Alma Lizzette Cárdenas-Rodríguez

Alma Lizzette Cárdenas-Rodríguez serves as Auburn’s Director of Community Cultivation. She is a México-Estadounidense poet, storyteller and mentor born and raised in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California. She is proud to be a second-generation Latina, and daughter of parents that migrated from Mexico’s Durango and Jalisco states. 

Her upbringing was heavily influenced by her protestant Latina faith community whose unwillingness to engage or answer her questions led her to seminary school. Alma holds a Master of Arts in Transformational Urban Leadership from Azusa Pacific University, an Urban Youth Workers Certificate from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a Bachelor in Christian Ministry from Facultad de Teología. She is her own definition of a wife, mother, friend, mentor, mentee, pastora and teóloga who values truth, justice, and the prophetic voice of our youth and women of color. 

Before joining Auburn Theological Seminary, she served as the MATM Programs Manager and Academic Advisor at Fuller Theological Seminary. 

In her free time, she enjoys reading and writing poetry, hosting Wine+ Write, a journaling and sensory space for women to connect to the well of stories she believes we all carry within, and most importantly losing track of time with her husband Sergio and their daughters Esther and Abigail.