Dr. Emily Calderón Galdeano believes bold goals require aligned leadership, trusted partnerships, and collaboration (guided by data) to achieve lasting systems change. Her career bridges philanthropy, public policy, higher education, and nonprofit leadership. Throughout her career, she has advanced economic mobility by connecting strategy with execution and building cross-sector partnerships that create measurable change. She has helped mobilize more than $120 million in public and philanthropic investment supporting workforce development, education, and community outcomes, strengthening coordinated efforts across public, nonprofit, philanthropic, and civic systems.

Emily has served in backbone leadership roles that unite funders, public agencies, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, employers, and community leaders around shared goals, accountability, and continuous improvement. Her work focuses on connecting funding strategy with governance and shared measurement, ensuring investments strengthen systems rather than isolated programs. Throughout her career, she has helped diverse partners align around a shared vision and turn bold aspirations into lasting results.

Emily is a Presidential Leadership Scholar, Pahara Fellow, and German Marshall Fund Memorial Fellow. She is co-editor of the international award-winning book Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Advancing Research and Transformative Practice and serves on the boards of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and the Red Cross of Greater San Antonio. Emily and her husband, Dr. Daniel Galdeano, love barbecuing, traveling, and most of all, having living room dance parties with their daughters, Jacqueline and Natalia.