Honoring the Power of Families: Celebrating Hilda Ávila & 25 Years of Family Power
Families In Schools (FIS) is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, including a benefit gala on June 3, 2026, that will honor several individuals who embody FIS’s mission. As we lead up to our gala in June, FIS will be releasing one profile every week on each of our gala’s honorees to celebrate their leadership stories and demonstrate how they honor the spirit of their award.
For the fifth of our recipients, Families In Schools is honored to present the Power of Families Award to Hilda Ávila, the second of two family leader honorees receiving this award. Families are the heartbeat of change. This award honors parents and caregivers whose leadership has transformed schools and communities—proving that when families raise their voices, systems listen. Their courage and love remind us that true educational justice begins at home, and it begins with family power.
“Families In Schools believes that when parents grow in their leadership and raise their voices, we will see the change our children need,” said FIS President and CEO Yolie Flores. “Hilda is living proof.”
A Legacy of Advocacy
If you talk to someone in Wilmington, a neighborhood next to the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro, there’s a good chance they know Hilda. For over more than two decades in this country, she has given to her community in countless ways. She has been honored by Assemblyman Mike Gipson, as well as Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino. She was also recognized as “An Education Hero” in 2017 by Superintendent Michelle King.
The example of working for the progress of the community didn’t come from a program or a workshop. It came from her father.
Hilda grew up in Mexico City, where she lost her mother at the age of eight. Her father, the eldest son in his family, had to work from a young age and never had the opportunity to study. He started working for the Mexico City government by sweeping markets.
There, he found a typewriter and slowly began to learn how to use it. Over the years, he completed his primary education as an adult and became a union leader of the Gustavo Madero Delegation who advocated for the rights of his coworkers.
A Great Community Spirit
Hilda arrived in the United States when she was 21 years old. After the birth of her son Jaziel, she began helping other mothers as an advocate for the Harbor Pregnancy Help Center, supporting families, opening doors, and doing exactly what others had done for her. When her son started school, she began focusing her advocacy on the school system.
“If you really want to change a community, get involved at a school. Why? Because schools are the hearts of communities,” said Ávila.
At Fries Elementary and later Wilmington Middle School, Hilda was an active member of the School Council, the English Language Student Advisory Committee, and the Parent-Teacher Association, working to bring resources to parents. She became a workshop facilitator and supported outreach initiatives for First 5, United Way of Greater Los Angeles, I Heart Wilmington, Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors, and other organizations.
Over time, that commitment led her to Families In Schools, where she has been a parent leader for over a decade.
For more than a decade, Hilda has advocated for all of her community’s needs. During the pandemic, she fought for better support for students and volunteered with Mi Vacuna LA and other programs to provide food to families in need. She is also part of a Los Angeles County project to improve community health.
Currently, Hilda is working with FIS to promote literacy improvement. In 2025, she traveled to Sacramento to advocate for improving reading instruction at the State Education Assembly.
“For me it was a very beautiful experience,” said Ávila. “An empowered woman will never be ignored—especially when she leads with prudence, tact, wisdom, and, above all, her own testimony.”
Shortly after, Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1454, which supports every school in California with teaching children to read using more effective methods.
For Hilda, FIS is not just an organization—it is a space where she has been able to grow without having to stop being herself. She has been a Parent Ambassador, a Parent Warrior, and now a Read LA! Literacy Ambassador at the organization.
“I’ve always liked to get involved, to learn, and to prepare myself,” said Ávila. “What I’ve liked about Families In Schools is that they’ve always respected my principles, even when I disagree. They’ve cared about me as a person and about my well-being. They make me feel like family.”
Raise Your Child, Advocate for the Entire Community
Today, Hilda passes on the lessons she learned from her father and her own experiences to the next generation, with her son Jaziel carrying that legacy forward. She expresses her gratitude to her husband, Lucas Galindo, who has always supported her work in the community.
Jaziel is in the eleventh grade at Banning High School’s fire academy and last year introduced a bill on student rights to the legislature in Sacramento. Following his mother’s example, he now uses his own voice and keeps the family tradition of civic engagement, advocacy, and leadership alive.
Jaziel isn’t the only young person Hilda has raised with such love. Over the years, she has cared for dozens of children in her community, and many of them remain a part of her life. For her, there is no greater satisfaction than being present in the moments that matter—when a mother tells her that she was the one who listened to her child when no one else would, when she sees a young person find their way. That joy, she says, is priceless.
“We always have a purpose, and that purpose is to improve the quality of life of our children, to heal our own wounds. If we truly want to do something, we have to do it from within and with our hearts.”