Meet the Co-Founders
The co-founders of Alchemy Blueprint Collective serve as University leaders within the Division of Student Affairs at minority-serving, public universities. They both have undertaken roles that were created to provide strategic mid-level leadership. The co-founders of Alchemy Blueprint Collective collectively have served as transformational educators, practitioners, and leaders across educational sectors (primary, secondary, higher education – both undergraduate and graduates), non-profit, and for-profit entities. Across the arc of their careers, they have leveraged their creativity, authenticity, cultural humility, and equity-centered leadership, to establish new teams, launch inaugural units and innovative programs, drive strategic planning processes to cultivate alignment between values, purpose, and measurable impact. They have guided institutional and community-wide initiatives and manage high performing teams, lead, coach and sponsor countless emerging leaders seeking purposeful leadership opportunities, individuals committed to transforming systems with equity at the center, and established executives navigating complexity, all while navigating leadership during times of great flow and uncertainty.
Throughout their leadership journeys, they bring a culturally relevant lens and a servant-leadership disposition. Collectively, the team brings over forty years of experience leading people, programs, systems, and communities. This includes:
- Building and scaling inaugural departments and equity initiatives
- Stepping into inaugural positions to innovate and launch new endeavors at the divisional and institutional level
- Leading both emerging and established teams through change and transformation
- Designing and delivering leadership development programs that center justice, equity, and inclusion
- Coaching professionals at all levels to align their leadership practice with purpose and belonging
- Advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies at every level of an organization
- Facilitating small to large scale strategic planning processes for teams, units, divisions, institutions and communities
- Establishing evaluation and assessment plans using an equity and data-driven approach
This lived and professional experience grounds our approach to consulting: we know the complexity of institutional change, and we bring both vision and strategy to help individuals, organizations, and communities move from intention to impact.
Rachel Romero Camacho, PhD, (she/her/ella), is a first generation, system-impacted, Latina higher education scholar/practitioner, leadership architect, entrepreneur and equity advocate. Across Dr. Camacho’s professional trajectory, she has worked to ensure that students have access to equitable pathways to college, and a transformational college experience where they can thrive, succeed, and graduate. As a leadership architect, Dr. Camacho has mentored, coached and guided rising leaders across industries that are prepared to address social problems from a human-centered, justice-informed approach. Her research lies at the intersection of education, race, space, class and gender, with a focus on increasing access to an equitable education for historically marginalized and minoritized students and communities. Dr. Camacho holds a B.A. in Sociology from Pitzer College, an M.A. and Ph.D in Higher Education and Social Justice from Claremont Graduate University.
Dr. Camacho holds a B.A. in Sociology from Pitzer College, an M.A. and Ph.D in Higher Education and Social Justice from Claremont Graduate University.
Armando Madrid, EdD, (he/him/él), is a first-generation, Latinx and queer leader, educator, and researcher. Dr. Madrid’s professional objectives revolve around facilitating staff and student learning and self-advocacy rooted in social justice. He believes in providing a critical lens on lifelong pedagogical learning for students, staff, and faculty while working to promote diverse, equitable, and inclusive praxis in education. He lead’s from a place of purpose where he continues to create spaces where first generation staff and students are provided the tools to successfully maneuver the system of higher education.
Dr. Madrid holds a B.A. in Chicano/a Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, an M.A in Education from California State University, Long Beach, and an Educational Doctorate focusing on Diversity and Equity in Education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Meet our consulting team
Our consulting team is made up of trusted collaborators with diverse expertise, lived experiences, and strengths that complement and expand the work of our co-founders. Together, we bring deep knowledge across leadership development, equity-centered practice, organizational strategy, and student success, allowing Alchemy Blueprint Consulting to meet each engagement with care, rigor, and intention as we continue to grow.
Marco Antonio Cruz is a senior leader in higher education who leverages strategic thinking, data analytics, applied research, and his experience as a scholar/practitioner to advise and empower executive and operational teams to impact and amplify student success. With almost three decades of experience across a range of institutional and community contexts, Marco Antonio is a subject matter expert in college access and student success; strategic, academic and budget planning; enrollment and change management; program development and evaluation; assessment of student learning to support continuous improvement; leadership development; data infrastructure and analytics, and; accreditation and P-20 policy.
He currently serves as the chief institutional research and data officer while leading the Institutional Research & Strategic Analytics team in the Office of the Provost at San José State University and is an active Peer Evaluator for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC). Marco Antonio serves on key governance bodies including, but not limited to, the Strategic Planning Steering, WSCUC Steering, Accreditation Review, Academic Planning, and Strategic Enrollment Management Committees. As a consultant, Marco Antonio was the conceptual architect of the Children and Youth Services Master Plan for the City of San José (2024) and is the founder and lead faculty member for The Advancing Data Value & Insights for Strategic Engagement (ADVISE) Institute (2026).