Priscilla Fuentes

Priscilla Fuentes is the Regional Chief Operating Officer of the Cascades Region of the American Red Cross, which covers the Oregon and Southwest Washington area. She has dedicated more than 10 years to the Red Cross.  Her passion for the organization is to foster and create an environment where volunteer and paid staff can be successful. She strives to develop a work culture where all individuals feel valued and are excited to go to work every day.

Ms. Fuentes also serves within the American Red Cross in several national leadership roles focusing on promoting and empowering the workforce to provide access to services within the Latino community. As the National Co-Chair of the Latino Resource Group, she has successfully launched a mentorship program for Latino employees, she championed growth of the Latino Resource Group membership from 50 members to more than 375 members. In fall of 2020 she managed the implementation of the Latino Engagement initiative during the largest disaster response in recent Oregon history. During this incident, she was instrumental in affecting the lives of more than two thousand Latinos seeking services. She also serves on the Disaster Cycle Services Latino Engagement Initiative Steering and Latino Executive Steering Committees.

In 2021 Ms. Fuentes was named one the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Solferino Academy’s FutureFellows. This fellowship is both aimed at helping rising stars in the RCRC network to develop their transformation capabilities as well as support the organization as a whole to evolve as is envisioned in Strategy 2030.

Ms. Fuentes started her nonprofit journey working as a mentor for at-risk youth in Southern California. Over the years, she has worked with many different nonprofits including a transition program for battered women, a shelter for victims of human trafficking, and multiple educational nonprofits. She earned a graduate degree in Public Administration from California State University, Los Angeles. Prior to that she achieved a bachelor’s degree from Whitworth University in Psychology.

Throughout her career Ms. Fuentes has been responsible for financial and administrative reporting, budget monitoring and forecasting. Through her strategic and logic focused efforts has realized more than $175K annually of returned value for the organization. During her career at the Red Cross, she has also held the roles of Grants Manager, Major Gifts Officer and Director of Operations. In those roles she was involved with managing government grant contracts, fundraising, and strategic relationship management. She has successfully raised more than four million dollars in government grant funds to support emergency preparedness.