Meet Carmen
Carmen Rubio was born and raised in Washington County, the granddaughter of immigrants who came to this country as migrant farmworkers. She is the first in her family to graduate from college and is the first Latina/é on the Portland City Council. Carmen began her career of serving others in the offices of Multnomah County Commissioner Serena Cruz, Portland Mayor Tom Potter, and Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish. In each of those roles, Carmen was known for her dedication to making local government more accessible and more responsive to all of our communities – making Portland work for everyone. In 2009, when Carmen was tapped as the executive director of Latino Network – at the time a small, growing organization – that was not yet able to meet Portland’s Latinx/é community’s needs. With fewer than a dozen staff, very little funding, and operating out of a small rented house, the organization had the vision but lacked the capacity to fully meet the growing need for family and safetynet services.
By focusing on its core values and dreaming much bigger, Carmen got to work and quickly moved to equip the organization with the tools and funding needed to strengthen and scale the reach of their programs. Most importantly, she recognized the tremendous untapped power of the community. She knew that by bringing people together, they could solve problems together. Today, Latino Network’s team of more than 200 staff lift up youth and families to achieve their potential by engaging parents and providing support for early literacy. Through family services, workforce and education programs for children, teens and adults, Latino Network has helped the community catalyze social change, create opportunities to succeed, and determine its own future.
