Albert Garcia, president of the Pittsburgh chapter of The Association of Latino Professionals for America.

By Juliana Morello, Pittsburgh Latino Magazine

The Association of Latino Professionals for America, otherwise known as ALPFA, works to uplift Latinos in multiple ways, including by providing opportunities and events for networking, professional development, and community engagement.

Founded in 1972, ALPFA was the first national Latino professional association in the United States. Today, it’s the largest Latino nonprofit in the U.S., in the top 1% of nonprofits in terms of overall size. It works to “empower and develop Latino men and women as leaders of character for the nation, in every sector of the global economy.”

The Pittsburgh chapter, which was founded in 2008, is headed by president Albert Garcia. According to Garcia, ALPFA’s goal is to develop Latino professionals, and build leaders from within the community. The chapter is currently working on a “rebrand” under Garcia’s leadership.

“We’ve been really trying to, in a sense, rebrand, because historically [ALPFA] has been very focused on finance and accounting, and that’s how it started as an organization,” says Garcia. “And so a big part of the work that we do is really trying to connect with as many people as possible, and let them know that they have resources, and a community, and a family here.”

Originally from York, Pennsylvania, Garcia has family in Puerto Rico and New York. He has been involved with the ALPFA Pittsburgh chapter since 2020, starting as director of marketing, and transitioning  to executive vice president of operations in 2021. He became president in 2022, a difficult time for the organization after the chapter “went dormant” following the COVID-19 pandemic. Within this dormancy, many people left the organization and became disengaged. It then became Garcia’s responsibility to rebuild the board and ensure that ALPFA was still able to partner with other organizations, such as the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Area Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Though ALPFA and the PMAHCC work to achieve similar goals relating to uplifting the Latino community, they differ in a few key ways.

“We partner quite a bit with them, but we differ mainly because the Hispanic Chamber does a lot of work for small businesses and helping business-owners,” says Garcia. “I would say ALPFA is more focused on the individual —getting them internships, jobs, you know, even opportunities to join our board, join a committee.”

Throughout COVID, ALPFA continued to hold virtual programming options, which Garcia says still garnered around 300 virtual attendees. One such virtual option was a mentoring program, sponsored by BNY Mellon, for students of Ohio State University, Cleveland State University, and Penn State University. Despite the large numbers of attendees, Garcia says it was tricky for ALPFA to find its footing and transition back to in-person events, especially considering the reorganization.

“It took a year, I would say, for us to really find our groove. I think the reason was mainly getting our board comfortable within their positions, and getting everybody on the same page,” says Garcia. “All roles on the board have their own responsibility, and, as president, I have my hands in everything.”

Garcia says that, although the Latino population in Pittsburgh is one of the fastest-growing, it can sometimes be difficult for Latinos to find that community. This is where ALPFA’s partnerships and events, which occur throughout the year, come into play.

Most recently, ALPFA Pittsburgh held a Latin American Career Conference on Wednesday, July 24. The event, which was held in the University of Pittsburgh’s Mervis Hall, included a career fair with around 20 partners from different industries, in addition to various workshops designed to increase success in searching for a job.

Garcia says his favorite event he’s attended that ALPFA has put on was the Women of ALPFA panel discussion in May. The panel had 25 to 30 attendees, and focused primarily on empowering Latinas of Pittsburgh.

“It was the most powerful event that I’ve been a part of, that our chapter has put together,” says Garcia.”

ALPFA provides resources for both students and professionals. Garcia says it’s been nice, expanding more toward resources for students, because ALPFA used to be more geared toward professionals.

“We try our best to provide as many opportunities, workshops, and resources as we can,” says Garcia. “We’ve never had a student chapter in a university in the city, and now we have two, at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. There are over 125 student chapters across the U.S., and so it’s nice to finally get a couple here locally.”

As positions on the ALPFA board are purely voluntary, Garcia works full-time as the director of development and corporate partnerships for the Neighborhood Learning Alliance in Garfield, Pennsylvania. The NLA is a nonprofit organization that works to improve education and opportunities for lower-income families in Allegheny County, through partnerships with the community and various organizations. It offers youth programming for students from kindergarten through high school.

Garcia’s background is in health and wellness, as he has obtained a master’s degree in wellness and human performance, and has previously worked to manage the employee wellness program for the city of Pittsburgh as the head wellness guru. Though, he says his passion is for connecting people, and helping them grow as leaders — which comes in handy as president of ALPFA.

“Building relationships and building partnerships is a strength of mine,” says Garcia. “Everyone has their strengths. I really like to lead people and help them grow.”

Juliana Morello is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and one of 10 Pittsburgh Media Partnership summer interns. Juliana is interning with Pittsburgh Latino Magazine.