Alejandro Garay

Center for Leadership in Disability

Georgia State University, GA

Alejandro Garay is an experienced journalism professional with extensive graphic design and management skills. He holds a degree in journalism from the Instituto Superior de Periodismo Mariano Moreno, Argentina.

Alejandro began his career in his hometown, Santiago del Estero, Argentina, where he worked for 10 years as a reporter for a local newspaper. With experience in graphic design, he was named Director for the new Info Graphics Division, and the last few years in the company he performed as the head of the Graphic Design Department and newsroom liaison.

He moved to Panama in 2000, where he was offered a position as the head of the Graphic Design department at Editora Panamá América (EPASA Group), producing the daily papers Crítica Libre and Panamá América. Upon his arrival to the United States, Mr. Garay made a career at Mundo Hispánico, a free Spanish-language newspaper established in 1979 in Atlanta. He performed as graphic designer, production editor and operations manager. In addition to several other accomplishments, Mr. Garay has led the Mundo Hispánico Personajes Destacados del Año awards project, which recognizes the contributions to society of outstanding individuals and organizations from Georgia’s Hispanic community. His specialties include graphic design, ad layout, pagination, production and project management, multimedia publishing, recruitment and training. He currently co-owns the marketing agency Matrix Latino, a company focused on multimedia campaigns through traditional and new outlets, mainly for those who intent to reach out the Hispanic market in the Southeast. As a member of the LGBTQ community, he felt inclined to collaborate with non-profit organizations in causes that support initiatives to increase tolerance of differences, and promote equality of rights for all segments of society. Having a nephew with Down syndrome has made Alejandro look at this issue under a different light and inspired him to get involved in the field.

He currently collaborates with:

• Latino Link, a Latino LGBTQ entity that provides support services to Latin@s of any sexual orientation and any gender identity in Georgia.
• Vida/Life, a project to prevent and reduce substance abuse and the transmission of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C among at-risk, Latin@s young adults (18-24y.o.). This is a shared initiative by Georgia State University and Cetpa.
• GHARIC, or Georgia Health Alliance for Refugee and Immigrant Communities, promotes health literacy, health insurance literacy, patients’ rights and healthcare access for limited English proficient, uninsured, low-income and vulnerable populations.

Alejandro recently joined the Latino Community of Practice, a program part of the Center for Leadership in Disability of Georgia State University.