HTTP appoints civil rights advocate Alejandro Roark as its new executive director.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 1, 2019) — Hispanic Technology & Telecommunications Partnership (HTTP) welcomes Alejandro Roark as its next executive director. Alejandro brings a decade of social advocacy experience to his new role as director of HTTP.
Roark joins HTTP from the national office of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) based in Washington, D.C. where he led the organization’s corporate social responsibility efforts. In that capacity, Roark worked with Fortune 500 technology executives to develop, implement, and scale community programs to advance the economic condition, educational attainment, political influence, housing, health, and civil rights of the Latino population in the United States. He also curated and directed their annual Latinx Tech Summit.
“Alejandro’s unique experience at the intersection of nonprofit, civic engagement, and policy advocacy will help center the Latino experience in critical technology and telecommunication policy discussions and expand HTTP’s capacity to empower a new generation of Latino policy advocates,” says Brent Wilkes, Senior Vice President for Institutional Development at the Hispanic Federation, a HTTP coalition member
In his role as Executive Director for HTTP Alejandro will lead the organization’s next phase of strategic growth, which includes expanding HTTP’s focus areas to ensure Latino perspectives are represented in all aspects of the quickly-evolving digital landscape.
Roark has over a decade of experience in nonprofit management, community engagement, policy advocacy and has spent his career leading cultural, social, and political transformation at the national, state, and local level. He is passionate about creating shared value and large-scale impacts that center the experiences of historically-marginalized communities.
“I look forward to contributing to HTTP’s legacy of inclusive policy education and advocacy and building upon the decades of work HTTP’s coalition members have led to ensure that Latino perspectives are represented in policy discussions to promote access, adoption, and the full utilization of technology and telecommunications resources by the Latino community.” Roark said. "Policy makers have decision-making powers that impact the Latino community, and those policy decisions should include and reflect the voices and perspectives of one of the country’s largest consumer groups in order to achieve innovative solutions to the challenges facing the field. I am excited to lead HTTP’s coalition members and work closely with their leadership to increase HTTP’s impact during this next chapter of the organization’s growth.”
About Alejandro Roark:
With nearly a decade of experience working at the local, state, and national level, Alejandro has dedicated his career to the elimination of structural inequities across LGBT inclusion, racial and social justice, and civil rights policies, through community power building, storytelling, equitable resource allocation and by creating pathways for a more diverse workforce. Alejandro applies his skills and leadership to the examination of the ethical and social dimensions of technological change including the attention economy, data privacy, algorithmic decision-making, AI, and private platforms. He is dedicated to ensuring that Latino priorities are integrated into technology policies. Read More