Vince Yanez is Senior Vice President, Arizona Community Engagement, for the Helios Education Foundation. In this role, he leads Helios’ staff engagement with the community and stakeholders to improve quality, access, and achievement across the birth-16 education continuum, especially those in high-poverty, Latino communities. Prior to joining Helios, Yanez was Executive Director for Education & Public Policy at the Arizona Community Foundation (ACF). He oversaw all strategic education grant making as well as public policy initiatives. Prior to ACF, Yanez was the executive director for the Arizona State Board of Education for nine years. In that role, he was the chief advocate and policy advisor for issues impacting Arizona’s K-12 public education system. Yanez holds a bachelor’s degree in Government and Spanish from the University of Notre Dame and a Master’s in Social Work from Arizona State University. He serves on several nonprofit boards and committees including the Governance Board for Achieve60AZ, the executive committee for Expect More Arizona, the Leadership Council for Thriving Together, the governance board for the Dougherty Foundation and the advisory board for Stand for Children – Arizona. He also serves as Chair for the public policy committee for Expect More Arizona and for the Education Funders Affinity Group for the Arizona Grantmakers Forum.
