Photos by JOE GIDDENS
Story by AMARIS ENCINAS
Maria Garcia was elected to represent District 3 through 2024 in the November Midterm.
She’s a Pima Community College alum and pursued a degree from the University of Arizona Eller College of Management.
Garcia started her career at Raytheon Missile Systems in 1974, first as an assembler and then as an electronic technician. Garcia served the remainder of her husband’s term in the Arizona State Senate in 2010, and she retired from Raytheon in 2013.
Garcia’s mission as a new member of the Governing Board is to provide transparency to taxpayers in regard to how General Review funds are spent, lowering tuition costs to students, the creation of a workforce that focuses on professional development and matters related to faculty.
Garcia wrote in a recent email that she wants to put “Community back in PIMA COMMUNITY COLLEGE!!!”
Luis Gonzales will be representing District 5 as another newly elected Governing Board member.
Gonzales is a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and has served for 30 years as part of the tribe’s educational programs.
Gonzales got his start at Pima with the Pasqua Yaqui Scholarship Department.
“I worked for the scholarship department for almost five years, in fact it was only a half-time position and I came out with six full-time employees,” said Gonzales in an October interview.
Gonzales has an associate of arts in administration of criminal justice from Mesa Community College and a bachelor of science in literacy, learning and leadership from the University of Arizona.
“I ran to help our local community members achieve their educational goals by making positive policy changes,” Gonzales said in a recent email. “In my 20-year higher education experience and working closely with PCC and the UA, I know that our students depends on these institutions to boost their job skills to move up their career ladders in order to support themselves and their families. Pima Community College needs to return to its mission of providing accessibility to an affordable and quality post-secondary education to our students.”