Beatriz Leyva-Cutler

Beatriz Leyva-Cutler is the Executive Director of The Bay Area Hispano Institute for Advancement, Inc. (BAHIA) located in West Berkeley. BAHIA is one of the only full time bilingual child development programs providing vital early to school age care services to the Hispano/Latino familias in Northern Alameda County. She has been with BAHIA since 1980 and the Executive Director for over 18 years. Her primary responsibility is supervising, administering and managing three programs, Centro VIDA, Bahia School Age Program and La Academia.

Beatriz has taught Child Development in Spanish in local community colleges as a way to bring more Latinas into the position of Teachers and Directors, she is a mentor to early childhood Directors and a member of the Latinos Unidos de Berkeley (LUB) and United in Action (UIA). Both LUB and UIA are groups that advocate for the improved quality of life and education of Latino and African America students and their families living in Berkeley. Beatriz was honored in 1997 as Berkeley's Outstanding Woman, in 2004 as Exemplary Child Care Worker in Berkeley, and in 2005 recognized as Woman of the Year by Honorable Assemblywoman Loni Hancock and in 2006 as KPFA's Peace and Social Justice Awardee.

Beatriz is also the Board Chair of the Chicana/Latina Foundation which provides scholarships to undergraduate and graduate Latina students in nine surrounding counties. She is graduate fellow of LeaderSpring which provides a two year fellowship for non-profit Executive Directors. She graduated with her BA from San Francisco State in La Raza Studies, received her Master of Arts in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, California.