Lifting Voices, Driving Change with Javier Juarez

On this episode of Lead and Live Well, Erin Cox and Scott Knox sit down with Javier Juarez, Executive Director of the Latino Equity Fund at the Boston Foundation. Javier shares his journey from immigrating from Peru as a child to leading transformative philanthropic initiatives in Massachusetts.

He opens up about the power of storytelling, the resilience he’s seen in immigrant communities, navigating burnout, and the lessons that have shaped his leadership. From being “the only one in the room” to building community power through philanthropy, Javier offers insights on leading with purpose, lifting voices, and making an impact that lasts.

Tune in for an inspiring conversation about leadership, identity, and the ways we can all contribute to a more equitable future.

Javier's Brown Speech

Javier's Ted Talk 

Hosted by Erin Cox and M. Scott Knox
Edited and Produced by Stephanie Cohen

Transcript

Erin: Welcome to the Lead and Live Well podcast. My name is Erin Cox, and I'm thrilled to be here with my co host Scott Knox on the Lead and Live Well podcast. We sit down with leaders in the social impact world to learn about their leadership journeys. 

We talk about their strengths and passions, the transitions they have made in their career, and And how they have crafted their own paths to leadership.

Our goal is to highlight a diverse array of leaders and journeys, so that our listeners learn from relatable and compelling examples of what it means to lead and live well.

Scott: Welcome to the Lead and Live Well podcast. My name is Scott Knox and I'm joined by my co-host Erin Cox.

Hi Erin.

Erin: Hey Scotty!

Scott: It's great to see you. Here on the Lead and Live Well podcast, we highlight the career journeys of leaders in the social impact sector. We explore a variety of pathways to leadership so our listeners can carve their own path forward, perhaps borrowing from the advice, experiences, and perspectives shared by our guests. We hope that you, our listeners, leave this conversation feeling more connected, enlightened, and inspired to lead and live well. Today I'm so excited we are with Javier Juarez, the executive Director of the Latino Equity Fund at the Boston Foundation, and proud to say one of my colleagues and one of the drivers of my workplace satisfaction.

Welcome Javier.

Javier: Thank you, Scott.

Scott: Under Javier's leadership, the Latino Equity Fund has supported more than 80 organizations and invested over $1.8 million in grants and sponsorships while doubling the fund's endowment. He has been recognized for his impact in leadership as a Boston Business Journal 40 Under 40 Honoree, an ALX 100 Honoree by we are ALX and a recipient of the Boston Chamber Foundation's 10 Outstanding Young Leaders Award.

His leadership is grounded in resilience, community power, and a deep commitment to building a more equitable future for the Commonwealth. Javier, it is great to have you here.

Javier: Thank you for having me. What's the saying? Long time listener. First time caller.

Erin: That's kind of you to say, Javier.

I have to say, as Scott was reading your bio, I was equal parts inspired and exhausted. So we're gonna get into all of it. You've clearly done an incredible amount of impactful work in your career, and I'm sure there's so much more to come, and I am a little bit jealous that you get to work on a daily basis with Scott.

That was one of my main motivations of creating this podcast is that he's required to spend regular time with me, I can appreciate um, what it's like to have him as a colleague and he speaks so highly of you. 

Javier: Oh my gosh. Pleasure is mine to be with Scott. Likewise highlight of our days and just collaborating together for the last three years. We were hired actually maybe a few weeks apart. And, and just always blessed to just share some space with him.

Erin: Well, it's amazing to see what you both have done with your funds and combining your powers for a greater good.

Let's kick it off by getting to know you a little bit more Javier through the lens of your strength. One of the things we love to dive into with our guests is, is things that they find themselves to be exceptionally good at and when you realized that those were your strengths. Sometimes our strengths come so naturally to us, we don't really appreciate them for what they are until we have different leadership aha moments. So share, share a little bit. Don't be humble. This is the time to, to brag. Tell us a little bit about you and your, what you're really good at.

Javier: Some, some humble brags. I don't know. It's a tough question for me. You know, I never thought that I would be good at certain things. I think it's a combination of experience and like learnings and failures that came along the way. But some folks have either commended or just acknowledged my creativity, and my resourcefulness around issues around how I do my day-to-day work.

And I think it's because of my past lived experiences working in different places, right? I, I, I don't think I had a direct path to what I do today. I'm originally from Peru. I was born in Peru. I moved to the US when I was 10 with my father. We grew up in Providence, so, maybe my creative side comes from being with incredible artists and other community leaders that were just tackling issues in a completely different way than we do across the country.

I worked in like odd jobs growing up. One of the things that we'll probably hit in this conversation is how my identity, is really intertwined with the way that I do my work. Being a first generation immigrant, being someone that was undocumented till was 23 or 24. So that experience, working I would say as a server or like as a landscaper. I was a pedicab driver at one point in Newport. Those things, I think taught me how to be resourceful, right? How to make the best of out of those situations, how to be attentive to people.

you know, as a server, I grew up serving or bartending and my aunt's peruvian restaurant in Providence. And, you know, folks are tough man, like, especially Latino folks, you know, like you can give them great service and maybe they don't tip you and you're like, Hey, like, I think I did everything. Like, are you mad at me for my service? or, or again, being a pedicab driver, right? Basically soliciting people to get on this tricycle with you in Newport at night. Getting a lot of nos and sometimes great yeses. I think those things taught me a lot about, being creative and being resourceful.

And then also after I graduated college, I wanted to do something for my community, so I started teaching English to adult learners, and this was a particular cohort of parents that had kids in the Providence Public Education system where they wanted to learn English so they know what was going on in the classroom.

So that gave me a different lens of how I was looking at community work and how I can use, my education and my experience to help this community that really needs, just support and love. I mean, Now that I'm gonna be a father in April, of course my kids' education comes to front and center as being really crucial for their development. And being unable to understand what goes in the classroom is probably incredibly, scary, right?

So I, I always think about this cohort of parents that were coming to these night classes to learn English, but to also just learn, right? Anything. History, why Rhode Island is a colony, right? The history of slavery in the United States and how that connects to the history of slavery in other countries in Latin America.

I was able to use my education. I graduated in history and American Studies, so it was this like intersectional way of teaching English that I thought landed with these folks. I think, the storytelling part has been like a, a, a, a tool that I have sharpened over the years because these incredible stories of resilience from our community were never hidden. So I have been really lucky to have been, I think embraced and supported by my community back in Providence, the Peruvian community, or even just Latinos overall, to be that storyteller now in, in the space of philanthropy. And those, I think, have become strengths of mine 

Scott: I, you know, Javier, I have to jump in just as, as a colleague who gets to, work in partnership with you, that storytelling piece that, I mean, you don't need me to to tell you this, but watching your storytelling and how that connects to one of the things I experienced about you as this effective community organizer, which lends itself way beyond, the traditional role of a community organizer to a really effective leader and a really effective fundraiser. And so much of that, I think goes to your storytelling ability. That's something like I'm watching and learning from you as a colleague.

Javier: thank you, Scott. 

Erin: Javier, as you were sharing a little bit about your journey and your strengths, you know, it it sounds like it's been like an evolution and an accumulation of different strengths that have really been shaped by the experiences that you've had personally and professionally.

So I hear themes around the creativity and resourcefulness you mentioned. The attentiveness to people, which is the key part of effective storytelling. Like being able to read an audience, read a person, and understand what might relate to them best. And there were definitely, I like to pretend like sometimes we do these wine reviews. There were notes of resilience throughout for sure.

You know, sometimes our strengths serve as, as our balconies. Like 99% of the time, they are the balconies from which we launch ourselves. And then there's that tiny percentage of time or maybe those few moments, our career when we realize like this, this strength or how I'm accessing it in this moment is actually in some way holding me back. I wonder if that has ever come up for you, and if so, what you, what you did about it?

Javier: Yeah, of course. Throughout my career I have learned how to be collaborative with how I approach my work. I, I'm, I'm very self-aware that the objectives that we all have are not just one one person's responsibility that you know you really need, like community buy-in, you need your colleagues buy-in, you need support from other folks. You need other folks that are experts on subject matter to guide you the right way. Maybe you need data.

So I've, I've learned that being bold or disruptive leads you to losing some battles, but if you never lose sight of like the larger objective, I think progress can still happen.

And I hope that makes sense because like storytelling on its own, especially for like divisive issues like immigration, can immediately turn people off. And, and I've been a recipient to that, right? Where I thought, sharing sharing about, my immigrant upbringing was a strength. Some people just saw it as, as you see today in a very divisive America, that it is harmful to communities, that it puts uh, communities in competitiveness with each other around progressive issues. 

So all in that to say that, I've learned a lot around connecting community partners to coordinate progress, Or even just having an open conversation of what it really means to do this work in, in a deeper level than just storytelling. Right. There's also an action part of it. So I guess when we're looking at what has held me back is understanding those dynamics with, with others that maybe don't agree with you.

Erin: That's really, really well said. And like you said, there's it, we're, we're in this for the long haul. So day to day, month to month, milestone to milestone. sometimes it is, you know, three steps forward, two steps back, but you still got that one. Still got that one.

So just based off what you share, I have a question. It strikes me that as an immigrant, as someone who has this positional power, is, is a philanthropy leader. And soon to be very exciting father, like this moment in our country must be hitting you in so many different ways.

And I, I guess I'm just curious to know how you are experiencing it and supporting yourself through it.

Javier: No, I appreciate you asking that. And I have been talking about my sort of personal journey for a long time even, even before Trump won, right? So I'm, I'm certainly comfortable talking about it. Unfortunately things have drastically changed, right? I, I'm thinking about, 20 15 to 2017, right When I did a TED talk around what it means to be a documented person, right?

For those that know it's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. It was an executive order that president Obama signed on to to order for kids like me that. We're here undocumented, and they needed some type of documentation. IE work authorization to continue contributing to their communities.

So I, I've, I've learned a lot about that piece of storytelling, but it feels different to do it now. And I think it's because I'm no longer this like, young, courageous person. I got married to my wife two years ago, so I'm still going under the the immigration process around getting fully naturalized. I now have to think about, the community that I am trying to support, I'm thinking about my family. I'm thinking about if anything happens to me how that would change our livelihoods and, and I'm not being dramatic.

I think what concerns me the most, is regardless whether you are documented or undocumented person, what's happening in our communities now, it's looking past that and it is just basically racial profiling, right? So, I think about people that have accents, people that are, are brown like me, right? So these are things that are now starting to be major red flags in our communities.

I do a lot of work in East Boston, Chelsea places where, you can walk around go see a street vendor, get some like snacks, go to the grocery store and it'll be full of life. And unfortunately due to the increased ICE sightings or enforcement, it's like a deserted town and it's really tough to, to see that especially doing this work at the Boston Foundation.

There is a role for philanthropy to play right now for sure, but there's a larger narrative change that needs to happen on how immigration really affects community, cities businesses. The separation of nuclear families, I think it's the most harmful, right? Generational harm, for our communities.

And then talking, talking about, having guardianship plans or leaving your passwords to your bank accounts or your insurance information available in case, someone gets deported in your family. It's not only incredibly sad, but that's where we are today. So we have to acknowledge those things, right? We, I, I, I don't think it's responsible for us to talk and, and, and, and work together without acknowledging the reality, especially from people that are going through it. So I appreciate that question.

And, and to summarize it, it affects me daily. It affects me daily. I've been highly vigilant on, you know, my social media presence. If you look at my social media in 2017, you would see me a lot talking about immigration. Not only through the TED Talk, I was given an opportunity to be the, graduate student speaker at Brown University, where I took the entire time to just share that there is this community here under the shadows, right?

That went I guess you can call it viral, because it was just being, it was around Trump 1, and, and folks felt really touched with the story of the sacrifices that our parents or our community has made for people to be able to do this. So I was pretty visible back then, but the, the fear of being persecuted wasn't there, like it is today.

But the last thing I would say about this and, and I can talk about it for a very long time, the, the courage people have to talk about their stories today. It's completely different than it was eight years ago. Right. So, all the work that you see around immigrant serving organizations or just people that are really pulling us along. I respect them so much 'cause they understand the risk.

Scott: Javier I can't help but, well, acknowledge and ask a question. Acknowledge, as, as a leader who's holding a lot of responsibility in your work, leading the Latino Equity Fund, your lived experience, your relationship with your wife, your growing family, I can't help but wonder about how you you blend and balance your family and your, your yourself while continuing to stay focused on the needs and the work in front of us.

Javier: I would say that we have become sort of battle hardened, right? Where we have learned so much from others that have done this work in the past where I feel comfortable, not only just sharing my story, but uplifting our community along the way. Right now folks are looking for direction.

They're looking for answers or just solutions to what's happening. And it's really tough to to, to see the effects of immigration in our communities. But I'm not the only one there. There are hundreds of people, if not thousands of people that are like, ready, to fight back.

Scott: I'll share Javier, that in my, in my role for the equality fund, I think about for the LGBTQ community, I think about maybe something similar of how much talent and, and firepower there is, especially in the nonprofit sector for, the queer and trans community. And while I, I'm aware of like the fatigue that those leaders are holding, I'm just constantly impressed by just how savvy, thoughtful, committed and caring those leaders are. And, you know, I think it's, certainly not unique to the LGBTQ community and the Latino community, but I think that some of those same attributes in communities that are under attack right now is that strength makes me feel better about the future of our country that like, that that leadership and strength will endure. But man, the fatigue on, on you and others right now I imagine is, is real.

Javier: Yeah, I, I mean, something that happened a few weeks ago um, we were just chatting with community folks in, in a like a grocery food line. People were like, yeah, things are tough. Things are difficult for our community, but our people are tougher. So they like, they had this like hunger that, like that gets me energized. Of course. Right. Hearing that. And, and that's true and I would agree with everything that person was like bringing to the table. Our people are tougher. they may be down for a second, but they're coming back up and, and that's something that this administration is underestimating for sure.

Erin: I wonder, Javier, if you have any strategies or tips that you've developed as you've emerged into a leader on these causes and amongst your community members to maintain that toughness and that resilience and that adaptability that you talked about as your strengths. Yes, they come naturally to you, but we also have to kind of fill our own tank sometimes.

So I wonder if you have any tips or strategies that you would share around how you, how you get yourself going and strong and tough?

Javier: Yeah. 

Yeah. I, I like that question. So I think I shared with you that I, I went to school for history. And I don't consider myself a historian, but I know about things that happened and why things happened and the reasoning behind those things. That gave me a little bit of comfort in uh, understanding, especially around like civil rights movement, right?

How people protested, how people advocated, the changes that had to happen before things started changing, what progress looks like. Not just in the US like across, the, the world, I come from Latin America, right? There's always been a pattern of resilience and revolution and change.

Those things have brought me comfort, that we're not the first people that have gone through oppression or this type of uh, policing or enforcement. So reading about those things and reading about, people, maybe the unsung heroes that made that happen, right? Yeah we, we know about, the MLKs and the Malcolm Xs, but I think resiliency sparks from, from joy from communication and, and this open dialogue discussion and little by little you know, this, the status quo or the, the narrative changes, right? So, uh, going back to looking back at history, the things that have given me comfort is reading about those folks or reading about these communities progress and, and, and overcome.

Erin: In doing so, I imagine you can put the, the intensity of this moment in the context of, other, other experiences or past developments and I think I, I could see how that might, help kinda in a way spread out the understanding or help lessen the intensity a little bit and remind us like, this is a moment.

It is a moment that we will talk about, that will shape us, that will, that we will reference and we will grow and evolve from it. And like you said, if we keep toughness at the, at the forefront, hopefully it will help us get stronger.

I wanna follow up on the toughness part and because I think there's a, there's a flip side to it where you, there are times where you can only be tough for so long. And sometimes the accumulation of experiences or emotions, intensity can bring us to a place of, of burnout. and I wonder if you have experienced a, a period of, of burnout before in your career, and if so, how'd you recognize it and, and how did you work through it?

Javier: Yeah, of course. I've been working in nonprofit for a very long time now, in different capacities and in different organization sizes. I think the example that I can give you, when I actually experienced burnout, when I was like, okay, I need to, I need to really step back here was during the pandemic, and I know this may probably resonates with a lot of EDs that were, doing this work during the pandemic in, in nonprofit, I was in Providence. I was executive director of the Providence Student Union, which is a youth development organization supporting young people not only advocate for themselves for better public school systems, but for other things that support their education, whether it's transportation, food you name it.

The pandemic closed all the schools. So, students were no longer coming to our building to, share and organize. We all knew at that point that this was gonna take a big toll on their development and their education. Add that how long COVID happened for, and how it started affecting communities, especially people that were not being supported by the federal government support, Cash assistance, insurance, healthcare. People were dying around us, so I, I set it upon myself to try to get to work as early as possible and try to support some of these families that were being affected, right? Whether they were sick, whether they needed groceries, whether they needed cash assistance to, to pay their rent or their utility bills. Now it's just pulling, 12- 16 hour days to doing that and just meeting with folks outside of our really tiny office.

I was really lucky to lead an effort with the state called the, we are one fund where Rhode Island was providing cash assistance to families that did not get cash assistance from, from the federal government. And as in immigrant communities, that's the majority of them. So being able to sit, talk, literally write the check was a different type of philanthropy back then. But it was a creative way of leveraging our 501c3 status to be able to redistribute these resources to people that needed it the most.

And probably in, in like a month and a half in. I think the, the toll really hit me because, we were doing everything that we can. Me and my now wife, then we were delivering groceries. We were redistributing these resources. We were meeting with people one-on-one. We were also trying to be safe ourselves.

The pandemic took such a big hit on our community that, I, I, I started beginning to, to lose a little bit of hope. Maybe, these 16 hour days were not going to change what was happening. so I had to step back and, and reassess the strategy of how we were trying to do community response.

Luckily, I had a really strong board of directors that supported me through that. Also, my community supported me through that. And, my role just became of uplifting the stories to the state so they can continue funding this program, fundraising to get more money out and doing the best that I could to meet as many people as I can.

I think for the first time in a very long time, I felt the burnout in a way that I've never experienced it before and I've worked pretty, like labor intensive jobs. And, and I'm not just saying that I hope some people can relate whether it's, serving on the weekends, multiple days during, Valentine's Day or pedicabbing, around the hills of Newport for 16 hours just to make some, some money.

This was like a mental strain that I've never experienced before. And, my wife was like, let's, let's take some time off.

Let's go to New Hampshire. Let's go to like the White Mountains or something. Let's just unplug for a minute. 'Cause she saw that, I think she saw that in me. 'cause I'm, I'm usually not, vocal when I, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm experiencing stress, so, shout out to her for, digging me out of that.

Erin: Well, and it sounds like it was an emotional toll too. You had all all three going. The, the, the mental gymnastics you were doing around how to best lead and what strategies to employ. And the constant pivot that the pandemic put us in, plus the physical toll of those long days in community and trying to balance that with maintaining your safety.

Plus, I would imagine the emotional toll of just seeing how devastating that whole period was for people on so many levels. I feel like that's a, that's a, that's a fair set of circumstances to yield burnout. Yeah.

Javier: Yeah. So, you know, when Scott sees me running around the office and he, he checks in on me. I'm like, no, this is where I wanna be. Like, that is like the most extreme burnout. What we do now is completely different. And I'm happy to do it.

Erin: So a trip to the White Mountains and a wise woman helping you care for yourself. That's what got you through it.

Javier: Yeah. Yeah. And, and honestly um, just the conversation of, I guess the acknowledgement of like accepting that I was being challenged in a new way that I really couldn't fix it. And that came from the conversation with my wife, right? Like. Acknowledging that. 'cause I think I was also like very stubborn to not accept it as many community leaders do.

But this was something that was far above what, what we were capable of at that point. But I'm really proud of what happened during that time. It was, the most stressful time, but it's also like the most appreciative time for my own career growth and even my own leadership.

The things that our people are capable of and, and the ideas and the creativity that sparked. I think we can learn a lot from what we did back then, and it, it wasn't that long ago, but folks are like, oh yeah, we used to do that in during the pandemic. Why don't we do it again? Right? Like, snap response, cash assistance. Different ways of leveraging philanthropy to support people.

So I'm happy again, battle hardened, to bring those battle stories to today's world.

Scott: Javier, Erin and I could talk to you for hours. We wanna be respectful of your time. We have one more question for you before we wrap up.

Javier: Okay.

Scott: What's the best advice you've ever received?

Javier: I love this question because one of my mentors told me this, and also I heard Barack Obama say it in a podcast: just learn how to do something well. And this is for like specifically young people.

That sort of takes on this approach that you are dependable and that you are resourceful and savvy if someone gives you a responsibility to do something. For me it was understanding that maybe I was a support in a, in a support role right in, in. Jobs. My, my job was to support this executive director and do everything that I could to get this person ready and prep for meetings or whatever, but also being able to execute those things on your own, right.

So the best advice I received was learn how to do something well and be proud of it. For me, with all the experiences about, my career path. I feel like I've learned many things from my former bosses or managers. Things that I take on even till this day that are really good pieces of advice or things that were not good pieces of advice, right?

Like things to not to do. Things that are problematic and maybe a little toxic in the workplace, right? So, for me. Speaking about the work that we do today, right? , I think understanding that some of these systems are not made for people like you or me to succeed. So, I, I learned this at Brown in a very early class, right?

Like just being in this space was disrupting this whole classroom. I feel like I've taken that lesson to wherever I go. because I'm usually either the younger person or the only Latino person or the only, first generation immigrant in, these rooms, especially in philanthropy. So I always think about, that advice that I received just, be confident in, in, in doing one thing well. And for me right now it's organizing philanthropy and being a community advocate and a storyteller to lift these stories front and center, And I hope that I'm dependable to do that, So, so I guess to all the young people listening, Learn to be dependable and learn to do something well.

Scott: I love that, Javier. This has been such a great hour. Thank you for talking with Erin and I. How can people get in touch with you, A and B, how can they learn more about the Latino Equity Fund? 

Javier: Pleasure's been all mine., thank you. Thank you for the great questions and, and guiding us through the discussion. Definitely a lot to unpack, right? We hit identity, we hit things that we learned, we hit challenges. I'm usually pretty open and happy to check in with folks. I know I'm not the only one that's dealing with this. Uh, Usually LinkedIn has become a really good hub for people to connect and check in and we can share, networking events. So just look me up on LinkedIn. I'm, I'm usually there.

For the Latino Equity Fund please follow our work right, tbf.org/lef. Incredible work happening. I think for the community, our mission is simple. or at least our philosophy is pretty simple that investment to Latino serving organizations will be transformational for the state. And that's something that we know from data demographic changes where folks live today. We're talking about almost 15% of the population being affected by many of the things happening around.

So if you're interested in that type of work or the intersection of our work I'm more than happy to to tell you more about it. So thank you.

Erin: Javier, could we put the link to your TED Talk that you referenced in our show notes as well? It's

Javier: Sure.

Erin: still out there in circulation. And the speech you gave at Brown? Yeah.

Javier: Yeah. That was a really cool moment I'm glad that it's, I can like, send you a link and you can look at it. This was like crazy. We, we spoke from the heart. I think it resonated with some folks. It was much larger than immigration. It was just more of like a evolution of Rhode Islanders getting into these spaces, right? So we can talk about that over drinks another time.

Erin: Well, not only to, for folks who are eager to continue the conversation, albeit one way by watching you on video, but also I think you did this throughout our conversation, just really embodying what it means to be a powerful storyteller and having people see different examples of that.

And I will say, I've done some work in Providence and Rhode Island, and I have to start out every time when I work with someone there, I say, no, I'm not from Rhode Island and I'm not from Providence, but I, I still believe in everything you're doing and I'm gonna help you. I know there's a lot of pride there.

Javier: Tough city. Tough city, tough city. But Boston is, it is as tough, if not tougher. Right. So, I'm really happy to be doing this work that I learned to do in Rhode Island now in Massachusetts, and I think we're leading the way New England around philanthropy. Right. So, we learned a lot from all these things and I'm, I'm, I'm glad have had this conversation with you both today.

Erin: Take care. 

Scott: All right. See you guys.