
Meet Our
board members

Gerardo Ochoa
President
Gerardo Ochoa is a first-generation college graduate and Latinx immigrant, who has dedicated his career to promoting college affordability, access, and graduation. He believes in the power of personal stories to build empathy, create opportunities, and influence change. He is MENTE's president and co-founder and is committed to addressing gender inequities in higher education. He is director of community relations and special assistant to the president at Linfield College.

Yadira Muñoz-González
Yadira Muñoz-González is the daughter of two hard-working individuals that left their hometown in Jalisco, Mexico to raise their 4 children in the United States. She keenly remembers asking her father what his dream was coming here. He answered, “que mis hijas triunfarán…” - that my daughters succeed. From then on she decided that she was going to make her parent’s dream come true.
Yadira is a Bay Area native where she earned both her Bachelor’s and Master's degree from Holy Names University in Oakland, California. Yadira has had a genuine love for education from an early age but her passions ignited after she conducted her thesis research on Latinx student retention in higher education systems. Being the first in her family to attend college, she took it upon herself to be a servant leader to her community and find avenues to support the generations to come.
Currently, Yadira serves her community through Portland State University Global Diversity and Inclusion team. Additionally, she takes pride in serving as the first Latina woman on the Mente board. In her spare time, Yadira enjoys exploring Portland’s food and culture with her family.

Carlos Sánchez
Treasurer
Carlos Sánchez Huizar is the proud son of immigrant parents, a first-generation Mexico-Americano, and passionate about community engagement. Although Sánchez Huizar claims South Central Los Angeles and Korea town as home, he also considers La Labor de Santa Barbara, a small rural town in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico, as the motherland. At 21 years of age, Sánchez Huizar experienced different cultures while living in Mexico, the USA, Chile, and Spain.Sánchez Huizar attended Manual Arts High School and with the help of his high school counselor and teachers, One Voice Scholars, USC Upward Bound Math and Science program, and the Gates Millennium Scholarship, he went on to pursue a post-secondary education at Lewis & Clark College. In 2018, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Hispanic and Latin American studies. In 2020, he earned a Master of Arts in Student Affairs Administration from Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling.Sánchez Huizar believes the MENTE is the definition of community organizing. He joined the MENTE team because of the efforts and the commitment to empower Latinx males through leadership, identity development, education, and economic advancement.