Rico Gonzalez, M.Ed. (he/him/el), is originally from Houston, TX, and has lived, studied, and worked in various higher education spaces. He attended Oberlin College in Ohio for his undergraduate degree in Politics and Texas State University for his Masters's in Student Affairs in Higher Education. For nearly eight years, he was the program coordinator and then director of the CSTEP New York State education grant program at Cornell University’s Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives. During his time at Cornell, he successfully co-led the writing team to bring a McNair Scholars program, renewed the CSTEP grant two times, and co-founded the Graduate Students Mentoring Undergraduates (GSMU) program. Before his new role with Project MALES, he earned his master’s degree in Student Affairs and worked with the PACE Peer Mentoring Program. Rico’s research interests include mentoring, Hispanic/Latino/Latinx identity, and social justice issues. Rico currently lives in Austin, TX, with his wife.