Don Arispe (Trainer)
Don D. Arispe is currently a Community Development Consultant, owner of CFAR Consulting, a PhD Candidate in Transformative Studies at the California Institute for Integral Studies, http://www.ciis.edu/Academics/Graduate-Programs/Transformative-Studies.html Don is also a part time Lay Ministry Instructor at the Oblate School of Theology. Previous to this Don was appointed to be the Community Leadership Program Director of the 21st Century Leadership Center at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, Texas in May 2003. In his role as Community Leadership Facilitator of the 21st Century Leadership Center, Arispe was principally responsible for developing and initiating popular education based Community Leadership Reflection Circles and Barrio Academies, and a wide array of Community Leadership Training opportunities involving the training of over 2500 community leaders between 2003 and 2008. He is the founder of the Community Leadership Development Collaborative, and http://www.mc-sa.org/research/reports/default.asp, comprised of Community Leadership Development programs operating in and a wide variety of Servant Leadership based community leadership training efforts. Arispe currently is a board member of the Neighborhood Resource Center, http://www.nrc-sa.org and San Antonio Time Dollar Community Connections. Prior to his appointment, Arispe was a Community Development Specialist with Casey Family Programs, http://www.casey.org San Antonio Division and Senior Consultant for Terra Health Inc. http://www.terrahealth.com
Arispe been engaged in community leadership development in a varieties of ways. Arispe has served as a District Field Coordinator for the American Cancer Society in the Rio Grande Valley; lead Youth and Family Ministry leadership activities at the parish and diocesan levels for the archdiocese of San Antonio; co-developed "Critical Thinking Skills from a Gospel Perspective," curricula for young adults with the local Maryknoll Education office, and was one of 4 editors of the book, Don't Call Me Out of My Name Spirituality for the 21st Century, A member of the Christian Left Speaks Out, (2002) written by Mr. Larry Boudreau, was recently quoted in The Creative Therapist by Bradford Keeney PhD, (2009) and has had a book review published in the Journal of Latino/Hispanic Theology, May 1995, Volume II, No. 4, pp. 59-61.
Since 1992 Arispe has facilitated Social Justice/Catholic Social Teaching mini-courses and Theological Reflection Circles for Oblate School of Theology's, (OST) Instituto de Formacion Pastoral, and at one point directed OST’s Lay Ministry Institute, http://www.ost.edu/XPrograms/2008ProgOST.htm Arispe has had the privilege of serving, training and developing advocacy curricula for foster children, the birth parents of these children, foster parents, kinship families and adoptive parents for Casey Family Programs and Texas Department of Child Protective Services. Don currently facilitates and coordinates 11 Community Leadership Reflection Circles involving and supporting over 80 local community leaders engaged in social service on a regular basis.
Arispe is the founder of the San Antonio Kinship Care collaboration (2002); a collaborative body comprised of over 12 local agencies all struggling with the challenge of supporting grandparents, aunt, uncles, and other kin raising their family members’ children. http://www.casey.org/Resources/Initiatives/KinshipCollaborative/
Arispe was also a Senior Consultant with Terra Health Inc., (2002-03). Terra Health was named the #1 Fastest Growing Hispanic Business in the Country by Hispanic Business Magazine in August 2006. http://www.terrahealth.com/index.htm
In short, for 30+ years he has served his community either as a full time, volunteer or professional lay minister, instructor, social worker, or community development specialist.
Arispe holds a BA in Sociology from St. Mary’s University, a Master of Theological Studies with a concentration in Hispanic Ministry from Oblate School of Theology, and a Master of Social Work degree from Our Lady of the Lake’s Worden School. He has also completed graduate hours toward a Master of Urban Studies at Trinity University and hours toward a Master of Divinity at Oblate School of Theology. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Transformative Studies at the California Institute for Integral Studies and officially reach PhD candidacy in May of 2011.
Arispe is married to Kim Arispe, Director of the Quest in San Antonio’s Westside http://www.questsa.com/QuestServices/CommunityServices/QuestCenter.html and proud father of 3 children ages 28, 23 and 19. He is the 4th of 6 siblings and is a native of San Antonio. His father’s family has resided in San Antonio since the late 1700’s and are decedents of the Canary Islands and Mexico. His mother’s family is originally from South Texas and Mexico. He was the first in his nuclear family to earn a bachelor’s degree.
He enjoys traveling and the outdoors; house boating, camping, beer brewing, fishing, hiking, animal watching and spending as much time as possible on his back porch where he enjoys watching sunsets and hummingbirds with his wife, and talking with friends and family around their outdoor fire pit