Maria del Carmen Santacruz Rendon (she goes by Carmen) grew up on the border of Mexico and the USA. She went to school in Mexico and got the equivalent of an Associate’s degree in Accounting. She moved to the US in 1997. Her first experience as an interpreter/translator came when one of her children's teachers asked her to help a family that needed interpretation. Working with teachers and Family Advocates enabled her to see the need for this service, and she became one for the Early Head Start Family Center of Portland. She was an active parent in her children's education and a member of two Policy Councils holding the positions of State Representative and Co-chair.

Carmen moved to Albany in 2007. In 2009, she started working for Kidco Head Start as an interpreter/translator and in 2013 became a Family Advocate for the same program and held this position for five years. In 2018 started working for LBLESD as an interpreter/translator for the Special Education and Evaluation Services program, helping with evaluations for Spanish monolingual/bilingual children and translations of documents such as eligibility reports and IEPs.  Also, in 2018, she began working for LBCC as a GED Orientation Specialist for the ABS program.

Currently, Carmen is working as one of the Coordinated Enrollment Specialists for the Preschool Promise program in the Early Learning Hub. She loves to travel, music, dancing, and hiking. On weekends you can find her dancing to a Zumba class or hiking on a mountain close by.