Gloria Mengual

Program Officer and Diversity & Inclusion Officer

Gloria Francesca Mengual began her work at Everyday Democracy as a freelance writer in March and was hired as program director in June. She works with communities to identify challenges, analyze their contributing factors and potential causes and develop strategies to implement solutions. She also assists communities in developing large-scale, diverse dialogues which include all residents’ voices. She helps communities to assess and analyze socio-political, economic, racial, religious and/or other tensions that impact the community. Gloria shares her subject matter expertise in community organizing, facilitation, racial equity and action team dynamics via trainings and coaching of community coalitions. She works to advance Everyday Democracy learning by documenting her field work, analyzing trends and innovations, and sharing lessons.  As the organization’s Equity Officer, she works to increase staff and community members’ understanding and knowledge of how racism and structural inequities affect the issues being addressed.

Prior to working at Everyday Democracy, Gloria provided marketing/media relations/writing services to various non-profit organizations in the health care and social services arenas during the past 20 years. She also has covered events related to the Hispanic community as a correspondent for The Hartford Courant. Gloria has made presentations about the role of communications campaigns in the advocacy process to students at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work and the University of Hartford.

Gloria earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism, magna cum laude, from the University of Bridgeport and has completed some graduate work at Wesleyan University. She completed a Fellowship at the Connecticut Health Foundation and is a graduate of Leadership Greater Hartford. She served for two years as a state commissioner for the State of Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities and also served on the Board of the West Hartford Initiative on Racial & Ethnic Diversity for two years.