El Camino Community College District Board of Trustees Vice President John Vargas was recently elected vice president of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) executive board. Vargas was elected secretary last year to serve on the executive board of NALEO, a national nonprofit, nonpartisan leadership organization of the nation's more than 6,100 Latino elected and appointed officials. The board of directors provides national leadership on key issues that affect Latino participation in the political process. Earlier this year, Vargas attended the Transatlantic Inclusion Leaders Network's "TILN Workshop 2017" in Brussels, Belgium. The conference brought together leaders from across the U.S. and Europe to discuss excellence and inclusivity in leadership.
Vargas was elected to the El Camino Community College District Board of Trustees in 2013. He has served in public office since 2009, when he was elected to the Hawthorne School District Board of Trustees. Vargas has worked as lead administrator for numerous charter schools in Southern California and continues to support student achievement in his role as CEO of EdVantage Education Group, a newly formed nonprofit organization focused on supporting and improving charter schools through a partnership model of collaboration. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from UCLA and a master's degree in linguistics from California State University, Long Beach.