Be a champion of a family’s future
Leaders with Distinguished and Broad Experience
AVANCE's leadership team is distinguished by its broad and deep experience and its unsurpassed focus on AVANCE’s mission of helping families scale new heights and achieve future success.
National Office
Elida Gonzales
Chief Operations and Innovation Officer
Elida serves as Chief Operations and Innovation Officer of AVANCE. Elida joined AVANCE in 1998 and has spent most of her career in leadership roles in accounting, finance and business development. Elida is the project lead for AVANCE’s Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action, a collective impact project in the Texas Rio Grande Valley called PACES (Pathways to Alliances for Community Engagement Services). She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree from St. Mary’s University and her Master of Science in Accounting from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Teresa Granillo
Chief Executive Officer
Teresa Granillo is the Chief Executive Officer of AVANCE Inc. She previously served as Executive Director of Con Mi MADRE, a two-generation organization that supports young Latinas on the path to higher education and engages their mothers in the educational journey alongside them. In her six years as Executive Director, Granillo and her team significantly expanded the impact of Con Mi MADRE, increasing the number of mothers and daughters served, expanding programming to new sites in Austin, and establishing chapters in two additional cities. Prior to Con Mi MADRE, Granillo was a tenure-track professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Steve Hicks School of Social Work. She has an undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona, and dual Ph.D.’s from the University of Michigan.
Sonia Dominguez
As Chief Program Officer, Sonia provides leadership and strategy for programming across the AVANCE network. She holds Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Education from the University of Texas at El Paso and formerly served as the Senior Director of Learning Networks for E3 Alliance, a collective impact organization based in Austin, Texas, where she led systems-change efforts in education to improve student outcomes from cradle-to-career. Her work in education includes serving as a Public School Teacher, Instructional Coach, Mathematics Coordinator, Director of Curriculum, and Adjunct Faculty.
Angela Cardona
Angela Cardona is the Executive Assistant and Human Resource Administrator for AVANCE Inc. She has an extensive background in management; her experience includes various leadership roles across the private and public sectors. She is also passionate about her community, actively engaging in local community initiatives and serving on the board of her Neighborhood Association as Past President. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Management from Our Lady of the Lake University and Master of Public Administration degree from St. Mary’s University.