Bill Moreno, Director for Policy & Legislation, LULAC
William (Bill) Moreno is a native Texan and grew up surrounded by a large family in a small South Texas town where his grandfather taught him about the importance ofracial equity and social justice from his own engagement with the American GI Forum in Corpus Christi, Texas, which later became the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).
His grandfather instilled the importance of a good public education as the path to lift himself, his family, and Latinos across the nation. After graduating from the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Texas, Bill took a position with U.S. Congressman Rubén Hinojosa where he served in both the Washington, DC and Beeville, TX offices.
For more than six years, Bill served the constituency of the 15th congressional district. During this time, he was elected to serve on his local school board. His advocacy on behalf of the residents of the 15th Congressional District of TX included infrastructure projects, grants to schools and universities, and economic empowerment initiatives. This experience earned Bill admission into the graduate program at the prestigious Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. Upon graduating, he returned to public education advocacy as a policy analyst with the Texas Association of School Boards in Austin, Texas.
Shortly after, he took an opportunity to gain national experience in the public education arena as a senior policy analyst with the National Education Association. For more than a decade he worked on behalf of NEA’s 3.2 million members to build relationships and partnerships with national Latino leaders and organizations to advance the mission of public education and his grandfather’s dream of lifting up Latinos. He also managed grants to NEA affiliates who strived to bring about racial equity and social justice and to build strong relationships with the Latino communities.
To diversify his skill set and complement his policy and program experience, he studied accounting and is actively working towards earning his Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He was named Vice President for Finance and Operations at Excelencia in Education whose mission is to accelerate Latino student success in higher education. During his tenure, Bill managed budget development, implementation, and evaluation. As well, he managed multi-year grants and contracts to support Excelencia in reaching its mission and reported on the financial activities to the board of directors and finance committee.
Bill continues his issue advocacy through policy, programmatic, and financial management opportunities with national organizations whose mission is to advance a better future for generations to come.
Panel Information
Friday, September 3
2:50 PM EST
Highlight- Erasing Latinos in Education
The American education system has progressed greatly through the decades becoming more inclusive in its teaching as time has gone on. However, there are still many existing barriers for minority students and the new debate over whether or not Critical Race Theory should be taught in schools is threatening to strengthen these barriers and destroy the progress that has been made in the education system. Banning Critical Race Theory from schools will impact students of color the most, worsening their already underrepresented and underserved educational experience. Students, especially Latinx students, have already been negatively impacted by the education system’s move to a remote learning environment during the pandemic. As preparations are being made to move back to in-classroom learning, conversations about education should be revolving around the transition, not about removing a vital part of education. Join us in the Higher Education Task Force Committee Workshop where we will be delving deeper into these topics and evaluating their significance and impact.
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