International Women’s History Month is an opportunity to recognize and honor the achievements of women past and present, while advocating for a more fair future for people of all genders. With women-dominated professions including preschool, elementary and middle school educators, therapists and social workers, it’s no wonder that 85% of Para Los Niños’ (PLN) staff identify as women. In fact, many of us sit at an intersection of identities that have experienced the struggle for equal rights. With a reverence and understanding of this history, we are proud to carry on a tradition of working to provide pathways to more opportunity for communities which have been historically underinvested in and underrepresented.

PLN also cultivates women’s leadership with expertise beyond our programming in order to ensure long-term sustainability. Para Los Niños’ Board of Directors is made up of a diverse group of individuals from several industries and varying backgrounds, but today, we want to shine a light on our incredible Vice Chair, Sandra Aispuro.

Sandra serves as Vice President Retail Operations Manager for City First Bank which champions affordable housing, nonprofit growth, and small business development in underinvested communities through strategic financing that closes capital gaps and fuels lasting impact. Latinos make up only about 11% of all employees in the Finance and Insurance industries according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Latinas make up even less. However, the statistics were not going to stop Sandra from pursuing her chosen career.

To young Sandra, a career in business equaled stability. She was raised with her three sisters by a single mother right here in Los Angeles. She knows more than most what it takes to defy the odds, and with the help of organizations similar to Para Los Niños, she excelled and built her 28-year career in the financial community banking industry.

Early in her career, she learned how fulfilling it could be to help people learn about finances. While employed in a bank on the west side, it was a challenge adjusting to working with a more monied clientele who seemed to live in a completely different reality than the one she had grown up in. However, when a struggling elderly person or people of color came through her bank finding it difficult to understand their finances, she realized that supporting them through “banking 101” filled her heart with joy. She experienced the magical combination of loving something you also happen to be really good at. “I would picture my mom walking into a bank and I thought, ‘I would want someone to help her the way I’m helping these individuals.’”

As she advanced, Sandra experienced many male dominated spaces resulting in bias that could have stunted her career had she not stayed true to her values. One day, she asked her boss for a promotion because she had consistently exceeded her job performance expectations, but instead of outlining a path forward or offering meaningful guidance, he assigned her administrative assistant tasks that provided no route to advancement. She had seen the “boys club” in banking throughout her career and realized that she would not achieve her career goals with this company. That’s when she knew whatever company she worked for had to be mission-aligned. In deciding where the next step of her journey would take her, she not only researched the board and executive leadership but also what kind of supports the institution provided the community around them.

This landed her at Broadway Federal Bank (now City First Bank) where she found mentorship in Ruth McCloud, who took Sandra under her wing and, among many projects, assigned her to a company merger project that involved legal and logistical aspects, and as one of the leads in a system conversion project. “I worked on projects I never would have worked on in any other bank. Yes, it was hard, and it was stressful, but now I know what it takes and know what to do, and I could do this again,” Sandra recounted. Ruth was a Black woman serving as a COO of a bank, who not only navigated these male-dominated spaces but also passed her wisdom along so that other women could follow in her footsteps. “She really trusted me and trusted in my abilities. I am where I am today because of her.”

At City First Bank (formerly Broadway), volunteerism was highly valued and, though she had always volunteered doing toy drives and other activities with various organizations in the past, Sandra was encouraged to seek out board and leadership opportunities. So, she attended a session at UnidosUS called Board Track where professionals are taught the basics of what it takes to join a board. Soon after that event she met Drew Furedi, President & CEO of Para Los Niños.

“Drew told me about how PLN started on Skid Row in 1980 for children whose parents were working in the garment district not far from our sites. That was a bullseye for me, because my mom was a seamstress,” said Sandra, “My mom worked in Downtown LA. My mom was a costurera going to many of those buildings, getting paid by la pieza. There were summers my mom couldn’t afford a babysitter, and we’d go to the factory with her to help here and there.” As she learned more about all of the programs PLN had to offer the community from early education to youth workforce services, she could see clearly how she, her mother and her sisters would have benefited from such programs. Now, Sandra serves as a member of PLN’s Student and Community Services Workgroup and Board Governance committee. “PLN serves families like mine. I just picture myself and my sisters in them. They could be us, and we could be them.”

When Sandra was nominated as Vice Chair of the PLN Board of Directors last year, she was extremely honored but also taken aback. “Even at my age, you still question yourself sometimes when people think of you for certain things. I think it’s years of other people, industries or systems not believing in you because you’re a woman or Latina or anything outside of the standard. I know where I come from, and I’ve seen those barriers,” said Sandra of the experience. “In my head I said, ‘they believe in you, you need to believe in you.’ The Board was 150% supportive, and it’s been a great journey, and I can’t wait for what’s to come.”

As a continuation of her passion for supporting individuals through sometimes complicated processes that prevent communities of color from fully engaging in economic mobility, Sandra served as a Credit Building and Homeownership committee member for the FDICs Alliance for Economic Inclusion. Her work in this committee led to supporting low-income families with tax preparation for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program. Separately Sandra volunteered in workshops where she provided guidance for residents to become U.S. Citizens through the NALEO Educational Fund.

For other women looking to forge their own path, Sandra provided the following consejo: “Surround yourself with likeminded women who are successful in whatever you want to do.”  Part of the reason Sandra ended up with PLN is because of a Book Club where she made friends with women who excelled in many professions which included attorneys, business leaders, and local politicians. A friend in that book club suggested the information session she attended at UnidosUS where she first learned about PLN, and we are all better for it.

Not only does Sandra’s story represent defying the odds in a world that has been historically difficult for women of color to navigate, but it also represents the hallmarks of what has supported women in continuing the fight for equality all these years later: staying true to your values, sharing wisdom with future generations, and building meaningful community connections.

Learn more about the PLN Board of Directors here.