Fostering leadership among Latinos: Mickey Ibarra

Latino Leaders: The National Magazine of the Successful American Latino, Feb-March, 2007 by Mariana Gutierrez

President Mickey Ibarra & Associates

As Mickey Ibarra explains with a joy as irrepressible as his resolve, the road "From the School House to the White House", as he puts it, was the right one to follow. "My story starts with the dreams of my father, Francisco Nicolas Santiago Ibarra" he says proudly, "who came to this country from Oaxaca Mexico in 1945 as a "Bracero", and who later worked at the Kennecott Copper mine outside of Salt Lake City, where he met my mother and where my younger brother David and I were born.

"They were very young, my mother was only 16 when she had me, so in the end it didn't work out and they decided to divorce when I was only 2 years old." Mickey's mother decided to relinquish the care of the two boys to the State of Utah to provide better opportunities for them while Francisco was serving in the Army.

For the next 13 years, the Ibarra brothers were raised as foster children, but were kept together, a condition that the parents had firmly insisted on. The memories of those days are bittersweet: "Foster care was challenging and Utah was predominantly an Anglo white society, so we experienced discrimination. At the same time, we were very fortunate to have good people step in at just the right time to help two young boys find their way. I am especially grateful to Cecile and Ila Smith, the foster family that we lived the longest with, and who instilled in us solid values, like the importance of education and hard work, and of surrounding yourself with good people. They were a wonderful influence in our lives."

Years later, after getting reunited with his father, Mickey enrolled at Brigham Young University, where he received a bachelor's degree in Political Science. He then became interested in education and spent five years teaching, including at an alternative school for troubled teens in Spanish Fork, Utah. "I had a strong desire to help young people understand how important an education is to their future success and to help students that were struggling in school. "So many kids are left behind in our

large public high schools, and I wanted to concentrate on their needs and help them achieve a more successful life." Mickey then pursued a master's degree in Education from the University of Utah, but by then he was on another mission. Understanding the bigger picture, he decided to educate teachers on the importance of getting involved in politics, campaigns and elections, and he started volunteering for the National Education Association. He was later elected an appointed official, a move that paved his road to the White House.

"My work at the NEA brought me to Washington, where I started as a Political Education Specialist and then became the manager of our political affairs program, which put me in touch with then governor Bill Clinton, in 1991. I became very familiar with the president and at his request I took a leave of absence to work in the Clinton-Gore reelection campaign, where I was the highest ranking Latino". After a successful reelection, which Mickey is quick to point was not an easy feat--"People forget that before Clinton, the last democrat to be reelected to the White House was Franklin Roosevelt, so it was a huge accomplishment"--he was appointed Director of Intergovernmental Affairs.

His time in the White House, he says, was an unforgettable experience. "Bill Clinton is a very effective communicator, he has the ability to make sense of very complicated issues. When he speaks to people he reaches to their hopes and aspirations, and that is very compelling. I feel he is a very positive force for change, as opposed to so much negativity and cynicism that surrounds us in Washington. When Clinton came into office, he made three promises: to keep the American dream alive for anyone who worked hard and played by the rules, to keep our country a force for peace and prosperity around the world, and to keep this country together, rather than bring it apart. I think he kept those promises, and that is why it was such an honor to work with him and why I stayed until the very end."

When the Bush administration took over in 2001, Mickey left the White House, and soon found himself in uncharted territory. "I decided to do something I had never done before, and that was to try to reach success in the private sector by building my own business. It was challenging, because I was not used to asking people for an opportunity to work for them, work had always found me, so I didn't know if I could do it."

Today, Mickey Ibarra and Associates provides an array of services, from Hispanic Outreach to those corporations who wish to establish positive relations with the Latino Community, to Washington advocacy and intergovernmental support, where his experience and contacts prove invaluable to clients such as Pfizer, Wal-Mart or Verizon. "I believe that the potential growth of my business is only limited by my own imagination," he says with an assurance that can only leave us to guess how far he is yet to go.