Alisha Garcia Flores, FA’03, this year’s recipient of the Alumni Community Impact Award, began her commitment to the Little Village community during her internship at UNO. Today, she uses data to transform services provided at Enlace Chicago.
Flores is passionate about participatory, asset-based, and culturally responsive approaches to community development. She believes in using evaluation as a tool for social justice and systems changes that promotes opportunities and advancement of marginalized groups of people.
Flores serves as the director of Evaluation and Data at Enlace Chicago, a non-profit organization serving the Little Village neighborhood in Chicago. Enlace partners with a predominantly Latinx population to address barriers in community health, violence prevention, education, and immigration. Flores and her team support staff in culturally responsive evaluation, data management and grant reporting. Alisha has worked with Latinx communities in Chicago for over 17 years as a youth advocate, internal evaluator, and education director.
Flores has been a leader and active participant in many community projects and professional organizations. Her notable contributions include, the New Communities Program (LISC) Quality of Life Plan, 21st Century Community Learning Programs, Illinois State-wide Afterschool standards and IL-QPSA tool, Pathways Initiative, and Co-Chair for the LaRED (Latinx evaluation Topical Interest group) for the American Evaluation Association. Flores holds a BS in sociology and management from Central Michigan University and a master’s degree in urban planning and policy from University of Illinois at Chicago. She also has certifications in teaching English (TEFL) and in youth development (YPQI) as a methods trainer and external assessor. She enjoys attending community events, traveling, and beach time with her husband, Miguel, and two sons, Miguelito and Mateo.