Lindsey Navarro

Lindsey Navarro is the founder and Executive Director of El Centro Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides financial education and business training to the Latino community in South Louisiana, delivered in Spanish. Since its founding in 2018, El Centro has served more than 5,500 Spanish-speaking individuals through workshops and consultations, and reached more than 68,000 virtually.
Prior to launching El Centro, Lindsey spent seven years with LiftFund, where she was the first bilingual loan officer hired outside of Texas. As Business Development Officer, she led efforts to expand small business lending in Louisiana and helped deploy over $1.2 million in microloans to Latino entrepreneurs across Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, and Tennessee.
Lindsey holds an MBA from Loyola University of New Orleans and a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from St. Peter’s University. She serves on the Steering Committee of the See Change Collective and is a board member of Market Umbrella. She has also held leadership roles with several local organizations, including the Crescent City Community Land Trust, Committee for a Better New Orleans, and Fund 17.
Her past civic engagement includes service as Professional Development Chair for the Hispanic Young Professionals of Louisiana, a program of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Louisiana. She is a 2018 Bryan Bell Metropolitan Leadership Forum alum, 2017 Nexus City Fellow, 2017 New Orleans Civic Leader Academy Fellow, and 2015 NALCAB Colegio Community Economic Development Fellow. Lindsey was recognized in 2014 with the Excelencia Award for Community Service – Business by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Louisiana and was featured as a “Héroe Local” by Telemundo 42.