Cynthia Carmina Gómez

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Cynthia is a futurist and cultural strategist who brings ideas and knowledge into practice through community-centered initiatives. She is a faculty member and the Director of Community Impact at Portland State University, where she also served nine years as the Executive Director of Cultural Resource Centers. Her passion for community engagement is rooted in her decades-long experience working in the nonprofit sector in monolingual Spanish-speaking and justice-impacted communities. Cynthia has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Oregon Governors' Gold Civic Leadership Award, Portland Hispanic Chamber Education Bravo Award, Latino Network Aguila Award, and Latinos in Government Alliance Reginal Leader Award. She is an American Leadership Forum Oregon Fellow, a Unid@s for Oregon graduate, and a Leadership Portland alumni. She serves on the board of directors of the Latino Network and American Leadership Forum. Cynthia served the State of Oregon as Commissioner for the Oregon Commission for Hispanic Affairs and the Environmental Justice Task Force for two consecutive terms. She holds a Master of Fine Arts, a Master in Education, and a Certificate in Chicano/Latino Studies. Cynthia is a certified Foresight Essentials Practitioner with the Institute for the Future.

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Cynthia’s education began in Camp 52, a small migrant community beyond the outskirts of Phoenix, where she was born. She was raised in Yuma, Arizona, on the U.S.-Mexico border, and spent much of her youth in northern Mexico with her extended family. A native Spanish speaker, Cynthia is a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen. Since 1993, she has called Portland, Oregon home, where she lives with her husband, two children, two cats, and a dog. Cynthia enjoys birding, cooking, gardening, and documenting the stories of ordinary people's extraordinary lives. 

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Orgullosamente Bilingüe