Ruben Lizardo

Rubén Lizardo is the Director of Capacity Building at California Tomorrow. Rubėn is responsible for leading a number of the organization’s efforts to address inclusion and equity issues in community organizations and civic institutions. Rubėn’s expertise and leadership have helped to shape California Tomorrow’s training and technical assistance in the fields: community building, after school and youth development, parent led school reform organizing, family resource centers, and philanthropy. Rubėn also serves as the Project Director for the Community College Access & Equity Initiative which undertakes advocacy, alliance building, and capacity building to improve outcomes for vulnerable students and communities in California ’s community colleges.

Prior to moving to the Bay Area, Rubén spent 20 years in Los Angeles were he was active in a variety of professional and civic efforts to improve race relations, public education, and community development.

As the Education & Training Director of the Community Development Technologies (CD Tech) Center at Los Angeles Trade Technical College , Rubén was responsible for coordinating the Community Planning & Economic Development (CPED) Program, a two year associate degree program to prepare community residents for professions related to comprehensive neighborhood development. Rubén taught courses in community organizing, community violence prevention, and schools and community development and took a lead role in CD Tech’s customized training and technical assistance—both aimed to build the knowledge and capacity of youth, community, business, and civic leaders to build healthy and thriving neighborhoods.

As a Co-Director of the Los Angeles MultiCultural Collaborative (MCC) he provided leadership to further collaborative efforts to improve human relations across racial and economic divides in Los Angeles . While at the MCC, Rubén helped to establish at the Community-School Initiative (CSI) a multi-organizational partnership to build inter-ethnic organizing capacity among parents engaged in school reform in Watts .

Rubén has a history and passion for dealing with the need to improve race relations through collaborative community action that addresses the social inequities that are root causes of inter-group competition and conflict. In 1999 he was awarded the California Peace Prize by the California Wellness Foundation for his work to address root causes of youth violence and served as Member and President of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission from 1999-2001. He currently serves as board member of Californians for Justice and the Justice Matters Institute.

Return to Course Description

Return to Schedule at a Glance