Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra is the Academic Dean for Centro Latino at Fuller Theological Seminary. She is the co-author of Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World and Buried Seeds: Learning from the Resilience of Vibrant Marginalized Christian Communities, and as part of a team, God’s Resistance: Mobilizing Faith to Defend Immigrants.
She is a Lutheran Pastor with over 40 years of experience in congregational (English and Spanish) and community ministry, including church-based service and community development programs, congregational/community organizing and legislative advocacy.
Dr. Salvatierra is a consultant for a variety of organizations, including World Vision, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, and the Christian Community Development Association. She has been a national leader in the areas of working poverty and immigration for over 25 years and has founded multiple programs and organizations both in the US and overseas. These included a gang prevention program for at-risk immigrant youth, a community computer center, and an intergenerational community garden where the elderly taught at-risk youth to grow produce for sale as well as a collaborative of UC students, homeless leaders, and congregation members providing emergency services in the streets of Santa Cruz and the migrant farmworker camps in Watsonville. In the Philippines, she trained urban poor women in Manila to serve as chaplains to their neighbors.