As Senior Manager, Partnerships, Joe leads grantmaking and partnership efforts to support the educational success of young people furthest from opportunity. Joe is motivated by the Stuart Foundation’s commitment to educational equity and to working with partners in the field beyond the grant dollars.
Joe has spent the past 20 years traversing the social sector with a focus on collective / collaborative impact in pursuit of systems change toward career pathways that integrate education and workforce experiences. He is a proud two-term alumni of the AmeriCorps program for national service, and he spent six years in direct service working with young people in the justice system. Prior to arriving at Stuart, Joe was a consultant and served as interim executive director with the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science through the pandemic, and as co-founder-turned-co-convener of the California Opportunity Youth Network.
Joe is a community activist for Opportunity Youth in San Jose where he is particularly committed to bringing their voices and experiences with him and facilitating community processes that make space for young leaders. He proudly serves as a founding Ally Advisor to the Youth Liberation Movement, a young-adult-led organization in Santa Clara County working to help public systems and agencies center lived experience expertise through intergenerational engagement. Joe serves on the Youth Committee of the work2future Workforce Development Board and is Chair of the Board of Directors for the statewide reengagement high school, the School for Integrated Academics and Technology. He holds a Master’s degree in public administration from San Jose State University, where his graduate research focused on personalized guidance and support in reengagement education settings. In his free time, Joe enjoys being a dad to two energetic kids, going downhill fast on a board or tires, and forever chasing the art of Brazilian jiu jitsu.