Today we’d like to introduce you to Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Incorporated.
Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Incorporated, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Lambda Theta Alpha’s story begins in 1975 at Kean University, where 17 visionary women set out to create something that didn’t yet exist: a sisterhood built specifically to support Latina students navigating higher education. At the time, Kean had just introduced bilingual studies, opening the door for more women of Latin descent to attend. Our founding mothers saw a need for community, mentorship, and belonging that wasn’t being met, and they built it themselves — establishing Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc. as the first Latina sorority in the nation.
From those beginnings, our mission has stayed rooted in three pillars: Unity, Love, and Respect. Lambda Theta Alpha has always been intentional about being inclusive to all women, regardless of race, color, creed, sexual identity, or gender expression — because at our core, we exist to serve the “universal woman” and develop leaders who give back through political, social, cultural, and educational impact.
Over five decades, that founding vision has grown into a national sisterhood of more than 11,000 members, with 164 collegiate and 31 alumnae chapters across the United States and Puerto Rico. In 2010, we became the first and only Latino Greek organization to serve as a national collegiate partner to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a relationship that has since grown to include the annual St. Jude Walk/Run to End Childhood Cancer. Since the partnership began, our sisterhood has raised over $750,000 for the hospital. In 2015, we worked to launch the Lambda Theta Alpha Foundation, an independent non-profit organization, to fund scholarships, educational programming, and humanitarian relief for our members and communities across the country. Last year alone, our members contributed to raising over $53,000 for the Foundation and we established a $50,000 endowment to support the success of first-generation women students at Kean University where LTA was founded in 1975. Since the foundation was established, our sisterhood has helped raise more than $330,000 for the Lambda Theta Alpha Foundation.
In December 2025, we celebrated our 50th Anniversary — a milestone that brought our members together from across the country to honor the legacy of our founders, reflect on five decades of growth, and reaffirm our commitment to the values that built this organization. As we look toward the next 50 years, Lambda Theta Alpha remains dedicated to the mission that built our foundation in 1975: building strong, educated and engaged leaders and fostering a sisterhood that lifts up the communities we serve.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t always been easy — and we don’t think it should have been. Being the first Latina sorority in the nation meant our founding mothers had no blueprint to follow. In 1975, they were building an organization from nothing, at a time when spaces like this simply didn’t exist for Latina students in higher education. That kind of pioneering work takes vision, but it also takes resilience: convincing a university, a community, and even each other that this sisterhood was worth building and sustaining.
Growing from those 17 founding mothers to more than 11,000 members didn’t happen by accident — it took decades of members stepping up to lead, mentor, and reinvest in the organization.
So no, it hasn’t been a perfectly smooth road. But every challenge has reinforced the same thing our founding mothers believed in 1975: that this sisterhood, and the impact we have on our communities, is worth the work, and our legacy is proof of that.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Lambda Theta Alpha is known for developing strong leaders at every level from our undergraduates to our alumnae. Our work spans four main pillars: sisterhood, academics, philanthropy, and civic and political engagement, and it’s that last pillar, our commitment to civic engagement and professional development, that we’re especially proud of.
Our National Political Education Initiative (PEI) Committee is the engine behind that work. Each year, PEI runs Lambda Hill Days, our flagship advocacy program that brings a competitively selected cohort of members to Washington, D.C. to meet directly with their Senators and Representatives. In 2026, we hosted our tenth annual Lambda Hill Days, where a 30-member cohort focused on issues ranging from immigration and education reform to reproductive and voting rights. The program doesn’t stop at training — cohort members have secured dozens of meetings with members of Congress in a single week, learned directly from Lambda Theta Alpha alumnae now working on Capitol Hill, and built relationships with organizations like Voto Latino, whose Partnerships & Advocacy team has advised our cohorts on effective advocacy strategy.
We’ve built on that foundation with formal national partnerships that reflect our nonpartisan commitment to voter engagement. In August 2025, we became an official partnering organization with the League of Women Voters, aligning our chapters with the League’s century-long work in nonpartisan voter education, using tools like the VOTE411 portal to help our members and their communities register, get informed, and vote. We’re also a longtime partner of Voto Latino, and we stand alongside FWD.us’s I Stand With Immigrants campaign, having joined its national Day of Action every year to advocate for undocumented students, faculty, and community members.
What sets us apart is that this work isn’t symbolic — it’s structural. Civic engagement isn’t a one-off event for us; it’s built into our national committee structure, our annual programming, and the professional skills we equip our members with, from public policy literacy to direct advocacy experience with elected officials. We’re proud that a member can join Lambda Theta Alpha as an undergraduate and leave with real experience navigating Capitol Hill, engaging in nonpartisan voter mobilization, and organizing around the issues that matter most to her community — skills she carries into whatever career or cause she pursues next.
We also believe in sisterhood for a lifetime. After graduation, our members are encouraged to remain actively engaged with the sisterhood by maintaining active status through a local alumnae chapter, alumnae association, or volunteer leadership opportunities within the sorority. A unique fact that also sets us apart is that we believe sisterhood can come at any age and allow women who have already obtained their baccalaureate degree to apply for and pursue membership at the alumnae level, provided they are not already affiliated with a social greek-lettered organization.
Lastly, we are an academic sorority, and education has always been at the heart of who we are. We believe deeply in the power of education to open doors, create opportunities, and change the trajectory of lives and families. For many of our members, that journey carries even greater meaning, as they are the first in their families to attend or graduate from college. LTA provides a sisterhood that encourages them to persist, achieve, and see possibilities beyond what they may have imagined for themselves. We take tremendous pride in academic excellence and in seeing our members pursue education at every level, from undergraduate and graduate degrees to doctoral and postdoctoral work. Through education and the support of LTA, our members are empowered not only to achieve for themselves, but to uplift their families, serve their communities, and create pathways for those who will follow.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lambdalady.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lta1975/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lambdaladies/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lta1975
