Executive Director, Centro Latino de Chelsea

Since July 1998, Juan has been Executive Director of Centro Latino de Chelsea, a non-profit community-based organization that for over 19 years has focused on addressing the health, education, and social well-being goals of Latino and immigrant families in the Greater Boston area. In this role, he has increased the profile and reach of the organization, and successfully managed the growth of Centro Latino into one of the state's largest Latino-directed human service organizations.

Juan was a founding board member, in 1989, of the Chelsea Commission on Hispanic Affairs, which was created to increase the participation of Latinos in civic and community issues. As a member and later an employee, he worked on community organizing projects, voter registration, civil rights advocacy, and for several years, coordinated the publication of a bilingual community newspaper, El Faro.

After two prior attempts to enter politics, Juan won a decisive election victory in 1993 and began his public service as a member of the Chelsea City Council. He went on to be re-elected for three additional terms. In 1999, he was selected by his peers to serve as the Council President, the first Latino in the state to serve in that capacity at the municipal level. Juan served as a City Councilor until 2001 when he stepped down to focus on his family and career. Just prior to Centro Latino, Juan worked at the TEAM Education Fund coordinating community outreach efforts on state tax and budget policies. In 1994, Juan traveled to El Salvador with a delegation of municipal officials from Massachusetts and Texas, on an exchange program to share community building and municipal management approaches with local officials there.

Juan serves on various community boards and committees, including the Chelsea Chamber of Commerce, Chelsea Collaborative, Multicultural Advisory Committee at Massachusetts General Hospital, Advisory Council of the Gaston Institute at UMASS Boston, and the Metro North Regional Employment Board.

Juan is a lifelong Chelsea resident whose family came from Puerto Rico in the early 1960s. He currently resides in the city, where he and his wife Carolyn are raising their four young children.