Nearly two decades after graduating from UHD, Joel J. de León advises organizations on data privacy, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, helping them navigate everything from evolving privacy regulations to AI governance. Before becoming an attorney, de León was an international student searching for an affordable path to college and, eventually, a bilingual educator who spent nine years in the classroom.

“You never know where you are going to end up,” de León said.

His journey at UHD began while attending Jeff Davis High School, now Northside High School, where he participated in a summer program led by UHD faculty and staff that introduced Houston students to the university. The program offered de León a $4,000 scholarship, with additional matching support from UHD. At a time when he remembers a 15-hour semester costing about $1,500, the funding initially appeared to put a four-year university within reach but international student tuition rates remained an obstacle.

When de León shared his situation with Dr. Robin Davidson, she began looking for another way to help, advocating on his behalf and connecting him with additional scholarship support that made attending UHD possible. “That email, that call made the difference,” de León said.

Davidson’s support became part of a larger community de León found at UHD. Despite coming in as an honors student, he remembers the transition to college being difficult. 

“College was not easy. I remember struggling my first year, like many students,” de León said. “But the community, the professors that encouraged us, the mentorship; it was fantastic.”

Many of the friends he had gone through the summer program with also enrolled at UHD, giving him a familiar support system as he adjusted to college and began figuring out what he wanted to pursue. An interest in the humanities and political science initially drew de León toward law, but the cost of law school made that path feel out of reach at the time.

He eventually found his way to bilingual education, a decision that began as a practical path to a career but grew into something more. De León earned his bachelor’s degree in Bilingual, Multilingual and Multicultural Education from UHD in 2005 and went on to spend nearly a decade as a bilingual educator. “I pursued education, and I loved it,” de León said. “But I was always thinking I still wanted to go to law school and see what it was like to be an attorney.”

That lingering interest became his next step. De León took the LSAT and eventually moved to Minnesota to pursue his J.D. at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. After law school, he began his legal career in education and immigration law before moving into an in-house counsel role with a global education organization, where his work increasingly intersected with data privacy and cybersecurity.

“When you deal with education, you are dealing with sensitive data for employees and students, from personal to health information,” de León said. As data breaches and cybersecurity concerns grew, so did his interest in protecting that information.

De León recently joined Winthrop & Weinstine as counsel in the Minneapolis-based firm’s Data Privacy, Cybersecurity, & Artificial Intelligence practice. “It’s about protecting people, the company, the public,” de León said of the work. In his new role, he advises organizations on how they collect, use and protect data while navigating evolving privacy requirements, cybersecurity concerns and the growing use of AI.

As a first-generation college student, de León said the professional world was not something he had seen within his family or immediate circle. Having once been a student unsure of his own next step, he understands how daunting it can feel to figure out where a degree might lead. “Now I’m the professional in the office,” de León said.

His advice to current Gators is not to have every step figured out, but to find something they are interested in, put in the work and keep persevering through setbacks. 

“No one gets better without practice,” de León said. “What sets you apart is the work, the failures, getting up and continuing.”