worked with him to establish a nonprofit organization to help Latino boys maintain interest in pursuing an undergraduate degree,” says Dr. David Campos, associate professor in the Dreeben School of Education and also UIW’s 2010-11 Moody professor. “I have found that Robert is a visionary who leads with passion. More importantly, he doesn’t forget his roots and seeks ways to give back to the San Antonio community.” The San Antonio native joined RNDC, the second largest distributor of wine and spirits in the United States, in 2001 as a market development manager. From there, Olivares worked his way up to director of Hispanic marketing and then to vice president of Hispanic marketing before being promoted in 2007 to his current position. “Multicultural marketing is a buzz word,” Olivares explains. “It’s going out and doing target marketing and creating specific programs to better penetrate Hispanic, black and Asian markets. We’ve really been able to increase our customer base.” His passion for increasing opportunities for higher education, as well as the mentoring he received from Campos, led him to co-found the Texas Latino Education Advancement Pipeline (TXLEAP) that works with seventh and eighth grade boys at risk of dropping out of school. “We want to expose them to successful professionals to inspire them to start thinking about college and educate their parents about options of going to college through scholarships, grants and loans,” he says. In addition to his job with RNDC, Olivares teaches a marketing management course at UIW, and now his students and peers address him as “Dr.” In January, he defended his dissertation, “Exploring Variables Predictive of Bachelor Degree Completion Among Hispanics: A Focus on Persistence, Perseverance and Prosperity,” which explores the cultural paradigm of Hispanics and why they often don’t graduate from college. A highlight was having his parents, Macario and Fidelia, attend his dissertation defense. Natives of Coahuila, Mexico, they came to San Antonio in the late ’60s with $10 in their pocket in search of a better life. His dad found work in construction; his mom was employed at a tortilla factory. “I never knew we were poor until I saw my friends, who were worse off than I was. It wasn’t until I went to college that I had my own room – and with central air. I thought that was pretty cool,” he says with a laugh. Olivares is also involved with the Hispanic Marketing Institute at UIW, one of the first in the nation devoted to educating students in this field, according to institute director Dr. Albert Rubio. Republic National Distributing Co. donated $500,000 to support the program. “I drove the campaign to secure these funds,” Olivares says, adding that he serves on the advisory board. “I was involved in the development of the curriculum of the program, and I plan to teach in the program in the near future.” The institute will provide education for students interested in entering the Hispanic marketing industry, train profes-
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Arla J. Johnson If Arla J. Johnson ’03 MAA, ’08 Ph.D. didn’t have her hands full as the executive administrative assistant to the vice president of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), AFL-CIO, the 39-year-old Kansas native would probably teach full time. She enjoys being in the classroom, co-teaching a qualitative research methods course at UIW with Sr. Dorothy Ettling, CCVI, Ph.D., in the Dreeben School of Education. “I love watching students and seeing the lights go on,” Johnson says. “Even as a teacher, you always learn something new even though you know the subject matter.” At AFGE, she oversees fiduciary management for more than 150 union locals throughout Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Mississippi and Panama. Johnson, who has a Ph.D. in philosophy education with a concentration in organizational development from UIW, is the president-elect of Alpha Kappa Alpha, an international service organization established in 1908 as the first sorority founded by African American women. She also is president of the Roosevelt Trust that provides safe and affordable living on San Antonio’s Houston Street for low-income seniors. Being named one of San Antonio Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Rising Stars was quite an honor, she says. “It was really motivating to see other young people living life to the fullest and in a way that can affect many people.”
THE WORD | SPRING 2011
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