Ana Baiz-Torres Named Director of Development for Diversity Initiatives

Juli Larsen| Oct. 4, 2010

Ana Baiz-Torres has been named director of Development for Diversity Initiatives at UC San Diego. Through her past fundraising efforts, Baiz-Torres has raised more than $78 million locally and across the state, resulting in award-winning community revitalization projects that provide economic self-sufficiency to thousands of children, families, seniors, farm workers and disabled individuals. For more than 15 years, she has overseen the development of more than 1,200 units of affordable housing; a charter school, pre-school and day care centers; infrastructure improvements; and community facilities in low-income and distressed communities. She not only brings her depth of experience in working with traditional donors, but understands the complexity and urgency needed to leverage private support for optimal program implementation and impact.

As director of Development for Diversity Initiatives, her initial responsibilities include securing private philanthropic support for initiatives that are part of the UC San Diego Administrative Commitments to Improve Campus Climate (http://campusclimate.ucsd.edu/commitments.php). These include philanthropic efforts to support student-led yield activities; funding academic minors in Chicano and African American studies; as well as supporting Summer Bridge, a nationally recognized transition program designed to acclimate high achieving students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds – many of whom will be the first in their families to attend college – to university academic, social and cultural life.

 “It is an exciting time to be at the university. I am honored to be a part of the UC San Diego team,” said Baiz-Torres. “Our leadership has made a whole-hearted and strong commitment to transform our campus environment to ensure excellence in education by valuing diversity at all levels. I am thrilled to be working directly with wonderful donors who want to be part this profound institutional change as UC San Diego enters our next 50 years.”

In addition to Baiz-Torres’ creative approach at utilizing her analysis, planning and philanthropic expertise, her dynamism and foresight have served her well in founding the California Coalition for Rural Housing Statewide Diversity Internship Program, a statewide initiative that is currently in its 13th year of operation and now expanded to the state of Washington. This yearlong paid fellowship program provides students of low-income backgrounds the opportunity to gain professional hands-on skills in project management

Baiz-Torres received a B.A. in Social Sciences from UC Berkeley, is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow from the School of Public Policy and International Affairs at Princeton, and earned a Masters degree in Urban Planning from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.