Hugo Morales, co-founder and Executive Director of the Radio Bilingüe national Latino noncommercial radio network, has been appointed by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. to the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees. With 23 campuses and more than 420,000 students, CSU is the largest university system in the nation and one of the leading conferrers of undergraduate diplomas for students from low-income families, Latinos and other students of color.

In 1976, Morales organized farmworkers, teachers, students and artists to launch Radio Bilingüe as a single public radio station for the large rural and urban Latino communities of Fresno and the surrounding San Joaquin Valley of California.

At the time, Morales, a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, was an adjunct professor of La Raza Studies at CSU’s Fresno State University. Ever since, he has been Executive Director of Radio Bilingüe and a pioneer and advocate for bilingual and minority-controlled public media throughout the country. In 1984, Radio Bilingüe expanded with a national Spanish language news service carried by more than 100 public stations in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Mexico. The network now owns and operates seven of its own major FM stations in California (in Fresno, Modesto, Bakersfield, Salinas, El Centro, Mendocino and Paso Robles), additional stations in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, new stations under construction in South Texas, and a 24-hour satellite programming service with information and cultural programming used by affiliates throughout the country and national production studios in Oakland.

Morales, a Mixtec Indian from Oaxaca Mexico, grew up as a child farmworker in Sonoma County, California. He says, “My interest in education is part of my DNA. I know how an excellent college education changed my life, and I know the stakes now for students with the same hopes and dreams that I had for myself and my family. Radio Bilingüe itself is first and foremost about education and ensuring access to information for those who are underserved.”

Morales has served on many educational, philanthropic and community boards. As a 1998-2004 member of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation commission, he reviewed the fiscal, administrative and academic practices of numerous higher education institutions. From 2003 to 2011, he served on the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC), advising the Governor and the state legislature on policy. He says, “this experience will serve me well on the CSU Board of Trustees at such a critical moment for education in our state. I am honored to have been appointed by Governor Brown and I look forward to working for the passage of the ballot initiative this November that will support the CSUs and the rest of California’s public education system to regain some of the ground lost during these challenging economic times toward fulfilling our promise to all students.”

Morales is a past chairperson of the Rosenberg Foundation (current trustee), Central California Legal Services, the National Federation of Community Broadcasters, and California Tomorrow. He was a recent trustee of the San Francisco Foundation. Currently he serves on The California Endowment Board of Trustees (past finance committee member), The Fresno County First 5 Commission, The California State University, Fresno President’s Advisory Council, the University of California – Merced Board of Trustees (founding member), and the Fresno Unified School District’s Graduation Task Force. A resident of Fresno, his honors include a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, the Edward R. Murrow Award (public broadcasting’s highest honor) and the Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Award.

Morales’ CSU Trustee term is effective immediately and will be up for California State Senate confirmation next year. The compensation as a CSU trustee is $100 per diem.

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