This part of Idaho is changing. Meet the woman asked to lead the charge
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- Gov. Little appointed Annette Tipton to lead the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs.
- Tipton plans to rebrand the agency and use data to track Latino community shifts.
- Latino leaders see workforce growth potential, especially in health care sectors.
Idaho’s Latino community is growing, diversifying and professionalizing, said Annette Tipton, the new executive director of the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs. Amid all that change, it’s now her job to be a liaison for the 200,000+ Latino Idahoans in the state.
Gov. Brad Little announced the 47-year-old Tipton’s appointment in May, after longtime director Margie Gonzalez retired. At the time, Little called the Latino population an “integral part of the fabric of our state.”
“There are going to be challenges for me in this role,” Tipton said in an interview on a July morning, sitting in the back of a Boise coffee shop.
Some of the roadblocks the Latino community faces are unique. For example, Latino Idahoans aren’t as civically engaged as non-Latinos, Tipton said. But other issues are common to many Idahoans, such as roadblocks with rural health care.
Some of Idaho’s legislators in the 2025 session focused on budget-cutting and determining what spending was justified. Ultimately, the state set up a Department of Government Efficiency task force. During the first DOGE task force meeting, Rep. Josh Tanner, R-Eagle, brought up the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs receiving state funding.
If the Legislature tries to cut the commission’s funding, Tipton said, she’ll be ready to show the office’s efforts and return on investment. “Rather than be concerned or afraid of anything, I’m going to be prepared,” Tipton said.
Growing up in Idaho
When Tipton was a child in Rupert, assimilation and speaking English were important to her family. Her mother’s family is from Monterrey, Mexico, and her father has Chihuahuan and Spanish heritage.
That left Tipton without an appreciation for her culture, she said. That is, until she lived in Heyburn with her grandparents for a year during fifth grade. With them, she developed her Spanish-language skills and her love of Mexican culture and history.
Tipton was raised by a single mother. When she was 21 years old, she visited her mother’s childhood home in Texas. The house had no foundation or plumbing, Tipton recalled. On that trip, she realized some of the sacrifices that had been made for her.
“This was not that long ago,” Tipton said. “To see what she had come from and where she had progressed in her career, in academics, and then to what she expected of me, I mean, it really changed my life.”
Tipton said she carries that knowledge of where she came from with her. “I understand what progress can look like, what opportunity can do for somebody,” she said.
Growing up, it was offices like the Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs that allowed her certain opportunities in her life, Tipton said. For example, Tipton said she won scholarships, including one where she earned $1,500 through what was then called the Hispanic Youth Symposium. At the symposium, she learned and connected about college and job opportunities. It doesn’t sound like a lot, Tipton said now, but back then for her it was everything.
Her career has taken her from the private sector to government, from Washington D.C., to Mexico City, and she has worked for banks and helped translate between English and Spanish in health care.
In 2018, she met her husband in Idaho. The two got married 11 months later. The couple later had a child, Theodora, which means “gift from God.” Tipton is trying to raise her as bilingual.
“She was my miracle baby. I got pregnant at 42,” Tipton said. “It’s very, very important to me that she understands her culture and knows where she comes from.”
Idaho Latinos in government
One of the few known Hispanic members of the Idaho Legislature is Rep. Rep. Soñia Galaviz, D-Boise, an educator — and a fan of Tipton.
Tipton, a Republican, ran for the Legislature in 2024 in West Boise’s District 15 but lost to Democratic incumbent Steve Berch.
Galaviz got to know Tipton during the latter’s unsuccessful campaign for the Legislature in 2024, Galaviz said by phone. There’s an opportunity with the commission to grow and develop the workforce, such as bringing more Latino Idahoans into health care jobs, she said.
“She’s going to do a great job,” Galaviz said. “She cares deeply and is from Idaho and understands the issues that lie ahead.”
The commission was created in 1987 to address issues for Idaho’s Latino population and form a bridge between the government and the community.
Tipton hasn’t spent much time on the job, but she’s already got some plans. She moved the commission’s office to save money on rent, Galaviz said. Tipton said she wants to change the commission’s branding to reflect the diversity of Latino Idahoans. She wants data that will map the changes the Latino community is going through.
If people come to the commission with immigration concerns, Tipton said, the office will direct them to other resources.
“Idaho is a wonderful place to live and to work,” she said. “I feel very, very pleased and blessed that I’m here.”
This story was originally published August 10, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
