Lindsey Navarro

Lindsey Navarro is the founder and Executive Director of El Centro Inc., a not for profit providing financial literacy and business training to the Latino community in south Louisiana. In its first 6 months of operation El Centro served nearly 1000 individuals. Prior to launching the organization, Navarro spent 7 years working with LiftFund, formerly known as Accion Louisiana, where she was hired as the first bilingual loan officer outside of Texas. As Business Development Officer, she was responsible for the development, cultivation and growth of business lending for LiftFund in the state of Louisiana. She helped to deploy more than $1.2 million in microloans to Latino entrepreneurs and provided one-on-one technical assistance to more than 500 entrepreneurs across Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, and Tennessee.

Ms.  Navarro holds an MBA from Loyola University of New Orleans and a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from St. Peters University. She serves as Co-Chair of the board for the Committee for a Better New Orleans, Vice-President of the board for Fund 17, Co-Chair of the board for the Crescent City Community Land Trust. Served as the Professional Development Chair for the Hispanic Young Professionals of Louisiana in 2018, a committee of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Louisiana. In 2018 she was featured as “Heroe Local” or Local Hero by Telemundo 42. She is a 2018 Bryan Bell Metropolitan Leadership Forum Alumnus, 2017 Nexus City Fellow, 2017 New Orleans Civic Leader Academy Fellow, 2015 NALCAB (National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders) Colegio Community Economic Development Fellow, and in 2014 she received the Excelencia Award for Community Service – Business from the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Louisiana.