Dr. Isabel Montemayor-Vazquez will be the featured speaker as part of Hispanic Heritage Month celebration.

Dr. Isabel Montemayor-Vazquez, the executive director of the Hispanic/Latino Commission of Michigan, will be the featured speaker Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. in the Kellogg Center Living Room as part of Albion College’s Hispanic Heritage Month celebration.

She will speak about the current state of the Hispanic/Latino community and the importance of celebrating and raising awareness about the culture in Michigan and the United States. The event is free and open to the public.

As executive director of the Hispanic/Latino Commission of Michigan, Montemayor-Vazquez shepherds the work of 15 governor-appointed Latinx commissioners representative of the different regions across the state. The commission serves by listening to constituents and advises the governor and legislature on issues that impact the Latinx community.

Montemayor-Vazquez is the first woman in her family to graduate from college and the first person in her family to receive a graduate degree. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Central Michigan University and received a master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s degree in socio-cultural anthropology from Michigan State University.

She served as a professor of anthropology and sociology for six years at the University of Texas at Arlington, where she mentored and taught hundreds of first-generation students. Her research has focused on transitional methods of health care for mixed-status Mexican families living in Michigan.