New director plans to apply experience promoting civic involvement to expand ASU Pastor Center’s reach statewide

Montserrat Arredondo’s dedication to community involvement started early in life.

As a youngster, Arredondo watched her single mother, an undocumented immigrant, raise her and her siblings in the aftermath of a tough Arizona immigration law passed in 2010 known as SB 1070.

As she and her concern for members of marginalized communities grew, she earned her Bachelor of Social Work at ASU and went on to work on several local and national political campaigns, encouraging people to step into the fray of elections and policymaking.

Now, she’s bringing her years of experience engaging people and empowering political activism to her new position as executive director of Arizona State University’s Congressman Ed Pastor Center for Politics and Public Service. Arredondo, who in May succeeded the center’s first executive director, Alberto Olivas, said among her first priorities is “elevating” the center, not only as an ASU entity but as part of the larger community.

The mission of the 10-year-old Pastor Center, named for the late former U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor, D-Ariz., is to prepare students and the local community to effectively participate in civic and political affairs.

“I want to bring community into the institution. The center is embedded in a well-established place,” she said. “I want to make sure the students are involved not just in politics but in changing the community for the better.”

The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately struck down most of SB 1070 as unconstitutional. Arredondo said seeing her mother and many others in her community live with an uncertain immigration status at that time encouraged her to get involved in civic engagement.

Arredondo said college-age people have become more politically involved since she was younger, as politics for them is much more about their feelings.

“It can be (about) something that doesn’t look right or feels right,” she said. “Politics is a pathway to create change. I think they see that. You see young people really talking about the environment. They’re asking, ‘What will my future look like? Will I have kids?’”

Social media is empowering young people as well, Arredondo said, because anyone can build an audience. This can help them realize they matter in society, that they are not alone and plenty of people agree with them, she said.

Arredondo has worked with coalitions of community organizations known as One Arizona/Arizona Wins, where she said she managed annual budgets of up to $12 million and assisted in some of the state’s biggest voter registration drives.

She said that statewide involvement will help expand the Pastor Center’s reach to more corners of Arizona.

Arredondo said she is excited to showcase Ed Pastor’s legacy of bringing tangible change to Arizona in many areas, particularly in transportation.

“I grew up in public housing down the street from here,” she said from her Downtown Phoenix campus office. “I saw how more public transportation affects people’s lives, including my own.”

While in Congress, Pastor supported creation of the Valley Metro light rail system. Arredondo said she lives a mile from the new five-mile extension of light rail into south Phoenix that opens in June.

“I plan to use it,” she said.

Arredondo said Pastor – who represented much of west Phoenix and parts of Glendale in Congress and died in 2018 at age 75 – continues to inspire upcoming generations.

“We talk a lot about elders, learning from people who have done this work, past movements,” Arredondo said. “Pastor organized a lot of young people in his time. It’s exciting to have that historical context.”

Olivas remains at ASU as a professor of practice. He said he is excited for the center’s next decade under Arredondo’s leadership.

“She represents everything I hoped for in a successor to lead the center. She’s well known and respected in the community as a powerful advocate, community leader and a voice for traditionally underserved communities,” Olivas said. “She has the vision, practical experience and skills to help students learn how to navigate advocacy, public policy and social change efforts, combined with the charisma and energy to motivate and inspire them for years to come.”