NALAC Announces Lucila Lagace as Manager of Research

The National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) has announced the hiring of Lucila Lagace as the organization's new Manager of Research. The position will contribute to the overall success of NALAC by developing and overseeing a research portfolio of priorities, projects and programs.

"Lucila is a gifted project manager with a track record of helping a range of grass roots organizations and institutions articulate their impact, mobilize stakeholders and advance data-driven practice and policy change through research and storytelling. She is well respected and committed in her communities in the Rio Grande Valley; we are honored to welcome her to the team," said Alberto Mejia, Deputy Director of NALAC.

Lucila Lagace brings over thirty years of experience to the nonprofit community as a project manager, researcher, writer, and strategist. Ms. Lagace has spent her career as a leader of local, state, national, and international nonprofit and governmental organizations across the United States and Central America.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish Literature with a minor in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin and attended the Spanish Graduate Program in Literature and Cultural Studies at Texas Tech University. While a Spanish adjunct instructor at the University of Texas - Permian Basin, she took her first certificate course in nonprofit management and discovered her new profession. Ms. Lagace focuses her professional research and practice on the needs of organizations serving Latino communities in the United States.

Early in her career, she spent ten years leading state and national AmeriCorps projects tackling our nation's most pressing challenges, culminating in her appointment as the national service director of the District of Columbia's Commission on National and Community Service (Serve DC) in 2004. From 2006 to 2018, Ms. Lagace founded and led Lagace Consulting LLC, a service focused on the planning, fund development, and communication needs of start-ups and small nonprofits.

She based her return to Texas and her hometown in 2010 on the needs of the community and the opportunity to lead the Strengthening Communities Fund (SCF) Nonprofit Capacity Building Program at the University of Texas-Pan American. Through SCF she provided training and technical assistance to hundreds of nonprofit executives, staff, volunteers, and board members along the U.S. southern border while also teaching graduate students. In 2018, she joined the newly created University of Texas Rio Grande Valley's School of Medicine as their first Program Manager for Strategic Initiatives.

Ms. Lagace is known throughout Texas as "The Nonprofit Girl" based on her passion for nonprofit management and leadership. She was one of eight Texans selected to serve a two-year (2011-2013) appointment to the Taskforce on Improving Relations with Nonprofits created by Texas House Bill 1965 and served on the board of the Texas Association of Nonprofit Organizations (TANO).

Born in Texas as a first-generation American, Ms. Lagace was raised both in Mexico and the United States. In 2019 she survived a severe spinal cord injury and now views joy as the heartbeat of life. She currently lives in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas where she enjoys writing creative non-fiction.