Teresa L. Gonzalez
Board Secretary
Principal Executive, Vision and Cultivation at Design Impact
Teresa is an organizational and systems change thinker, strategist, administrator, practitioner and coach with over two decades of expertise focused on multi-sector issues impacting the wellbeing of families and communities experiencing injustice, inequities and violence.
Teresa L. Gonzalez is native to New Mexico and a fourth generation descendent of Apache and Comanche Indians of the Southwest. She is a first-generation college student and mother of four children who was caged and displaced as a child and young adult. She was a low wage worker from the age of 12, receiving her high school credential inside of the youth detention facility at the age of 16. These experiences have shaped her life philosophy, professional perspective and why she centers black liberation and indigenous sovereignty to envision and enact healing and justice in any space that she is privileged to be in. She seeks to build bridges and leverage resources in creative ways to catalyze systemic change for communities impacted by inequity, injustice and violence. She is passionate about leadership investment and strengthening collaborative, organizational and program capacities. She is a scholar- practitioner with intergenerational and intercultural knowledge. She has been part of several executive and movement building coalitions at the local, regional and national level and is a board member for the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland, CA and a board trustee for Bi-Okoto Cultural Arts Center in Cincinnati, OH.
She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Science in Community Health from her alma mater, the University of New Mexico. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2020 Nonprofit of the Year by the State of California’s Assemblymember Rob Bonta, the Albuquerque Business First Woman of Influence, the Southwest Organizing Project’s Jeanne Gauna Social Justice Spirit Honoree, the New Mexico Office of African American Affairs Volunteer Award, and the Sarah Belle Brown Community Service Award from the University of New Mexico Office of the President.