience. Luzelma earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Pan American University, Masters in Business Administration from the University of Texas - Pan American, and Doctorate of Philosophy in Human Resource Development from Texas A&M University. She is a Fellow of the 18th class of the Pahara - Aspen Education Fellowship and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.