Dean's Student Advisory Group
Career Night Participant Biography
Donna Alvarado
(B.A. 1969, Spanish; M.A. 1970, Romance Languages & Literatures)
Managing Director, Aguila International
P.O. Box 266
Granville, OH 43023
(740) 587-3549
dmalva@aol.com
First job out of college: Counselor, Army Education Center, Ft. Still, Oklahoma
Donna Alvarado is the founder and Managing Director of Aguila International, a consulting firm which assists multinational corporations, government and educational institutions, and not-for-profit organizations in the areas of 21st century leadership and board governance. Her goal is to practice and foster dimensions of leadership which tap diverse cultures, enhance creativity, and contribute to high-performance organizations. Ms. Alvarado's business focus is directed in three areas: serving on corporate and public sector boards of directors; research and development of new leadership strategies; and consulting. She currently serves on four corporate boards in the fields of steel, mining equipment, and banking. In the public sector, she is vice-chair of the Governor's Board on Workforce Development, vice-chair of the Ohio Association of Community College Trustees, chair of the board of Central Ohio Technical College, vice-chair of the Ohio Commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs, and serves as a member of the Ohio Supreme Court Commission on the Future of the Ohio Courts and the Ohio Board of Regents Committee on Higher Education Funding. She also chairs the board of the Thurber House literary center in Columbus. She served as President/C E O of Quest International, a $10-$15 million multinational publishing organization that develops, markets and distributes life-skills training and curriculum products for two million youth annually in 30 countries. Prior to Quest, she was appointed by President Reagan and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Director of ACTION, the Federal Domestic Volunteer Agency. As the chief national spokesperson for volunteerism from 1985-1989, she directed the activities of nearly 500,000 Americans serving as volunteers, leading 500 employees, and managing a budget of $170 million. Her diversified experience in government includes both the executive and legislative branches where she held senior management positions: Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, U.S. Department of Defense; Counsel, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary; Staff Member, U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control. She has been elected to numerous international and domestic boards of directors and commissions in both Fortune 500 and public policy environments, where she has held diverse committee leadership positions. She co-hosts a biweekly cable television public affairs program that addresses local perspectives on politics, economic development, education, and community affairs in Licking County, Ohio. She was elected to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York in 1991. Ms. Alvarado was nationally recognized in 1994 by First Lady Hillary Clinton and VISTA magazine as one of nine Hispanic women in Fortune 500 corporate board governance. Among her numerous awards are the VISTA Magazine Corporate Achievement Award, Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, The Ohio State University Alumni Association's Ralph Davenport Mershon Award for exception leadership and service to the University, and the OSU College of Humanities 1995 Alumni Award of Distinction. With B A and M A degrees from Ohio State, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude, Ms. Alvarado pursued doctoral studies in Latin American literature at the University of Oklahoma, and completed postgraduate coursework in business at the Wharton School. She is trilingual-English, Spanish, French.
