Luz Zambrano, Center for Cooperative Development and Solidarity

Luz Zambrano is an immigrant from Colombia, mother of two children and resident of its beloved East Boston. She spent most of her professional life in the US developing the leadership and organizing capacity of immigrant individuals, organizations, and movements to overcome social, racial, and economic injustice.

Luz co-founded two organizations in the past 25 years: the Center to Support Immigrant Organizing (CSIO), and Center for Cooperative Development and Solidarity (CCDS) where she currently is the Director.

Currently, Luz is the director of CCDS where she focuses on cooperative development within the solidarity economy framework. Luz believes in people’s capacity to find their own power and create their own change. Thus, she uses both grassroots organizing and leadership as well popular education methodologies to help develop that capacity.

Luz is bicultural and bilingual. She studied at the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University in Bogota, Colombia, where she graduated with a bachelor’s in advertising and public communication. In the US, Luz attended many certificate programs, including the Managing and Leadership Program for non-profit executives at Boston University’s School of Management.