Take Five with Angélica Saavedra: Director of Marketing

As part of our ongoing celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, we are spotlighting some CPS employees whose Latinx culture has positively impacted their service to the District. Meet Angélica (Angie) Saavedra, Director of Marketing for Chicago Public Schools.

Angie joined CPS at the start of 2020 as a marketing project manager before being promoted to her current role. Part of what drew her to the District was the opportunity to use Spanish, her first language, in her day-to-day responsibilities. As Director of Marketing, Angie works to promote our District’s programs and resources through print, digital, and radio advertising. She works tirelessly to ensure that information is available in both English and Spanish and is creative and strategic in tailoring messaging to our District’s Spanish-speaking families.   

What path brought you to this role at CPS?

I grew up in Colombia and moved to the U.S. to go to college at DePaul University. For undergrad, I majored in anthropology and history. During that time I did a lot of ethnographic research and film/archive work for a couple of museums. I then went back to DePaul for graduate school, where I really started to enjoy everything to do with marketing, design, and video production. 

During graduate school, I was working several jobs at once, from bike messenger, to bartender, to janitor, to administrative assistant. I eventually landed a job in healthcare primarily serving the Medicare and Medicaid populations, where I was able to use my Marketing skills. I consider the Marketing role in CPS similar to the healthcare field in a lot of ways, because both are about educating communities on the resources that are available to them.

How does your Latinx background impact your approach to your work at CPS?

I moved to the U.S. not knowing any English, so digesting information was very difficult. When I would receive information from my school, I had to sit with a dictionary to try and translate and figure out what everything meant. This experience has taught me how important it is to appropriately tailor the language in all materials we’re giving to our students and their families. 

What are some of your favorite things about where you grew up in Colombia?

Obviously, the food! And the spirit and the dynamics of the people, who are so incredibly friendly. For us, September is the start of Christmas, so everything is starting to get decorated. I definitely miss Colombia the most during the holidays.

What do you enjoy doing outside of work?

I play rugby for the Chicago Women’s Rugby Club. I took a break this year, but I’m planning to get back to it next season. I also travel a lot. Two of my favorite hobbies are ice climbing and scuba diving, so I like to travel to places where I can do those activities. This past April, I went to Bolivia, which was amazing because they have a lot of hiking, and I’m planning on going to Malaysia in January. 

What is a fun fact about you that people might not know?

I collect earrings from all the places I travel. They’re the perfect souvenir because they’re easy to bring home. I have over 120 pairs now, which is too many! And anyone who has been in meetings with me knows that many of them are the size of my head!