Jose L. Plaza is a CHCI alumnus, class of 2012-2013, and served as the Bill and Melinda Gates Higher Education Graduate Fellow. During his fellowship, he held placement at the education non-profit Ed Trust and the office of Congressman Raul Ruiz managing portfolios ranging from health, immigration, housing, to education.

Following his role at CHCI, Jose served as the National Director for Latino Engagement for Enroll America, which led the effort to enroll more than 4 million Latinos in Obamacare. While at Enroll America, Jose’s efforts in leading a national coalition of Latinx-serving institutions led to joint efforts across federal agencies, work with LGBT, youth, faith, labor, education, and various other subsets of the community.

Jose has served on both advisory and executive boards of the Latin American Youth Center, New Leaders Council- DC, and was president and board chair of the Latino LGBT History Project, the oldest non-profit Latinx-serving LGBT organization in the DMV. In 2017, Jose served as one of the national co-chairs for the historical Equality March in Washington DC, which drew thousands to the national mall and was the sixth of its kind held in over 40 years.

Most recently, Jose worked for the Florida Democratic Party as the Latino Vote Director for the Hillary Clinton Campaign andworked to educate, register, and mobilize Latinx voters across the state.

Currently, Jose is a program manager in the statewide Prevention team at the California Endowment. In that department, Jose oversees immigration, LGBTQ, disabilityportfolio, and spearheaded TCE’s GOTV efforts. Jose’s portfolio also encompasses youth engagement specifically education and outreach around issues of civic participation, artivism, and social justice.

Jose earned bachelor's degrees in social science and Englishfrom San Diego State University. In 2005, he moved to Long Beach, California to pursue a M.Sc. in counseling with an emphasis in student development in higher education from California State University, Long Beach. He began his doctoral work in education at the University of Southern California studying undocumented/migrant student experience in higher education. Jose is currently one of 10 American Express NGEN Fellows focusing on equity work in non-profit and philanthropy with Independent Sector. Jose resides in Sacramento, California.