MODESTO -- Elected officials, educators and business leaders from across Stanislaus and Merced counties gathered at Mode

More than 200 residents, business owners and elected officials filled a room at Antelope Valley College on Friday, Jan. 30, for the Antelope Valley Latino Leaders Summit, a half-day gathering on the economic future of Latino working families in the Valley.

The summit was organized by the Latino Working Class Project, a nonpartisan initiative that produces polling and research on the economic conditions facing California's Latino community and takes that work into local forums around the state. The Antelope Valley event was one of them.

Antelope Valley College Superintendent and President Dr. Jennifer Zellet welcomed the crowd. Zellet has worked in higher education for 25 years at public and private two- and four-year institutions, and came to AVC in 2022 from Modesto Junior College, where she served as vice president of instruction.

LWCP Executive Director Mike Madrid opened the program. Madrid wrote The Latino Century, and received the UnidosUS Capital…