Executive Board (2023 – 2025)
Dr. Maribel Alvarez (University of Arizona and Southwest Folk Alliance) has been elected by the AFS Executive Board to serve as a member of the Board from 2023-2025. She brings extensive fundraising, advocacy, and leadership experience in both public and academic settings through her humanities program-building work that connects the University of Arizona and Southwest Folklife Alliance.
Maribel is Associate Research Social Scientist and Associate Research Professor at the Southwest Center at the University of Arizona. She is an anthropologist, folklorist, curator, and cultural organizer. She holds the Jim Griffith Chair in Public Folklore at the Southwest Center, University of Arizona. From 2018-2021, she served as the inaugural Associate Dean for Community Engagement in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Her leadership helped produce the first study ever at the University of Arizona on community perceptions of university interventions. In 2022, she was asked by the University Provost to lead a comprehensive strategic retooling of the university’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.