Alberto Retana

Alberto Retana’s core values center on the notion that people, love and compassion — matched with organized power, strategy, and vision — have the potential to change society. As a student activist at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he graduated with a degree in political science, he joined with other students across the country to organize campaigns that defended affirmative action, lowered student fees, and advanced racial justice. Later, he joined Community Coalition, a nonprofit organization based in South Los Angeles that engages and empowers residents to improve education, health and public safety.

From 2009 to 2011, Alberto worked as Director of Community Outreach in the U.S. Department of Education, organizing the Department’s first National Youth Summit and working with thousands of community leaders nationwide to turn around the “push-out” crisis.

Currently, Alberto is back in South Los Angeles, leading Community Coalition’s efforts to organize 30,000 African American and Latino voters in efforts to transform neighborhoods by empowering people to engage with neighborhoods, including their schools.

Alberto recently gave a Ted Talk entitled "Creating Change and Transforming Communities". Alberto has been featured on the Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, CNN, ABC 7, NBC, NewsOne, LA Sentinel, The Wave, Colorlines, La Opinión, Univision, and many more media outlets.