Cambio de Colores 2025

Mark your calendar for June 4-6, 2025 when we meet again, this time in St. Louis, co-hosted by SAINT LOUIS UNIVERSITY at their Il Monastero Banquet Center (3050 Olive Street).

The theme for 2025 — Vivimos Aquí — renews our call to action and commitment to learn about our neighbors and spark positive change, for we all live here together. Come join us to share and learn about research and promising practices on integration, the Latin American experience, and our ever changing communities.

We are excited to announce our first ever Cambio Storytelling Festival, sponsored by the Missouri Humanities. Keep scrolling to learn more!

Program Schedule Register Here!

Registration is open. Presenters must be registered by April 15, 2025 to ensure a spot on the program. For lodging, we negotiated a rate of $189 at the nearby Angad Arts Hotel. Please email muasevents@missouri.edu to learn more or to reserve a room. Deadline: May 18!

Full Conference Fees

$285 early bird registration – deadline extended to May 6, 2025
$340 regular registration – deadline May 30, 2025
$385 late registration – deadline June 4, 2025
$150 Student Registration

Site Visit Fees

$45 early bird registration – deadline April 30, 2025
$55 late registration – deadline June 4, 2025

Cambio Storytelling Festival Become a Sponsor Read This Year's Call for Proposals

Nestor “the Boss” Gomez was born in Guatemala and traveled to Chicago in the 1980’s. He told his first story at a Moth story slam to get over the stuttering that plagued his childhood; since then he has won close to 100 Moth Slams. Nestor has performed and conducted storytelling workshops in multiple locations around the country. He also created his own storytelling show “80 Minutes Around the World,” featuring the stories of immigrants and refugees from different parts of the world, their descendants, and allies, all this with the aim of providing a greater understanding of the realities, struggles and dreams of the migration experience.

More about Nestor "The Boss" Gomez

Gilberto Pinela is the Director of the Office of New Americans in the Office of Mayor Cara Spencer, where he helps make St. Louis a welcoming and thriving place for immigrants and refugees. A native of Puerto Rico and a first-generation college graduate, he holds a master’s degree in communications and is currently pursuing his MBA at Webster University.

Gilberto previously co-owned a landscape company serving major corporate clients and served as president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He also made history as Missouri’s first non-native Latine host of the Spanish-language community affairs show Ahora San Luis. A passionate advocate for immigrant, refugee, and LGBTQ+ communities, Gilberto serves on multiple civic boards and is a St. Louis City Commissioner. A U.S. Air Force veteran, he has been a proud resident of Tower Grove South since 2016.

Personal mantra: ¡Sí se puede!

Professor Daniel I. Morales is a scholar and theorist of immigration law known for his work challenging the legitimacy of immigration controls and highlighting the advantages of a less nationalized immigration system. His scholarship has appeared in leading law reviews, including the N.Y.U. Law Review, U.C. Irvine Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, and Wake Forest Law Review. He is a co-editor, with Professor Nick De Genova, of a forthcoming book from Duke University Press exploring the applicability of abolitionist thought to the migration context. Professor Morales began his academic career as a William H. Hastie Fellow at the University of Wisconsin Law School and subsequently clerked for both the Hon. R. Guy Cole Jr., U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, and the Hon. Joan B. Gottschall, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He practiced law at Jenner & Block LLP and Kirkland & Ellis LLP and teaches Constitutional Law, Immigration Law, and seminars on legal theory.

Socorro G. Herrera is a keynote speaker, district consultant, and trainer of trainers, as well as a professor in the College of Education and director of the Center for Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy (CIMA) at Kansas State University. Her K–12 teaching experience includes an emphasis on literacy development, and her research focuses on literacy opportunities with culturally and linguistically diverse students, reading strategies, and domestic and international teacher preparation for diversity in the classroom. Dr. Herrera has authored several books and numerous articles focusing on issues of instruction and assessment with culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Cambio de Colores is a multistate conference hosted by the Cambio Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Since 2002, Cambio de Colores has brought together researchers, social service providers, policymakers, students, and community members to exchange their experiences and research findings about our changing communities. Learn more here, in our video “recap” from 2024: