Lea Ybarra

Dr. Lea Ybarra has a doctorate in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been a professor and administrator for over 30 years. She was professor and chair of the CSUF Chicano Studies Department, research fellow at the University of Michigan and a scholar-in residence at Harvard. Recently, she retired as executive director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (CTY), which identifies and provides academic programs to highly gifted students. Ybarra is the recipient of numerous awards for her teaching, research and community service activities, including: Johns Hopkins’ Diversity Leadership Award, the top 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the U.S. and Maryland’s Top 100 Women. She has also assumed a range of services roles, such as: the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on Exceptional Children in Overseas School, the Johns Hopkins’ Council on K-12 Education and the Governor of Maryland’s Commission on Hispanic Affairs. Throughout her work, Ybarra has never forgotten her commitment to community, something she attributes to her parents who, despite suffering segregation and lack of access to education, continued to envision a world beyond daily survival for their children.