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Garcia came to Western in 2012 to lead the Business Connection. She is also a co-founder and mentor of BroncoConnect, a student-led marketing agency allowing students to gain work experience with small businesses and nonprofits.

Prior to joining the University, she worked for more than 20 years as an advertising and marketing executive in major markets such as New York, Chicago and Dallas, working with clients from Kellogg’s to Nickelodeon.

She has a bachelor's degree in communication from the University of Â鶹´«Ã½Ó¦Óà as well as a master's in advertising from the University of Texas-Austin. Garcia is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in higher education leadership at Western. Her dissertation focuses on Latina leaders at community colleges.

"Lifting up the voices of the Latinx community and providing opportunities for growth and leadership is something that's very close to my heart," says Garcia, who is a member of the Latinx Employee Association as well as co-founder and executive board member for ELLAS, a Latina leadership group in Kalamazoo.

She is also an active leader on campus, serving on steering committees for Western's Center for Inclusion and the University's Strategic Plan, as well as a leader in the community, working as a convener for the WMU and Kalamazoo Literacy Council Advisory Board, organizer and moderator of the Adult Literacy Research and Training Symposium and former governing board member for the Council for the Study of Community Colleges.