When Rose Amador took over as the director of San Jose nonprofit ConXión to Community 43 years ago, it was a flailing organization on the brink of shutting down.
Through Amador’s grit and determination, the organization survived budget deficits, a housing market crash, the pandemic and current grant cuts. Her steady hand helped the nonprofit pivot through each wave of change to become a perennial cornerstone for immigrants and at-risk youth.
“We’re always changing to the needs of the community,” Amador told San José Spotlight.
When ConXión began nearly 50 years ago, it was called Center for Training and Careers. It offered educational programs and job opportunities for the disenfranchised, including immigrants and formerly incarcerated people. Amador expanded the day worker center by installing showers and laundry facilities for those looking to be connected to contractors for temporary work.
After seeing a need for at-risk students to receive guidance, ConXión began after-school mentoring programs to schools in East San Jose — Overfelt and Yerba Buena high schools and Bridges Academy.
Now after four-plus decades, Amador has passed the baton to her successor Lori Ramos-Chavez, who joined the organization nearly 30 years ago as development director and was promoted to chief operating officer.
“(Amador) was my mentor coming in… she allowed me to grow,” Ramos-Chavez told San José Spotlight. “She’s very determined. When she sets her mind on something, she gets it done, she gets it accomplished.”
Early advocacy
Amador and her family moved to Santa Clara from Pennsylvania when she was 12 years old. Her father Monico C. Amador, a community advocate and World War II veteran, started organizations and helped Hispanic and Chicano candidates on the campaign trail.
From a young age, Rose Amador accompanied her family to community functions. When she was a teenager, her father drove the family to Delano to meet labor leader Cesar Chavez. She didn’t realize his importance at the time, since it was the early stages of the labor movement. But she understood her roots.
Amador surrounded herself with opportunities for civic engagement. In college, she became involved with MECHA, or Chicano Student Movement of Aztlán, a group focused on Chicano unity and empowerment. After getting her associate degree in Chicano studies at De Anza College, she earned a degree in business administration from St. Mary’s College of California.
She went on to serve as chairperson for the San Jose Chicano Employment Committee, which filed lawsuits against the city to get more Chicano police and firefighters hired. She was also a member of the American G.I. Forum, founded in 1948, to combat discrimination against Latino veterans.
Throughout the decades Amador evolved in an environment where women were not considered for top positions. She took on leadership roles during a time when women in management were rare, often mistaken as a secretary.
“My dad was always like, ‘You could do this, you could do that,’” Amador said. “I always had that attitude.”
When Amador became director of ConXión, she was in her 30s and had never before written a grant proposal. But her confidence gave Amador the ability to do anything. She credits that mindset to her father who, while only having a seventh grade education, became a regional director for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Her confidence enabled her to make radical changes. Amador knew ConXión needed a staffing overhaul, so she hired women to fill roles. She mentored and brought them into positions of leadership, including Ramos-Chavez.
“In those days, it was really difficult for women,” Amador said. “It’s because we always had to speak up to be heard over the guys … one of the things I did was get rid of the good-old-boy system.”
In 2014, Amador was recognized as a woman of influence by Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Alette Lundeberg, retired director of CalWORKS, has known Amador for decades and worked alongside her to train the underemployed and to uplift people out of poverty.
“I’m blown away that she stayed so long. That’s a really long time to be in the battle,” Lundeberg told San José Spotlight. “I think her endurance is because she’s driven by that true belief in her bones for social and economic justice.”
While Amador is retiring, her work in the community isn’t over. She still intends to be involved with La Raza Roundtable, a group she co-founded, to bring change to the juvenile justice system, child care and more. Her successor also wants to strengthen youth programs that Amador started.
Amador said she’s ready to step down and allow new ideas to be brought to the table.
“I’m hoping it will grow in ways I haven’t thought of,” Amador said. “It’s time for a younger person to take over. It needs new blood.”
Story updated Sunday, Oct. 12 at 9:40 a.m. Original story published Oct. 11 at 8:30 a.m.
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.