Ezequiel Pena, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology, has stepped down as Interim Executive Director of the Mexican American Civil Rights Institute (MACRI) to join MACRI as a founding board member.

MACRI is the new operating name for the National Institute of Mexican American History of Civil Rights which launched in January 2019 with funding from the City of San Antonio. The institute is an independent organization housed on the OLLU campus.

Taking Dr. Pena’s place, Sarah Gould, PhD, has assumed the role of Interim Executive Director of MACRI. A native Texan, Dr. Gould served as an adjunct professor in OLLU’s history department in fall 2015 and fall 2016. She has worked closely with Sister Margit Nagy, CDP, and the late Sister Maria Eva Flores, CDP. Last December, Dr. Gould joined the OLLU College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Board. 

Dr. Gould has more than a decade of museum experience. She most recently served as founding Director of the Museo del Westside, a community participatory museum launched by the Esperanza Peace & Justice Center.  

MACRI is a long-awaited and the first-of-its kind institute. MACRI will acknowledge and honor the civil rights history of Mexican Americans locally and nationally, from the 1800’s to the present. MACRI will do this by presenting the many Mexican American civil rights struggles, including transformational leaders and organizations and their accomplishments of national and regional significance in the areas of education, voting rights, labor rights, human rights and more.