Carmen Cornejo

Carmen Cornejo was born in Mexico, lived in the city of Monterrey and graduated with honors from ITESM with a bachelor degree in Communications.

She worked as editor of publications for ITESM and as a professor in the same university teaching Theory of Mass Communications. 

In 1989 she started her own clothing design business.

She immigrated to the USA 1991and enrolled at the South Mountain and Mesa Community Colleges to pursue her interest in ceramics and three dimensional art.

She worked as instructor for Spanish lessons with children 3 to 5 years old with Chandler Parks and Recreation Department for 7 years.

Carmen Cornejo she has done volunteer work for St. Mary Basha, Chandler Public Library, Carl Hayden Falcon Robotics, among others.

She has been member of the board of the Chandler Education Foundation, Friends of the Chandler Public Library and is founding member of APASE (Arizona Providers of Applied Science and Engineering) organization that provides underwater robotics competition to students of all levels, and focus on underserved populations.

Currently, Carmen is member of the Board of Chicanos por la Causa, CPLC.

She is the executive director of CADENA an organization that educates the community about the passage of the DREAM Act in the USA Congress.

Carmen Cornejo collaborates with  the Arizona Republic opinion pages and blogs about immigration issues.  Her advocacy has taken her to participate on TV shows as Horizonte on  PBS, radio, and diverse newspapers as a spokesperson for immigration and education issues.

She has been invited to be on academic panels as expert on immigration and youth.

She will participate on the upcoming panel titled “Trauma and Immigration” organized by the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at ASU on October 9^th, 2010.

For more information about the DREAM Act in Arizona, visit www.dreamactaz.org