About Me

Belen Gonzalez, CEO and Change Agent

Professional Experience:

I have dedicated my professional career to supporting organizations that work alongside communities, seeking lasting, meaningful change. After working for 17 years for a private foundation, I started the Gonzalez Consulting Group, providing a variety of consulting services to nonprofit and philanthropic organizations. My consulting work is informed by my education, the hundreds of organizations I worked with as a Program Officer and Program Director, my experience as a social worker, and my community involvement as a volunteer, board member and servant leader.

Education:

An Arizona native, I graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Work and earned a master’s degree in Social Work, with an emphasis on policy and community organizing, from the University of Chicago.  I also hold a Certificate of Nonprofit Board Consulting from  BoardSource 

Community:

I completed both the Valley Leadership program (Class XXIV) and the National Hispanic Leadership. I also participated in the Center for Creative Leadership as well as the John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Leadership Program at Harvard.  I founded the Latina Giving Circle in 2009 and continue to serve as the Membership Chair and am a current board member of the ACLU of Arizona. My prior board involvement includes Dysart Education Foundation, Phoenix One Foundation and the Arizona Grantmakers Forum.  

Awards and Recognitions: 

I have been recognized by The Phoenix Business Journal as a “Top Forty Under 40″ and received the Raul Yzaguirre Community Leadership Award from Valle del Sol. I was also recognized by the Arizona Community Foundation for my work on Latino philanthropy, and by the Jobs for America’s Graduates for above and beyond service. 

My husband, David, and I are proud parents to three boys, Devan, DJ and Gabriel and our dog “Rocky”.