Staff

Prior to coming to the FUND, he served as the founding Executive Director of the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE), a community-based social movement organization for social, economic, and environmental justice based in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.

Marcos’s over three decades of experience in the nonprofit sector has also included serving as the Executive Director of El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, a Ventura County Latina/o community advocacy and multi-service organization (1986-1995), and the Director of Planning for the United Way of Ventura County (1984-1986). His volunteer leadership service have included serving on numerous local, regional and national boards and community campaigns, including the founding chairperson of the Ventura County Living Wage Coalition (1997-2001), and on the board of directors of the McCune Foundation, the Common Counsel Foundation, the Partnership for Working Families, and the Ventura County Workforce Development Board. Marcos has received numerous awards in recognition of his community work, including the 2014 Outstanding Citizen Award from the California Federation of Teachers, the Cesar Chavez 50 in 50 Leadership Award from the United Farm Workers of America, El Concilio Latino Leadership Award, and Earth Summit Leadership Award from the Ventura County Citizens for Peaceful Resolution (CPR). His work on behalf of the rights of low-wage working women, including his publication of the 2001 report on the Feminization of Poverty in the California Central Coast, won him the 2003 Leadership Award from the National Women’s Political Caucus of Ventura County.

Among his accomplishments over his four years with the FUND, Marcos has led in an effective progressive regional response to the impact of the national political crisis since the 2016 elections, including the expansion of the FUND’s emerging need grants program, establishment of the field-of-interest Immigrant Legal Defense Fund and the convenings and support of emerging coalition and collaborative efforts around immigrant legal defense, environmental justice and food justice. His extensive background in nonprofit organizational development and community planning played an important leadership role in the establishment of a number of new effective philanthropic partnerships with other local, state, and nationwide foundations and in the completion of the FUND’s current five-year strategic planning process. The latter included the adoption of a revised mission, vision, strategy, and program action statements, building from the FUND’s nearly forty years of social change work to clarify its long-time role in building movements for social, economic, environmental, and political justice.

A strong commitment to the life-long practice of social learning, Marcos has sought to inform his work through decades of community organizing and policy advocacy, as well as the study and application of both social science and Native American indigenous teachings. A Sundancer in the Lakota Native American and Mexica traditions, Marcos is actively involved in efforts to expand the knowledge and application of these indigenous teachings and ceremonies in all levels of social change work.

Having earned his doctorate degree in urban planning from the University of California at Los Angeles, Marcos’s 2004 dissertation addresses the theory and practice of community transformation and the expanding public policy and community development role of racial and multi-racial community-based organizations in California. Drawing from his academic research and years of organizing experience, he has served as an adjunct professor in Urban Studies and Chicano Studies at California State University at Northridge, California State University at Channel Islands, and UCLA. A father of three, a graphic artist and dedicated trail runner, Marcos lives in Ventura, California with his wife, Robin Jacobs, and his two daughters, Maya Esperanza (age 18), Julianna Citlali (age 15). His son Canek Pena-Vargas (age 32) is a high school history teacher in Los Angeles. Robin is a third grade bilingual education teacher with the Ventura Unified School District.