Phillip “Felipe” Vargas was born and raised in Von Ormy on the southwest side of San Antonio. Felipe is currently a Visiting Lecturer of Sociology at San Antonio College where he teaches Introductory Sociology, Social Problems, Marriage and the Family and DrugUse and Abuse. Felipe is Co‐Founder of the FIRME process. The FIRME process provides resources and opportunities for immigrants to engage in personal and community development through critical pedagogy, grassroots organizing, andcollective action. He is co‐ founder of the Campecine Film Festival, a community building experience that moves audiences from empathy to solidarity by engaging participants in participatory theatre dialogues. As the Director of the Campecine Youth Academy (CYA). Various varriomentaries such as “The Contaminated Valley” have won several awards including the U.S. EPA Environmental Leadership Award, Best Overall at the 2006 Palm Springs Student Film Festival, 1st Place at the 2006 California Environmental Expo, and the US President’s Environmental Youth Award, as well as the San Antonio Artist Foundation’ Tobin Artist Excellence Award in 2011. Felipe’s professional experience incorporates his academic training, community-based counseling, and collaborative supervisory skills to assist clients and their families with positive outcomes. Felipe’s effective leadership skills allow for him to be team oriented and able to build and maintain solid relationships with clients, coworkers, and agencies.

Felipe earned a BA in Political Science and Mexican American Studies from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas (STMU) and earned a MSc in History & Philosophy of Education from Indiana University Bloomington (IUB). Felipe recently completed his Ph.D. in Sociology and earned a Mexican American Studies portfolio from the University of Texas at Austin (UT).

Felipe’s scholarship as an action research critical ethnographer focuses on youth‐led Investigación y Acción Participativas (IAP), critical ethnovideography, and the ways youth, families, and communities can organize themselves through themedium of art. He works as a national Educational Consultant for Ruby Payne’s aha! Process, Inc. He formerly served as a Congressional Legislative Aide to a member of the Texas House of Representatives in San Antonio, TX and Visual Research Director at the Institute for Community Research’ (ICR) Youth Action Research Institute (YARI) in Hartford, CT. Before pursuing a graduate degree at Indiana University in Bloomington Felipe served as a San Antonio Education Partnership Advisor at Robert E. Lee High School and was also a Social Science educator and tennis coach at John F. Kennedy High School in the Edgewood I.S.D. in San Antonio, and Desert Mirage High School in the Coachella Valley U.S.D. in Thermal, CA. He was co-founder and later elected to the Board of Directors of United We Dream (UWD) as well as co- founder and advisory board member of the National Immigrant Youth Alliance (NIYA). Felipe was one of NIYA’s national youth organizers for various campaigns and actions of the Undocumented Unafraid Immigrant Rights Social Movement such as #WeWillNoLongerRemainintheShadows and the #BringThemHome project that increased asylum-seeking applicants over 3000 percent according to US CIS. Specifically, he practiced trauma informed trainings in preparing undocumented youth engaging in civil disobedience and risking deportation.He also served RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services), as the Director of Education from 2014 to 2016.RAICES provides legal and educational services to more than 1/5 of the unaccompanied refugee children that enter the U.S. He also served as National Field Director for the National UnDACAmented ResearchProject (NURP) under Dr. Roberto Gonzales then at Harvard University.

Prior to joining the faculty at San Antonio College, he was a qualified mental health professional for rural South Texas counties as a member of Camino Real’sMobile Crisis Outreach Team (MCOT). MCOT’s provide specialized services for individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. In addition, Felipe was a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor Intern (LCDC-I) as well as an MCOT Crisis CaseManager.