November 3, 2022

HACU names Brenda Valles executive director of Western State Policy and Outreach

The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities has announced the appointment of Brenda Valles, Ph.D., as executive director of Western State Policy and Outreach. HACU President and CEO Antonio R. Flores introduced Valles during the California HSI Summit that was held on Oct. 9, 2022, in San Diego, California. 

Valles will oversee HACU’s Western Regional office in Sacramento, Calif. to develop and advance HACU's legislative agenda involving state government issues in the five western states of California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. She will also coordinate activities for legislative relations, work with both executive and legislative branches of the state governments, as well as regional policy centers, Hispanic and other minority organizations, and other legislative affairs departments of member colleges and systems in the region.

Valles has over 10 years of higher education equity leadership experience in equity assessment and executive equity leadership in the Western U.S. and Mountain West, specifically in Utah, Washington, and Oregon. She recently served as faculty in educational leadership and higher education in Oregon. She brings a PK-20 educational policy framework to her work. Before taking roles focused on higher education, she worked in educational policy and the legislative arena as a policy associate for the Utah Educational Policy Center and as a community liaison for a former state assembly member in California.

Valles earned a doctorate in educational leadership and policy, and a master’s in education, culture, and society, both from the University of Utah. She holds a bachelor’s in communication from California State University of Monterey Bay.