Alicia Maciel Hired as Director of Strategic Initiatives at THINK Together

SPOTLIGHT
New Hire

Alicia Maciel has been hired at THINK Together as Director of Strategic Initiatives. In joining the largest nonprofit provider of extended learning time programs in the U.S., Alicia sees herself, among other things, as paying forward the opportunities she was provided to achieve her own full potential as a student growing up in the farming heartland of California’s Central Valley.

One of four children of a migrant farm worker, Alicia moved from Mexico to California at the age of seven and entered third grade at McFarland Elementary School. During the next seven years the family would move seven times. Their living circumstances were much less than ideal as they moved from farm to farm. In middle school, she took up the flute and as part of the band she would travel outside her neighborhood to see other cities and towns in the region. Teachers identified her as a learner and scholar, as well as a student leader. They helped her excel, gave her a chance to achieve. She was invited to take part in California’s MESA program (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) and among other things was exposed to California’s college and university campuses. She would be elected student body president and graduated from Delano High School among the top of her class.

Her mother had always encouraged Alicia to reach for a college education, but when she learned that Alicia had been accepted to UC Berkley and would have to leave her family home in the Central Valley, her mother was less than excited. Nevertheless, because Alicia’s family had gained U.S. citizenship in 1986, she was able to qualify for financial aid and so she moved to the Bay Area to pursue a degree in finance and accounting from Cal’s Haas School of Business. At Cal, everyone is challenged academically but Alicia also had to juggle work and demands of her family back home.

At Cal, Alicia took advantage of Inroads, a program that finds internship placements for minority students and she landed at Chevron where she was hired full-time following graduation.

She was married in 1996 to a man whom she’d known as a child back in Mexico. Like Alicia, his family had also come to California and while they’d not seen one another in years, they became reacquainted when their families gathered for a joint Mother’s Day celebration. Alicia had not been content with earning a bachelor’s degree at UC Berkley and had applied and been accepted to Harvard’s MBA program. So, just two months after getting married, she and her husband, an electrical engineer, packed up and moved to Boston. Given her experiences at Chevron she was able to forgo Harvard’s summer internship placement and she completed the MBA coursework in 18 months.

Fresh out of Harvard she was recruited home to California by the Walt Disney Company where she would be a Strategic Business Planner at The Disneyland Resort. Among other things, she conducted financial evaluation of potential real estate acquisitions, developed a synergistic business plan for the Resort’s diverse photo merchandise opportunities, managed the proforma for the Tarzan Tree House and Chevron Autopia renovation projects, and facilitated a new business plan for the Annual Cast Member Holiday Party.

When Alicia and her husband decided it was time to expand their family, Alicia established a business consulting practice that would provide her with more flexibility. Her clients would include the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange Center for Spiritual Development, UCI Medical Center, Cal State Fullerton, Community SeniorServ, Grandma’s House of Hope, Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, National Latina Business Women Association of Orange County, Paramount Farming Co., KRAFT Foods, Creative Memories Corporation, and more than 100 start-up to mid-size businesses in Orange County. She taught as an adjunct professor in the Entrepreneurship program at Cal State Fullerton. She was the first co-president of The Drucker Society in Orange County.

At THINK Together Alicia Maciel will oversee strategic initiatives.

“THINK Together is poised to double in size during the next couple of years. Alicia will help build the infrastructure to support and help us manage that growth,” explains Randy Barth, THINK Together’s founder and CEO.

Contact Alicia at amaciel@thinktogether.org or 714.543.3807.  Learn more about Alicia at LinkedIn.