Juana Mora

Juana Mora, a professor of Chicana/o studies at California State University, Northridge, has been appointed to the city of Los Angeles’ Workforce Investment Board, which develops policy to ensure that businesses in the city have access to trained workers and that employees have access to quality jobs.

The Workforce Investment Board plays a key role in shaping workforce-development policy priorities and oversees the city of Los Angeles’ Workforce Development System, a $60 million, federally-funded entity comprised of 31 centers and satellite sites that annually serve more than 170,000 jobseekers, dislocated workers, youth, businesses and employers.

The Los Angeles City Council made Mora’s appointment official last month. She will attend her first meeting of the board later this month.

“I hope to connect the university with what is going on in the region in regards to workforce development,” Mora said. “I want to bring the information I learn back to campus and share what we are doing. There is a lot going on in the region, and it’s important that we all work together to meet the needs of not only local businesses but also of our students, who are this city’s and this state’s future workforce.”

Mora, who serves as assistant to the provost on Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) and Diversity Initiatives, was recently elected to the board of the Alliance of Hispanic Serving Institution Educators Council, a national education board dedicated to ensuring Latino students have the support they need to succeed in college.

Mora was born in Jalisco, Mexico, and immigrated to the United States with her parents and seven siblings in 1960. She is the first member of her family to attend college. She worked after school to help her family and received financial support to attend the University of California at Santa Cruz, where she received a bachelor’s degree in linguistics. She was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship to attend Stanford University, where she earned her doctorate in education.

Mora, who has taught at CSUN for the past 23 years, is a nationally recognized expert on Latina/o culturally focused substance-abuse treatment and prevention, and she has developed and taught courses on Latino families and women. Her most recent research has focused on the development of community-based research partnerships for the improvement of Latino community health. She co-edited the book “Latino Social Policy: A Participatory Research Model,” which highlights lessons learned and best practices in Chicano community-based health research.

Hispanic-Serving Institution