Dr. Juan Andrade, Jr.
Introduction
CO-FOUNDER & PRESIDENT
Dr. Andrade is the fourth of only six Latinos in history to be honored by both the president of the United States and the Government of Mexico. He received the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second-highest civilian award presented in the United States, for “the performance of exemplary deeds of service for the nation” and the National Ohtli Award, the highest honor presented by the government of Mexico, for distinguished service to the Mexican and Mexican American community in the United States.
Dr. Andrade has earned five degrees including a BA from Howard Payne University, an M.Ed from Antioch College, an Ed.S and Ed.D from Northern Illinois University, and a post-doctorate MA from Loyola University Chicago. He has received six honorary doctorates and been recognized as a distinguished alumnus by Howard Payne University, Northern Illinois University, and Loyola University Chicago.
Dr. Andrade has been recognized five times as one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in America, received six Lifetime Achievement Awards, inducted into the “Society of Life Models” by OMNI Youth Services, and honored for excellence and leadership by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, LULAC, MALDEF, U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, ProHispanica, MANA, National School Board Association Hispanic Caucus, NFL, Professional Bull Riders, Rainbow PUSH, American GI Forum, National Association of Farmworker Organizations, National Immigration Forum, the National Hispanic Leaders Network, and most national Hispanic publications.
Background: Past and Present
Dr. Andrade was a commentator on ABC 7 television for six years in Chicago and WGN radio and a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, the only national Latino leader regularly featured as a commentator on English language radio or television and as a columnist in a major publication. He has worked and participated in the democratization of Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Haiti, Panamá, Colombia, Paraguay, Bolivia, Guyana, and Suriname. He has also visited Israel, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Malta, France, Spain, French Guiana, and Trinidad Tobago.
As a boy, Dr. Andrade sold newspapers and worked in restaurants washing dishes, pots, and pans. As a farm worker, he picked cotton and hoed weeds in cabbage, watermelon, cantaloupe, peanut, and cotton fields. As a high school and college student, he worked in factories and meatpacking plants.
Dr. Andrade is originally from Brownwood, Texas. He is married with four children and eight grandchildren.