Coalition for Adult Basic Education (COABE), Dallas TX March 2025

AvantGarde’s CEO Rebecca Contreras joined the Coalition for Adult Basic Education (COABE) in her home state of Texas for their annual leadership conference, where she welcomed and addressed participants as the opening day keynote to over 4,000 educators and administrators gathered at the Hyatt in Dallas, Texas. COABE’s mission is centered around the education, professional development, empowerment, and service to over 2 million adult learners in the U.S. The constituency they serve in various programs such as adult learning to advance economic mobility in America, and the Move Ahead Adult Learning Program, English as a second language, as well as many others is centric to her passion.

As a high school dropout who received support getting her GED from a similar organization in her young life and career, Rebecca inspired educators with her own LostGirl story—her early start as a young teen mom, and her leadership and entrepreneurial journey leveraging adult learning and mentors to achieve success in her government career, then to start AvantGarde. She also led a session with several hundred adult student learners gathered, where she laid out her seven steps in the journey to pivot and reinvent, as well as three key truths that have led to her business and personal success.