Angelica Valdes has worked for the Diocese of Kalamazoo since 2011 as Coordinator of the Instituto San Agustín de Kalamazoo (Diocese of Kalamazoo's Hispanic lay leadership formation program). This program has become a national model. During these years, 260 Hispanic women and men have graduated from this program and take leadership roles in the ministries of the parishes and in the communities of southwest Michigan. It is currently projected that 50 more leaders will graduate this summer. Angelica has been directly involved in the Hispanic Ministry in the United States since 2005. In the diocese she has been part of the multicultural ministry staff especially in the Hispanic ministry.
In 2017, representing Kalamazoo, she traveled to Washington DC to advocate before the senators and house representatives of Michigan and Ohio for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients. In 2022 she was invited by the Bishop of the Diocese of Kalamazoo to be part of the organizing committee for the Synod of Synodality at the diocesan level and currently she is on the organizing committee for the Synod on Priestly life and Ministry. She was a member of the Board of Trauma Recovery Associates.
Angelica graduated as a Dentist at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León (UANL). In 1993 she started her private practice in Monterrey providing dental care to children and adults. In the that same city she and her husband were coordinators of the Young Married Couples group in her parish. In the summer of 2000, due to her husband's work, they moved to Michigan. Angelica has since volunteered with various non- profit organizations dedicated to supporting women and children in Kalamazoo as well as migrant farmworkers in Southwestern Michigan. Some of these organizations are the Diocese of Kalamazoo, Junior League of Kalamazoo, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, YMCA of Greater Kalamazoo, St. Catherine of Siena parish, and many more.
In 2005, she co-founded a Hispanic Basic Ecclesial Community in Kalamazoo and a group of Latina women in Kalamazoo with the sole purpose of establishing a supportive friendship where we share our language and culture with our families in Michigan.
Angelica and her family have resided for 20 years in Portage. Together with her husband and daughter, they enjoy the activities of each season of the year in beautiful Michigan. She is very blessed to live here and have many friends from other countries in the world.
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