Dr. Gabriela D. Lemus is the Executive Director for the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA). Dr. Lemus is the first woman to be selected as the Executive Director for the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement. She is Co-Chair of the National Latino Coalition for Climate Change (NLCCC). She was formerly Director of Policy and Legislation at the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). Prior to which, Dr. Lemus was an adjunct professor at the University of Memphis, San Diego State University, and the University of San Diego. While at LULAC, Dr. Lemus founded the LULAC Democracy Initiative Voter Project, a national Hispanic civic participation campaign focused on voter education and registration. Currently, in her work at LCLAA, Dr. Lemus advocates policy that benefits Latino workers and families, including trade, immigration, Social Security and Medicare reform, US-Latin American relations, immigration and ending border militarization and vigilantism among others. She is the founder of Latinos for a Secure Retirement – a campaign to fight the privatization of Social Security. Under both the Clinton and Bush administrations, she was invited to travel to Nicaragua and Argentina to promote democracy and civil society participation. Dr. Lemus has been an outspoken advocate for Latino issues appearing in both English and Spanish language media outlets, including CNN, CNN en Español, NBC’s Hardball, Fox’s Neil Cavuto, Univision and NBC-Telemundo among others. She received her doctorate in International Relations from the University of Miami in 1998.


Hector Sanchez is the DC-Mexico Policy Education Coordinator for Global Exchange, the DC point person of a bi-national team doing policy education, research, media, community, and strategy work on the US-Mexico relationship.

Hector Sanchez has worked in education, government, and non-profit organizations, and has over 10 years of policy, research and community experience. Prior to coming to Global Exchange this year, Sanchez worked at the Education Trust for the last five years where he created the Latino initiative for the organization with the goal of improving public education for the immigrant and Latino community throughout the nation. He was also
the Education Policy Coordinator for the Council of Latino Agencies in Washington DC and a professor of US-Mexico Relations at the Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

Working for the last decade in education and immigration policy, Sanchez has been deeply engaged in the Latino community and the ongoing efforts to secure equal rights and opportunities for the largest minority group in the nation. Through research, lobbying, conducting data analysis, presenting and reaching the community through various media outlets, he has informed the public on the importance of educational equity for Latinos. He holds a BA and MA in Political Science from the University of Texas.

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