Download Diego's Full Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
Competitive & Foundation Grant Awards
Diego has raised over $10 million for the Academy for College Excellence program. Read more about funding here.
Graduate Advisors
Dr. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration, Harvard University Graduate School of Business
Dr. J. Richard Hackman, Cahners-Rabb Professor of Social and Organizational Psychology, Harvard University
Appointments
Aspen Institute & NCII (National Center for Inquiry & Improvement (9/2020-present)
Implementation Team Advisor and Coach for Bank of America Foundation’s Jobs Initiative
The Implementation Team is responsible for supporting 21 colleges and universities through a college and employer learning hub webinar series and providing implementation assistance over this 4 year project. Bank of America Foundation’s $25 million jobs initiative is focused on enhancing, up-skilling and re-skilling Black and Hispanic-Latino individuals in 19 regions. Bank of America is providing $1 million to each of 21 institutions of higher education: 11 community colleges, 5 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and 5 Hispanic Serving Universities.
Academy for College Excellence - Santa Cruz, CA (9/2002-present)
Founder, Instructor, and Principal Investigator
Responsible for designing and implementing the Academy for College Excellence. This project bridges young adults into college and careers that have a future, i.e. with high-demand and high-wages. Early results show the educational model is effective. Experts have indicated that this project is unique in the nation. Raised over $10 million from nationally-recognized foundations.
Cabrillo College - Santa Cruz, CA (2/2002-2018)
Full-Time Professor and Program Director
Responsible for creating first interdisciplinary department at Cabrillo College.
Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation (9/2003-2012)
Successfully designed, raised funding and managed two projects that are three year implementation grants. The latest project is titled “Math and Science Curriculum for the Digital Bridge Academy.” The project accelerates students to college-level physics, chemistry and biology in one semester; and integrating statistics in the ACE social justice primary research model. Responsible for all aspects of the projects including implementation, research and dissemination.
Hewlett-Packard - Santa Cruz, CA & Costa Rica (1/2001-11/2001)
Hewlett Packard World e-Inclusion Group
Consultant responsible for incubating new businesses in developing countries for HP’s World e-Inclusion group. Developed the business plan and product specifications for a handheld computer system to support traceability and certification of farmers in developing countries. This project was nominated by HP for the San Jose Tech Museum’s 2001 Innovation Award for Technology Benefiting Humanity. In this project I utilized methods and techniques I first used in 1979 to study the use of appropriate technology in 3rd world development in a Tarascan Indian Village, San Angel Zurumucapio, in Michoacan, Mexico as part of a six month study abroad program of World College West.
Zayante, Inc. - Scotts Valley, CA (5/1997-4/2000)
(Zayante held the majority of fundamental patents for IEEE-1394b, the gigabit and long distance form of Firewire. Zayante was acquired by Apple Computer in 2001.)
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board
Hired to transition the company from performing testing and engineering contracts to shipping products. Formulated Zayante’s business model and management strategies. Negotiated major contracts with HP, Lucent, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Motorola, NEC, Philips, Texas Instruments, and Sony. Raised over $10 million from venture capitalists and also strategic investments from Philips, Seagate and Intel.
Hewlett-Packard - Palo Alto, CA (9/89-5/97)
Program Manager, HP Labs - Software Technology Lab (STL) (2/1995-5/1997)
Managed STL’s involvement in the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) program with the Mayo Clinic and HP’s Medical Products Group. Negotiated for and obtained program resources, designed roles and responsibilities of key players, instituted schedule, change management, and issue management, and oversaw the development of build management, defect tracking and testing processes.
Principal Scientist, HP Labs - STL (7/1990-1/1995)
Led three project teams, one focused on the development of technologies for building applications from software components, another on the development of methodologies for transitioning traditional software development teams to object oriented software reuse, and a third on the design of a Team Server for the support of task-focused/self-managing teams. Initiated and directed a software engineering pilot in HP’s Medical Systems Division in the technology validation process. Developed an information analysis method to redesign support systems used in two HP Division’s move to self-managing work teams.
User Needs Analyst, New Wave Computing Group (9/1989-7/1990)
Analyzed customer needs and requirements and produced prioritized recommendations for HP executives.
Product Marketing, Business Systems Sector (4/1987-8/1987)
Produced a study that identified the workstation acquisition process of Fortune 500 corporations, and presented recommendations to senior management. Action was taken on key recommendations.
Apple Computer, Inc. - Cupertino, CA (6/1988-8/1988)
Summer Project, Strategic Technology Group
Conducted video interviews with key inventors exploring emerging technologies of potential long-range importance to Apple: Hypermedia, Interactive Multimedia, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Object Oriented Systems, Nanotechnologies, and transparent network computing.
Invited Keynotes, Advisory Boards/Panels, and Review Panels
Presentation to Bill and Melinda Gates - At Gates Foundation Global Good Fund meeting, Bellevue, WA. Selected as one of six experts on the "The Effects of Non-Cognitive Factors on Student Success” to present and discuss at six hour Global Good Fund meeting (January, 2013)
White House Council for Community Solutions - Invited Guest to San Francisco Listening Session (May 2011)
Achieving the Dream - Scaling-Up Advisory Panel on Scaling-Up Programs (January 2011)
Achieving Success in Basic Skills Education - Invited presentation to the California Community College Board of Governors, Sacramento (May 2010)
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching - Advisory Board for Statway and Quantway (2010)
Support for Change Workshop - Invitation by Kay McClenney to CLASS Conference for California Community College Presidents and Trustees, San Diego (November 2009)
3CSN Advisory Board - CaliforniaCommunity College Chancellor’s Office (2009-present)
National Science Foundation - ATE Review Panels (December 2004, December 2008)
Testify on Capitol Hill - House of Representative’s Rayburn Office Building, sponsored by American Youth Policy Forum, National Science Foundation and American Association of Community Colleges, Washington, D.C. (November 2008)
DB Academy - Accelerating Underprepared Students for College - Unexpected Success Using a Social Justice Research Curriculum and a Just-in-Time Pedagogy, 4th International Conference on Research in Access and Developmental Education, National Center for Developmental Education, Puerto Rico (September 2008)
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching - Convening of Practitioners and Administrators to design California Community College professional development resource center (precursor to the 3CSN Network for California Community Colleges) (2007-2008)
Understanding the Needs of High Risk Students - University of Chicago Chapin Hall and MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Transitions to Adulthood conference, Chicago, IL (November 2004)
Workforce Investment Board - Youth Council, Santa Cruz, California (2004-2007)
INCAE, Alejuela, Costa Rica - The Latin American business school created by Harvard Business School in 1964 after President Kennedy’s diplomatic travel to Central America in 1963. Served on the Advisory Board of INCAE’s Center for Latin American Competitiveness (2002-2003)
Webinars / Recorded Presentations:
Presentation, “Student Engagement and Support (Re)defined: Tapping the Power of the Affective Domain” - Michigan Center for Student Success & ACE, Online, February 28, 2014
Presentation, “Academy for College Excellence: A Model for Student Success” - Board of Governors of California Community Colleges, Sacramento, CA, November, 2013
Spotlight Speaker, "Establishing Academic Velocity in Developmental Education," DREAM 2013 - Achieving the Dream Conference, Anaheim, February 2013
Webinar Presentation, "Rethinking Orientation to the Community College," Academy for College Excellence, February 2013
Webinar Presentation, "Affective Domain: Precursors to Academic Performance," Academy for College Excellence, 2012
Webinar Presentation, "Teaching to the Affective Domain," Academy for College Excellence, December 2012
Presentation, "Complex Lives: Educating the Whole Person," Strengthening Student Success, The RP Group, October 2012
Speaker, "A Transformative College Experience for Disconnected Young Adults," ISKME Big Ideas Fest (Institute for Knowledge Management in Education), Half Moon Bay, CA, December 2010
Speaker, "Academy for College Excellence: Lighting the Fire for Learning and Achieving Success," California Community Colleges Board of Governors Meeting, May 2010
1. Invited Presentations – Bridging Students out of Poverty
"Addressing the Affective in Higher Education through Professional Development," National Institute for Staff and Organization Development (NISOD), May 2013
"Role of the Community College in the Age of MOOCs: Is a New Approach to Developmental Education Our Competitive Advantage?" American Association of Community Colleges, April 2013
Workshop Leader, "Increasing Student Success, Support and Retention through Instruction: Introducing an Intrinsic, Curriculum-based Model of Student Engagement," WASC Academic Resource Conference (ARC), April 2013
Keynote Address, 8th Annual Partners in Learning Conference, DeAnza College, March 2012
"They Said It Couldn’t Be Done: Partnerships and Initiatives that Foster Academic Success for Minority Males," American Council on Education, Washington, DC, March 2013
Spotlight Speaker, "Establishing Academic Velocity in Developmental Education," DREAM 2013 - Achieving the Dream Conference, February 2013
Workshop Leader, "A Curriculum-based Intrinsic Model of Student Engagement: Examples from the Field," DREAM 2013 - Achieving the Dream Conference, February 2013
Invited Speaker, "Underprepared Students, Underprepared Institutions: Transformation 360o," Academic Resource Conference of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC-Sr), San Francisco, CA, April 2011
"Getting High School Drop Outs In and Out of College," Education Writers Association Conference, New Orleans, LA, April 2011
Download Diego's Full Curriculum Vitae (PDF) for a full list of presentations.
2. Invited Presentations – Adaptive Organization Design
Navarro, J.J., De Smedt, P., Gustafson, J., Higgins M. “Defining and Implementing an R&D Program Involving the Mayo Clinic, HP’s Medical Products Group, and HP Labs: How to Design Self-Management Mechanisms for Influence Without Direct Authority,” HP Project Management Conf. Proceedings, 1996.
“How to Design Self-Management Mechanisms for Influence Without Direct Authority,” HP Executive Management Seminar on Distributed Object-Oriented Applications, Paris, France, 1996.
“Organization Design and Change Management Applied to Software Development,” University of California – Irvine’s Irvine Research Unit in Software Sponsored Bay Area Roundtable, 1994.
“Organization Design Applied to Software Reuse,” The Institute of Management Science and the Operations Research Society of America (TIMS/ORSA) Joint National Meeting, 1994.
“Characteristics of a Flexible Software Factory: Organization Design Applied to Software Reuse,” Digest of Papers of Spring COMPCON 93, IEEE Computer Society International Conference, 1993.
“Organization Design-Based Software Reuse Adoption Strategy,” Proceedings of the 6th Annual Workshop in Software Reuse, 1993.
Esquivel, J., Gaarn, P. “New Product Development Organizational Design Study,” 1992. (Comprehensive research study of 10 product development efforts across HP’s businesses, conducted by HP’s Change Management Team and HP Labs’ researcher James Navarro, and USC’s Center for Effective Org.).
“Understanding the Hidden Voice of the Customer: Ethnographic Observation and Other Qualitative Approaches,” Institute for the Study of Business Markets, Penn State University, Members Meeting, 1992.
3. Invited Presentations / Research Projects – Technology Enhanced Environments
“Development with Soul: Sowing the Seeds for a Digital Peace Corp,” Keynote address, Digital Bridges Symposium, Second Annual Meeting, Bay Area Information Technology Consortium, 2002.
Navarro, J.J., Fafchamps, D. “Core Work Process and Core System Capabilities: The Basis for an Open Computer Supported Cooperative Work System,” Position Paper for the European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 1991
Download Diego's Full Curriculum Vitae (PDF)
Associate Editor
Journal of Organizational Computing & Electronic Commerce (1996 to present)
Professional Preparation
Harvard Business School - Cambridge, MA (1987-1989)
Masters of Business Administration, June 1989. Studies focused on the management of technology and entrepreneurial management. In addition, performed research with Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter in exploring information architectures to support innovative organization designs, and Professor J. Richard Hackman in defining computer support for self-managing teams.
Antioch University - Yellow Springs, OH (1984-1985)
Bachelor of Arts in Computer Systems and Business Administration, 1985.
Pasadena City College - Pasadena, CA (1975-1977)
Employed full-time at Bank of America's Data Processing Center in Los Angeles as a Computer Support Specialist during my second year at Pasadena City College.
California Community College Instructor Credential (March 12, 1990)
Computer and related technologies; Business and Industrial management; Public Services and Administration.