Alumni Leadership Speaker Series

Elizabeth Baires-Vega (she/they) is a first-generation Ecuadorian, Salvadoran, and Peruvian operations strategist and creative producer based in Baltimore, MD. She grounds her work in community care and justice, building people-centered systems and stories that promote equity and impact. Elizabeth currently serves as the Operations and Finance Manager at Plan C, aligning financial and operational strategies to advance access to reproductive care. Simultaneously, she is a producer for a production company called Memento, where she bridges operations and storytelling; supporting creative production while optimizing systems that sustain purpose driven work. Her decade-long career spans nonprofit leadership, fundraising, and project management, with roles at Coworker.org, the National Education Association, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. As a filmmaker, she recently earned a credit on a short film documenting Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Randall’s Island and is producing We Were Seeds, a documentary following a Piscataway farmer’s reclamation of ancestral land. Across her work in operations and filmmaking, Elizabeth bridges systems and creativity, ensuring that stories and organizations alike are built with care, collaboration, and justice at their core.

Susan Caicedo-Corea, PMP, is a Program Manager for Financial Resilience Programming at AARP, where she leads initiatives in the Savings & Planning issue area and advances consumer financial education. In this role she drives efforts that empower individuals to strengthen their financial security and resilience.

With over 14 years of experience at AARP Foundation, Susan has a proven track record of designing and managing programs that enhance economic mobility for low-income older adults. Notably, she led the National BACK TO WORK 50+ initiative, which has served over 60,000 individuals with workshops, coaching, and tools to secure in-demand jobs. She also spearheaded the Digital Skills Ready@50+ initiative, funded by a $10 million grant from Google.org, surpassing goals by training over 26,000 participants in essential digital skills.

Susan brings expertise in execution, strategic thinking, relationship building, and innovation, blending marketing, project management, and economic mobility strategies to create impactful programs. She holds a B.S. in Marketing from George Mason University and earned her Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification in 2019.

Hugo Delgado has spent the last 22 years providing HIV prevention and care services in Northern Virginia. Mr. Delgado brings his extensive knowledge and experience in working with the community and developed an evidence-based outreach program based on the community peer health educator model which aims at reaching the often difficult to reach at-risk population with effective prevention approaches and at locations and times which will maximize the program’s reach. He is responsible for contract and grants development, and fundraising efforts, resulting in the agency’s current annual budget of over million. Mr. Delgado is a respected member of the Latino community in Northern Virginia and has a rapport with many leaders and members of many organizations. Mr. Delgado’s extensive experience and position in the Latino community makes him a prominent provider of HIV prevention and care services among the Latino communities. Most notably, Mr. Delgado reached a 2 percent HIV positivity rate as a result of his innovative community testing and outreach program. Additionally, Mr. Delgado represents the organization at legislative hearings and other appropriate policy forums; confers with local state, and federal officials on community public health issues; meets with advisory boards, committees, the public and the media on community health matters. In Addition, Mr. Delgado received a certificate of recognition for his active involvement in the fight against HIV/AIDS from City of Alexandra Virginia.

After graduating from GMU, Gordon Day worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Senegal, developed projects for USAID, managed a multinational’s entry into East Africa, and currently runs a social business in Tanzania. He has 12 years of experience working in the African agriculture space, ranging from the grassroots to the executive level. He has dropped his naive enthusiasm for the hard, practical truths present in developing rural communities. I want to encourage GMU students to think about their impact on this world and how it can guide their careers. 

Gabrielle Jackson is an international educator and speaker with a background in student advising, J-1 visa sponsorship, and program operations. She currently serves as Manager of Student Services and Systems at CET Academic Programs, where she oversees CET’s application platform, advises students preparing to study in Latin America, and supports a team of Student Services Coordinators. Her leadership style is grounded in reflective practice, intentional team-building, and people-first decision-making. Gabrielle is also the founder of Go With Gab, an education and speaking platform focused on global learning and professional development. She is a Fulbright and Boren alum and holds a degree in Community Health from George Mason University. In her free time, you can find Gabby journaling, visiting an art exhibit, or sipping a medium roast black coffee at a café.