MinerAlert
MinerAlert
June 2026
By Sandra Ramirez, ’08, ’21
Growing up in a Latino household includes common experiences that are often relatable for many El Pasoans. Perhaps it was large family gatherings with music and home-cooked food or forming an inseparable bond with cousins who became more like best friends. It could have also been instant code-switching from speaking English while cracking a joke with your sibling, to immediately responding to your Tía in Spanish when she asked how you were doing in school. These experiences not only form our cultural identity but according to Dr. Patty Delgado, Ph.D., ’02, they also shape your leadership style.
“The research is showing and proving that Latinos naturally are inclusive leaders. Latinos, or anybody from a predominantly Latino community, you are naturally aware of what [a sense of] belonging feels like,” Delgado said. “We understand what community and collectivism means. We’re not individualistic people who only think of ourselves.”
Delgado said this is based on data she analyzes as the CEO and founder of The Bridgify Group and co-founder and executive director of El Puente Institute, a sister company. Delgado is an experienced industrial-organizational psychologist.
“I'm not a clinical psychologist. I'm a business psychologist. We're called industrial-organizational psychologists in the field,” Delgado explained. “As an I-O psychologist, my work is to understand how organizations work when it comes to the different parts of it, the operation, the people, the leaders, the culture, the strategic part of it.”
In her position with The Bridgify Group, Delgado sees herself as a research translator, focusing on translating academic research into practice. Clients typically include C-suite leaders who are trying to implement different types of strategies and need academic information and data to ensure the strategy will work.
“We do a lot of that digging and I love reading journal articles and going through the databases,” Delgado said. “The purpose of my work is to create bridges between academia and practice.”
In a similar vein, through her work with El Puente Institute, which means “the bridge” in Spanish, Delgado is focused on how Latinos bridge their cultural identity with their leadership style.
“If a Latino leader wants to understand how their culture is influencing the way they lead, they come to us,” Delgado said. “Sometimes it does hold us back from advancing, from asking for more money, or speaking up, or having confidence in ourselves when we’re the only Latino in the room.”
Delgado fondly refers to her time at ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ as her place of “recovery” after initially attending a private college in Minnesota.
“I found home at ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ. It was just so easy to be there, and ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ became my place of recovery from my experience that I had going out of town and being the only Latina and not knowing how to navigate that kind of space,” Delgado said.
Delgado maintains that ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ students are unique and more powerful than they know.
“The reason I love ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ is because I love our community. As an 85% Latino community, we don’t realize the massive potential we have and the leadership skill set that we already have within us because we come from this community,” Delgado said.
“You have these very innate values in who you are naturally. Use them as your superpower. Showcase them. Don’t be afraid of them. Feel empowered because you have these values within you that come from being part of this community, and ¶¶Òõ¶ÌÊÓƵ is a big part of that.”