Noé Ortiz Senior Manager, Program Operations Excelencia in Education Email nortiz@EdExcelencia.org Current Position: As the Senior Manager, Program Operations, Noé supports program efforts by coordinating the use of tools implemented by Excelencia’s program teams. He is responsible for the development and maintenance of reference manuals and training materials for users. Noé supports the management of user issues, vendor outreach, and data management for the software that supports program efforts.Past Experiences:Noé has over 25 years of experience in the field of financial aid and college preparation spanning every segment of higher education (four-year private/public institutions as well as community colleges) and educational consulting. Prior to joining Excelencia, his focus was on process improvement of higher education systems to ensure they work for students. As an advocate for access to higher education for low-income, underrepresented students, his passion was to demystify the college enrollment process through outreach efforts and by partnering with schools and community organizations.Why are you bringing your talent to Excelencia?I am a firm believer that education changes lives and future generations. I also believe that there are more talented students waiting to be discovered and nurtured, particularly in the Latino community, than are readily recognized by institutions. Many have been ready to do the work to serve these students. Excelencia is the change agent that is tapping into this energy to transform institutions to do this work.How would you describe working at Excelencia? I love working at Excelencia because no matter how different our individual responsibilities may be, we are a team of highly talented and motivated individuals working towards one same common cause, to accelerate Latino student success. To a person, this is what drives us. It is refreshing to work for an organization where you don’t have to worry about convincing colleagues to support your efforts.