JoAnn Chávez grew up in southwest Detroit. Her parents parked cars for Detroit Tigers games at Tiger Stadium, and now, she is being recognized in what she calls a full-circle moment.

“The Tigers have been an important part of my upbringing because we were always there for every game when I was young, [my parents] got paid to flag them in a lot and park them,” Chávez said. “It definitely is, you know, part of who I am, the Detroit Tigers. When they won the World Series, I was a little girl, standing on the balcony of my grandma’s house.”

Ilitch Sports + Entertainment’s Game Changers series, celebrates community members making a profound difference in metro Detroit. In partnership with Comerica Bank, the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Tigers recognize one Game Changers honoree per week during select months throughout the year to receive a $1,000 grant dedicated to the charity of their choice.

Chávez was chosen as a 2024 Hispanic Heritage Month Game Changers honoree due to her work with Michigan Hispanic Collaborative (MiHC). MiHC is a nonprofit organization that provides academic and career support programs and services to enable more Hispanic students to graduate from college and achieve career success.

Chávez founded MiHC in 2018 with other local Latinos to help focus on education for Hispanic youth in metro Detroit.

“I always knew it was going to be education because both of my parents didn’t finish high school,” Chávez said. “They died early due to a lot of dysfunction and too much stuff that’s associated with poverty and a lack of education. I feel so blessed to have an education that it is my obligation to repay, and I feel like I have to give back to my community. But I want to make sure it shouldn’t be this difficult. I want to make it easier for everyone coming behind me.”

Although Chávez said she was shocked to be recognized alongside some people she’s looked up to throughout her life for their work, the recognition was well deserved.

“JoAnn Chávez’s incredible leadership and vision through Michigan Hispanic Collaborative have transformed countless lives by creating pathways to education and economic empowerment,” said Tiffany Harrington, Vice President of Corporate Partnership Activation, Ilitch Sports + Entertainment. “Her passion for uplifting Detroit’s Hispanic community, paired with her dedication to ensuring future generations thrive, makes her an inspiration to all. We are proud to honor JoAnn during Hispanic Heritage Month and celebrate her unwavering commitment to creating a brighter future.”

Chávez said the children she works with every day inspire her and she has so many people to thank who help make her work possible.

“More often than not, I tell people I am nothing special,” Chávez said. “I’m very blessed, because my sister didn’t make it out, some of my cousins didn’t make it out, but I did and there has been a plan, probably since I was born, that if I could make it out, there were things I had to do and this is one of them.

“I am the one who can step up above the actual work and I’m ensuring the direct services can be accomplished. I can do this because of the tables I sit at. I can sit with presidents, boards of governors, legislative members. I enable the work to happen, but I don’t do it alone.”

Developing future college presidents, CEOs, state legislators and teachers is the goal for Chávez, who said representation for the Latino community is extremely important. And MiHC’s trademarked term rings true for her every day, which is “when you educate one Latino, you empower a community.”

“These children deserve the opportunities, and if they join with us and work with us, we will open the doors and give them the golden keys,” Chávez said. “When you think about the golden keys, people think about millions of dollars but the golden keys are opportunity. That’s all it is and seeing a path. Watching people that look like them, that come from communities like them.”

To learn more about Michigan Hispanic Collaborative, visit mihc.org.