Edwin Canizalez

Program Manager- Policy and Legislation, LULAC

Edwin Canizalez serves as Program Manager, Policy and Legislation at LULAC . He feels fortunate to work with a team of talented professionals that make the HQ office a great experience. Canizalez is a results-driven professional with a 20+ years successful leadership track record. Canizalez has a history of program management in equal access matters for diverse populations including linguistic minorities and people with disabilities. His experience extends to multinational, government, non-profit, consulting, start-up, and publicly held business environments. Prior to joining LULAC, he was the CEO at Prospects Sports Solutions, a sports management company offering strategic planning and acquisition services to professional sporting clubs in Europe -where he would spend 50% of the year working- with budgets between €10M-€250M. He also served as COO at TASH, a human rights organization for people with severe disabilities. He developed the logic model to implement a national training and technical assistance center to improve competitive employment outcomes and college enrollment for transition age youth and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and to increase collaboration amongst government state agencies, transition professionals, employers and direct service providers to increase integrated employment and decrease shelter work in 8 states. This plan resulted in a $2M award from the US Department of Health and Human Services. Canizalez has managed quality control and contract compliance for a number of government projects ($100M) for DOJ, DHS, and FBI to name a few. He implemented the Court Interpreter Certification program while working at the Nevada Supreme Court, Administrative Office of the Courts . Furthermore, he helped in the implementation of equal access initiatives in criminal courts at the State level in Hawaii, and Vermont. Canizalez has worked in U.S. Department of Education funded projects promoting parental involvement and his initiatives have been adopted in several states. He has served as trainer and panelist at the National Judicial College in matters of equal access and ethics. He is a polyglot, fluent in four languages, and a former language teacher in Long Island, NY, Roslyn, Virginia, Washington, DC, and Las Vegas (NV). He looks forward to meeting all of you at the convention!