ABOUT US
CRISTINA CALVILLO-RIVERA
Principal & Co-Founder
Cristina brings nearly 20 years of nonprofit experience across local, state, and national organizations. Beginning in El Paso with LGBTQ community education, she later developed youth engagement programs with MADD New Mexico.
At Young Invincibles in Washington DC, she served as Director of Young Adult Engagement and Advocacy, leading national training initiatives on economic policies affecting millennials and creating the YI Scholars fellowship for first-generation college students. At Consumer Reports, she pioneered the organization's first community development program.
As founding Training and Engagement Director at Instituto in Phoenix, Cristina established core processes and created a statewide leadership development fellowship. Now with CR Strategies, she helps clients transform organizational performance through strategic planning and team alignment.
Cristina lives in El Paso, Texas with her wife Ambar and their dogs, Churro and Frida.
AMBAR CALVILLO-RIVERA
Founder
Ambar brings nearly a decade of experience in strategic partner engagement, coalition building, and civic engagement across diverse communities. She has managed national education and awareness campaigns, built and engaged national coalitions, and executed large scale summits and conferences. Most recently, Ambar served as the Vice President of Campaigns for Voto Latino, where she led the implementation of Somos Más, a national campaign that mobilized young Latinos ahead of the historic 2018 midterm elections, successfully registering over 200,000 people to vote in 11 states with 76% voter turnout. Prior to that, Ambar led the mobilization of national organizations and caucuses during the historic 2017 special elections, to support down-ballot candidates across the country, as the Director of Community Engagement and Strategic Partnerships at the Democratic National Committee (DNC). She also previously served as National Director of Field and Partner Engagement for Enroll America, where she led a multi-state team and national partner program to implement an awareness campaign for the Affordable Care Act.