Latina Leadership Institute

The vision of the Institute is the discovery, development, nurturance, and empowerment of women leaders from a Latina perspective to be transformational agents in church and community settings.

The mission of the Institute is to provide educational and network opportunities, as well as conduct research and provide contextual publications regarding Latinas in leadership.

Educational opportunities for emergent or established women leaders
Mentoring/coaching opportunities for emergent leaders
Networking avenues providing support, connections, and resources for Latina leader
Research based on the Latina Leadership experience
Publications that empower Latina leaders and provide awareness about issues that Latinas in leadership face

Being aware of a void of strong Latina leadership, the Institute started as an initiative to identify, develop, and nurture Latina leaders who could serve in both, churches and communities.

This initiative includes quality development of Latina leaders through formal and informal educational opportunities such as conferences, workshops, networking, and mentoring. Due to the focus of this initiative, leaders in training are carefully selected, and individually invited to participate.

The Institute provides an appropriate environment for women to grapple with major issues in leadership for church and society. The Institute seeks to offer various opportunities for women students and female community leaders to practice and sharpen their skills as leaders.

The Latina Leadership Institute is housed at Baptist University of the Américas. The program of the Institute is overseen by an advisory board including: Laura Cadena, Sandra Cisneros, Sandee Elizondo, Teresa Matínez, Dr. Belinda Reyes, Sylvia Tostado and Alicia Zorzoli.

The Latina Leadership Institute is directed by Nora O. Lozano, Ph.D. and Patty Villarreal LMSW, both of whom have extensive experience as Latina women in leadership.

"The conference built our confidence, it made us realize our abilities to be successful leaders."

“It was great. We got to a comfort level of where we needed to be in order to speak very openly and understand the next steps in our own ministries."

Our growing number of partners includes:

Baptist University of the Américas
Buckner Children and Family Services
Anchored Love Ministries
Baptist General Convention of Texas, Congregational Leadership Team
Baptist General Convention of Texas, Hispanic Ministries
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Texas
Editorial Mundo Hispano
Global Women
Hispanic Strategy Council
Woman’s Missionary Union Texas

For more information or to become a partner in this ministry please contact us at:

1-800-924-4338 x 262
LLI@bua.edu