Cultural communications strategist Edgar Ernesto Ibarra Gutierrez joined the board of directors of The California Endowment, a nonprofit with a goal to achieve health and racial equity, in May for a three-year term.
He is the narrative strategist at Motivating Individual Leadership for Public Advancement, a nonprofit in Watsonville founded by formerly incarcerated community members.
For the last five years, he has worked directly with communities impacted by mass incarceration focusing on local and state policy advocacy, mentoring youth and young adults returning from incarceration through cultural healing programs and teachings.
“I have leveraged my lived experience and on-the-ground work to co-design narratives that lead with the stories of those most impacted by the criminal justice system to create meaningful systemic and cultural change,” he said.
Ernesto Ibarra Gutierrez
Ibarra Gutierrez was a commissioner for the California 100 initiative and as a SB 823 subcommittee member for Santa Cruz County from 2021 to 2023. He currently is a co-convener of California’s Youth Futures Movement, which aims to blend futures and foresight practices with grassroots community organizing to create a California for all. He has applied what he learned in the classroom by supporting MILPA with fundraising, partner collaboration, content design, event support, and marketing campaigns.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from UC Davis and is pursuing a master’s degree in professional communications at the University of San Francisco.