During National Hispanic Heritage Month, Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, we highlight Davis Street's CEO, Rose Padilla Johnson. Rose is the third child of Mexican emigrants who lived and worked in Oakland, Ca. From founding the first Latino Social Club in her first year at Pacific High School to joining Davis Street in 1991, she has been a strong advocate for those without a voice.

Rose launched her career assisting immigrants, promoting social equity for the underserved Hispanic community and all underserved communities from diverse backgrounds. She also served as president of the San Leandro Rotary Club. She became involved with the Faces of Hope project, which supplies cleft lip and palate surgery to individuals in rural Guatemala. Rose served as President of CAPPA, leading a statewide children’s advocacy association for nearly 10 years. She was the first Latina CEO of a non-profit to become President of the San Leandro of Commerce.

With Rose's leadership as CEO of Davis Street since 1991, she has guided Davis Street to becoming the key leader in providing safety-net services to the underserved working poor minority population. Davis Street provides easily accessible trilingual resources across all safety-net programs and a diverse staff, with 53% of Davis Street's employees bilingual Spanish and English speakers to better assist the populations we serve.

Please join us in honoring Hispanic Heritage month through this year's theme of Building Prosperous and Healthy Communities, recognized in Davis Street's key objective to help others help themselves.