Carmen Rey-Gomez

Carmen Rey-Gomez
Executive Director, Hispanic Institute
Hodges University

Director, Hispanic Institute at Hodges University: Hispanic Institute Carmen Rey-Gómez is the Founding director of the Hispanic Institute at Hodges University. She grew up in Hartford, Connecticut, where she became interested in advocacy, social justice, education, health and human services. She worked as a Community Health Interviewer, Family Educator, and Community Advocate and later as an HIV/AIDS Mental Health provider in the city. She graduated from the University of Connecticut with a Master’s degree in Social Work and moved to Fort Myers, Florida, fourteen years ago.

Prior to coming to Hodges, Ms. Rey-Gómez worked at Edison State College as the Director of Student Support Services, a federally funded TRiO Program. Through this program, she worked to retain and graduate first generation, low-income and disabled students.

In addition to her experience in education, she has over fifteen years of experience in health and human services. As Director of the Hispanic Institute, Ms. Rey-Gómez hopes to continue reaching out to the community by establishing the Institute as a recognized leader within the Lee and Collier Counties in informing policy-makers about issues vital to the growing Hispanic community and by providing the community with information necessary for effective participation in public policy development.

Ms. Rey-Gómez was a 2013 recipient of the FACE Diversity in Education Award and was selected as one of twenty-one local women highlighted in WGCU Public Media’s multiplatform project “Makers: Women Who Make Southwest Florida.” She currently lives in Cape Coral with her sons Danilo and Adriel Gómez and her husband Oscar Gómez.