BOARD PROFILE
LESSONS LEARNED
W
hen James Alva was eight years old, he was riding in a car with his mom and grandmother and saw a guy walking down the street wearing a Harvard University sweatshirt. The inquisitive kid asked his mother what Harvard was; she explained it was a college and that he’d need really good grades to go there. Alva, the newest member of the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Board of Directors, never forgot that conversation as he worked his way into being accepted into both Harvard and Stanford universities. He chose Stanford, where he twice served as president of his class and became a first-generation college graduate. “I was hellbent on changing the narrative for my family,” recalled Alva, a native of Hacienda Heights. “Education was always big for us as a means to a new opportunity—a transformative opportunity. There’s always been this sort of inner drive in me that’s been there since the time I was very young.” He inherited a hard work ethic from his parents, who ran their own small business for 35 years. After college, Alva worked his way up to becoming the lead of Citi’s corporate philanthropy division for Southern California and Texas. He manages a multi-million dollar
philanthropic budget to help expand finan- inferior,” he added. In addition to being Senior Vice Presicial inclusion in underserved communities. Alva has helped to establish numerous dent & Market Manager at Citi Community small businesses and other organizations in- Development, Alva was recently elected cluding a community bank in Los Angeles, chair of Southern California Grantmakers’ a technology accelerator in San Francisco, Board of Directors. He also serves on the and the Los Angeles County Center for boards of the Foundation for the Los AnFinancial Empowerment. He also worked geles Community Colleges and the California Latino Economic at the non-profit orgaInstitute. nization Small Business Despite the full plate, Development Centers. Alva could not pass up At the beginning of the opportunity to also his career, Alva worried The Center has really be a part of the board that being openly gay stood out to me for of the Center, which might hold him back he became acquainted professionally. “It kind quite a bit of time. with through his work of put me back into There's a really good at Citi. some of those ugly feelsense of community “The big part of my ings of wondering, ‘Am identity which I hadn’t I less than?’” he recalled. and dignity at the integrated with a board His initial self- Center—I'm drawn was the LGBT part,” doubt resulted in an said Alva. “The Center epiphany that has since to that. has really stood out to served him well: “I’m me for quite a bit of a professional who also time. I’m thoroughly happens to be Latino, and also happens to be gay, and I deserve impressed with the leadership and the staff. to be in this room as much as anyone else.” There’s a really good sense of community “That sort of drive has really motivated and dignity at the Center—I’m drawn to me for a long period of time: to demonstrate that.” Alva and his husband Eddie, an educator, to others that they shouldn’t assume that because of who someone is, our abilities are live in Los Angeles with their dog and cat.
VANGUARD | COMMUNIT Y
• Center Board Member James Alva
JAMES ALVA JOINS THE CENTER’S BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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