Born and raised in Kansas City’s East Side communities, Mayor Quinton Lucas has served as the 55th mayor of Kansas City since 2019.

As mayor, he led Kansas City’s adoption of the nationally acclaimed zero-fare transit initiative, which maintains a fare free public transit system on bus and rail transit citywide. Mayor Lucas also championed the resurfacing of hundreds of miles of Kansas City’s streets and sidewalks, addressing a year’s long maintenance backlog in every Kansas City neighborhood.

During his tenure, Mayor Lucas has promoted Kansas City globally, bringing new conferences and businesses to the City and securing the City’s position as one of only 11 American cities to host the 2026 Soccer World Cup.

Mayor Lucas is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and obtained a law degree from Cornell University. Prior to serving as mayor, he represented the City’s Third District At-Large on the City Council where he led on issues such as the new airport terminal, economic development, and public safety.

The Kansas City Latin Jazz Orchestra is a professional performance ensemble. It integrates young graduates from our Latin Jazz Studies Program and established professionals, master musicians, and visiting artists. The artistic ethos of the orchestra is based on a commitment to passing on musical knowledge and transmitting values that enlighten and edify our communities and local artistic ecosystem. Our programming contributes to the preservation and creative advancement of the art form as well as generating a sustainable and equitable music industry in our region.

Montserrat Garibay is the Acting Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director for the Office of English Language Acquisition and Senior Advisor for Labor Relations, Office of Secretary, U.S. Department of Education. Previously she was the secretary-treasurer of the Texas American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) and served as vice president for Certified Employees with Education Austin.  Ms. Garibay was a bilingual pre-kindergarten teacher for eight years and a National Board-Certified Teacher. She is a graduate of the National Labor Leadership Initiative with the Worker Institute at Cornell University and is a University of Texas-Austin graduate with a master’s degree in Education. An activist on education and immigration issues, Garibay came to the U.S. from Mexico City as an undocumented immigrant and became a citizen 20 years later. She has been instrumental in promoting opportunities for all students, including those from immigrant families.

Dr. Amalia Daché’s groundbreaking work includes a geographic mixed-method study, “Mapping Public Housing and Urban Higher Education Accessibility and Enrollment in Philadelphia”. In this primarily ethnographic study she collaborated with a North Philadelphia Affordable Housing community that is both predominantly Puerto Rican and Afro-Latino to learn of their educational trajectories navigating the local landscape of Philadelphia. Nationally, she co-leads research on the history of slavery on U.S. college campuses and universities’ engagement in reparations, showcased through the Project SHARPE website. Internationally, her exploration of Cuban educational histories, the 1990s “balseros,” and academic freedom violations at Cuban universities paints a vivid picture of her commitment to global perspectives.