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Dr. Albert Reyes: In Service of Others

January 23, 2015

Dr. Albert Reyes found his dream job, not once, not twice, but three times.

A 1981 ASU graduate, Reyes works in Dallas as president and CEO of Buckner International, a global Christian services organization that provides humanitarian aid, community enrichment and prevention programs, foster care and transitional housing services, domestic and international adoptions, and support programs for orphanages in other countries. It also operates seven senior living communities in Texas, including San Angelo’s Baptist Retirement Community.



Reyes recently returned to ASU as the commencement speaker for fall graduation ceremonies in December of 2014. In his personal blog, BucknerPrez, he wrote this about the occasion: 

“Dr. Brian May, ASU President, graciously invited and hosted me as I spoke to over 500 graduates and their families. I had the privilege of sharing the platform with the Honorable Mickey Long, ASU alumnus and chairman of the Board of Regents of the Texas Tech University System. I shared my life story as an ASU alum and drew these four lessons from my experience at ASU: Pursue your calling; Know who you are; Develop the habit of learning; and Develop solutions to the toughest problems.”



However, being the head of an international social services organization and an inspirational speaker could not have been further from Reyes’ mind as he grew up working at his parents’ grocery, laundry and wholesale candy businesses in Corpus Christi.

“We had a very encouraging home environment and the church (First Mexican Baptist Church of Corpus Christi) played a very significant role in our upbringing,” Reyes said.  “Our routine was to go to school, go to work and go to church. We did that just about every week. Our friends and fun were in those circles of life.”

At age 15, Reyes had already picked out his dream job and answered a call to vocational ministry. He planned to go to Baptist seminary right out of high school until, shortly before graduating, he found out that seminary is a graduate program and he would first need an undergraduate college degree. With one of his brothers heading to Angelo State for his M.B.A., and having made some recent ASU connections, Reyes headed to San Angelo with limited knowledge of the university.

“We had previously that summer met some of the youth from First Mexican Baptist Church of San Angelo at a youth camp, and some of them were also ASU students,” Reyes said. “We connected with them really well and we figured, ‘here are some people that we get along with really well, they go to ASU, they think it is a good school and the church is a good church.’ So, I figured that if I had to go to college somewhere, I may as well go with my brother and with a strong church connection, and ASU sounded like a good school.” 

Armed with his family’s business background, Reyes entered the B.B.A. program at ASU. He singled out his business writing professor, Dr. Gerald Lacy, as being particularly influential.

“I’ll never forget how appropriately brutal he was in correcting our writing skills,” Reyes said. “We would write papers and he would mark them all up and send them back. To this day, the ability to write and communicate is one of the skills that I use every day in business and everything I write. It goes back to the skills I learned at ASU with my English professor.”

As the leader of a global Christian services organization, ASU alum Dr. Albert Reyes uses the les... As the leader of a global Christian services organization, ASU alum Dr. Albert Reyes uses the lessons he learned at ASU to help people all over the world.

One memorable “low-light” of Reyes’ time at ASU happened when he was up late after work studying in the library. When all the lights went out, he realized he had been locked in alone, and he had to call the security patrol to un-chain the doors and let him out. But it was that work and study ethic that would stand him in good stead as he moved on to future endeavors.

After earning his ASU degree, Reyes married the former Belinda Ruth Alvarado in 1982 and headed to Dallas and the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. But he also had to work to support his new family, so he took a job with Sprint, then known as U.S. Telephone. 

“Everything I learned at Angelo State in terms of business, I put it right to work in the telecommunications industry,” Reyes said. “I did that during the day and went to seminary for theological training in the evening. My wife was going to the University of Texas at Dallas, working on her master’s and then her doctoral degree.”

After receiving his Master of Divinity degree in theology, Reyes became a pastor at Love Field Church and North Temple Baptist Church in Dallas while taking classes toward his doctorate in missiology. But his first dream job lay to the west, and in 1992 he headed to El Paso as the founding pastor of the Pueblo Nuevo Community Church.

“We started a church, things were going well and I thought I would spend the rest of my ministry there and retire in El Paso,” Reyes said. “It was a really fun church with a contemporary format. I even played the congas in the worship band we had on Sundays. It was a really great situation.”

It got even better after Reyes finished his Doctor of Ministry degree and was courted by several colleges looking for qualified instructors. He soon added “professor” to his list of titles.

“Howard Payne University, which has an extension in El Paso, asked me to teach a couple of courses,” Reyes said. “Hispanic Baptist Theological School also asked me to teach a couple of courses there. It just kind of evolved as part of what I did in ministry. I was interested in teaching what I learned for my doctorate and from the experiences I was having.”

Little did Reyes know, that early foray into academia would lead to a major life change.  In 1999, he was approached as a possible candidate for president of the Baptist University of the Américas in San Antonio. It became his dream job No. 2.

“I helped the school become accredited and certified for the first time in its history,” Reyes said. “That had never happened before and we worked real hard to reach that goal. Then, enrollment and contributions and everything else followed that growth trend and, once again, I found myself in a situation where I thought, ‘I could really do this the rest of my life.’”

But just like in El Paso, it was not to be. In 2007, Reyes was again contacted by a search firm as Buckner Children and Family Services Inc. was searching for a president. Research, prayer and a chance meeting with Buckner International CEO Dr. Ken Hall prompted him to officially throw his hat into the ring. His diverse background paid off, and he began his dream job No. 3.

So, Reyes and his family headed back to Dallas, where it all began at seminary. In 2010, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in global leadership from Andrews University and was promoted to president of Bucker International. In 2012, he became president and CEO. 

Reyes’ family has also thrived in Dallas. He and Belinda have three adult sons, Thomas, David and Joshua, and Belinda has her own career in helping others. She holds a Ph.D. in communication disorders and brain sciences from UT-Dallas and specializes in serving people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries or strokes. She is also an adjunct professor at UT-Dallas in the Callier Center for Communication Disorders. 

“She is a professional in her own right,” Reyes said. “She is a research scientist and a professor. I ‘married up’ as they say.”

Everything I learned at Angelo State in terms of business, I put it right to work in the telecommunications industry.

Dr. Albert Reyes

Unlike Belinda, however, and unlike his time as a pastor or university president, Reyes has limited personal contact with the people he is helping, except when he travels to the often far-flung Buckner ministry sites in countries around the world.

He has enjoyed heading to places like Bangladesh, India, Egypt, Palestine, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Peru, Honduras, Mexico, Ethiopia, Kenya and Russia, as well as cities across Texas. But, mostly, he loves his job because he truly feels he is doing God’s work.

“Blending my diverse experience and background together to lead this organization to serve vulnerable children, orphans and families is one of the most exciting things that I do,” Reyes said. “It’s the kind of thing that Jesus was really focused on, caring for children and families. So every time I get the chance to make a difference in the life of a child or a family, it is the best thing that I can imagine spending my life doing.”

For Reyes, the third time is the charm.