Culture and diversity are passions of Guadalupe Corona. As the director of the United Front Multicultural Center at the University of San Diego, her time is spent overseeing the center in its contribution to the creation of a campus environment that respects and supports diversity and pluralism.

Along with being in her last year studying for a doctorate in leadership studies at USD, Corona chairs the National Latina/Latino Caucus, is a trustee for the Centro Cultural de la Raza, is on the board of the House of Hospitality in Balboa Park, is a member of former police Chief David Bejarano’s Advisory Council, MANA and is former president of the Graduate Education Student Association.

Corona, 32, balances all this while raising her 9-year-old son, Endo Javier Rosales. She has received recognition from many organizations, including the Multigritos Award from the cultural center and the Saturn Award for team efforts on a college project.

Now politics has entered the picture, with Corona running for a seat on San Diego City School District board in District D. She spent six weeks this summer teaching a Latino studies class in Guadalajara, her first classroom experience. “I want to explore that more,” she says of teaching.

How does she do it all? Corona jokingly says she doesn’t sleep.

Her son and the Multicultural Center are her greatest accomplishments. She is proud to be one of the founders of the United Front Multicultural Center. A first-generation Chicana, Corona is the oldest of four and the first to go to college. She is the second in her generation to receive a bachelor’s degree; hers is in Mexican-American studies with a minor in women’s studies. In addition, she is the first of about 40 cousins to receive a master’s degree.

— Maria L. Kirkpatrick