Kaylee Moreno Burke serves as the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s interim chief operations officer and director of programs and strategy. Previously, she was the youngest executive director and co-founder of the Center for Latin@ Studies at Ferris State University. She earned her bachelor's degree in social work, with a minor in Spanish, from Ferris. Her master’s degree in social work comes from the University of Michigan, where she focused on community organizing, and program and policy evaluation. As a doctoral student in Ferris’ community college leadership program, she is working to improve Latino students’ leadership skills and access to higher education.
Throughout her professional career, she has advocated closing the Latino educational pipeline. She has assisted in creating the Undocumented Student Guide to College in Michigan and provided numerous training and convenings to discuss practices and experiences of DACA and undocumented students to help close the equity gap. She also assisted in creating a million-dollar endowed scholarship fund through the Center for Latin@ Studies. She worked to ensure the scholarship dollars would remain open to DACA and Undocumented students and would help to address the academic and financial barriers impacting Hispanic/Latinx students. As a multicultural woman, Kaylee’s leadership is guided by her Indigenous and Mexican roots, which reminded her to stay connected with the land and collaborate with the community.
In her spare time, she volunteers. Kaylee served as the campus and national advisor for the Delta Zeta, Zeta Nu (Ferris State) for seven years, and the risk prevention advisor for the Gamma Pi (Western Michigan University) chapter for two years. She also supported the founding of Latino-based Greek organizations at Ferris State University and served as the campus advisor for Gamma Phi Omega for 1 year. Supporting the chapter women in their leadership journey, serving as chapter advisors, and helping them grow by setting a strategic plan and executing that plan have been my favorite volunteer experiences. In addition to volunteering with Delta Zeta, Kaylee serves on the board of directors for ArtWorks in Big Rapids, Casa Latina at Davenport University, and is also actively involved with the Latina Network of West Michigan.