Department

fit
Bio
Antonia Hernndez is president and chief executive officer of the California
Community Foundation. In that capacity, Ms. Hernndez oversees all
operational and programmatic aspects of the foundation's activities. The
California Community Foundation works to strengthen the capacity of the
nonprofit sector in Los Angeles County so they can more effectively work
toward improved quality of life for all Angelenos. Previously, Ms.
Hernndez was president and general counsel of the Mexican American
California
Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), a national nonprofit
Community
litigation and advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the civil rights
Foundation
of the nation's Latinos through the legal system, community education,
President
Justice
and research and policy initiatives.
Sandra R. Hernndez, M.D., is chief executive officer of The San Francisco
Foundation. She previously served as the director of public health for the
City and County of San Francisco. She currently serves on the boards of
the Council on Foundations, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, and
Corporation for Supportive Housing. She is also a trustee of the Western
Asbestos Settlement Trust, and a member of the Institute of Medicines
Committee on Implementation of Antiviral Medication Strategies for an
Influenza Pandemic. Her prior affiliations include President Clinton's
Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the
Healthcare Industry, The Pew Commission on Environmental Health,
Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Session on
Philanthropy, American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), and
San Francisco Health and
National Alliance for Hispanic Health. She is an assistant clinical professor
Foundation
Human
at UCSF School of Medicine and maintains an active clinical practice at San
President
Services
Francisco General Hospital in the AIDS clinic.

First Name Last Name Title

Antonia

Hernandez

Sandra

Hernandez

Eric

Hilda

Garcetti

Los Angeles
City Council
President

Solis

Congresswom
an, D-Los
Energy,
Angeles
Labor, HHS

Office of
Urban Policy

Eric Garcetti (born 1971) is an American politician, an elected member of

the Los Angeles City Council and is its current President of the Council. He
represents the 13th District. He is the son of former Los Angeles county
district attorney Gil Garcetti. Garcetti taught public policy, diplomacy, and
world affairs at the University of Southern California and Occidental
College prior to his election. In 1998, the Rockefeller Foundation selected
him as a Next Generation Leadership Fellow. Garcetti attended high school
at Harvard-Westlake School and received a B.A. from Columbia University,
where he was President of the St. Anthony Hall literary society, and M.I.A.
in International Affairs from School of International and Public Affairs at
Columbia University. He studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University
and also studied at the London School of Economics. He is an avid
photographer, jazz pianist and composer. He lives in Echo Park with his
partner of eleven years, Amy Elaine Wakeland. He was elected to the Los
Angeles City Council in 2001 and reelected in 2005. As a City Councilman,
he has made housing and economic development, the environment,
community engagement, neighborhood beautification, and international
diplomacy his main issues.
First elected in 2000, Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis is serving her fourth
term in the U.S. House of Representatives. She represents California's
32nd Congressional District, which includes portions of East Los Angeles
and the San Gabriel Valley. Prior to her election to Congress, Solis served
eight years in the California state legislature. In August 2000, Solis
became the first woman to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage
Award for her pioneering work on environmental justice issues in
California. In 2003, she became the first Latina appointed to the powerful
Committee on Energy and Commerce where she is the Vice Chair of the
Environment and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee and a member of the
Health and Telecommunications Subcommittees. She is also a member of
the House Committee on Natural Resources. In March 2007, Solis was
named a member of the newly created House Select Committee on Energy
Independence and Global Warming. Solis is Vice Chair of the Democratic
Steering & Policy Committee and serves as a Senior Whip, as well as a
Regional Whip for Southern California. She is also serving her third term
as the Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus' Task Force on Health
and the Environment. In 2007, Solis was appointed to the Commission on
Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as the Mexico United States
Interparliamentary Group.

Linda

Gloria

Sanchez

Congresswom
an, D-Los
Justice,
Angeles
Labor, HHS

Romero

California
State Senate
Majority
Education,
Leader
Justice

Linda Sanchez was born January 28, 1969 in Orange, California, earned
her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley and in
1995 her Juris Doctor degree at the University of California, Los Angeles,
and was an attorney specializing in labor law prior to her public service
career. She is the sister of Representative Loretta Sanchez, making Linda
and Loretta Sanchez the only sister pair to ever serve in Congress. In
1998 Sanchez joined the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers
(IBEW) Local 441 and became a compliance officer. In 2000 she was
unanimously elected to the position of Executive Secretary/Treasurer of
the Orange County Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO. Sanchez started her
political career after a new 39th Congressional District was created
following the 2000 Census. Following Hurricane Katrina in late August
2005, President George W. Bush suspended the Davis-Bacon Act, a 1934
law which requires government contractors to pay prevailing wages. Linda
Snchez was a very vocal critic of the suspension, and lead the fight to
reverse it. Snchez eventually won, as Bush reverted himself on October
26
California State Senator Gloria Romero was elected to the 24th Senate
District in 2001, representing East Los Angeles and the greater San
Gabriel Valley. As the first woman Majority Leader, Romero has broken
through Californias glass ceiling and has served as a role model for
generations of young men and women committed to public service. As a
Legislator, she has quickly earned the reputation as a groundbreaking
leader of education reform and a tireless advocate for closing the
achievement gap and increasing educational access. Through her
dedicated work, Romero has solidified her position as an education
trailblazer and one of Californias most influential voices in public
education policy.

Martha

Escutia

Tom

Perez

Vilma

Martinez

Martha M. Escutia was first elected to the California Legislature in

November 1992 to represent the heavily Latino 50th Assembly District in
southeast Los Angeles County. In 1998 she was elected to the California
Senate and now represents the 30th Senate District. As a freshman
Senator, Escutia was honored to receive the chairmanship of the Senate
Health and Human Services Committee, and in 2000, she was the first
Latina woman appointed as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. As
an Assemblywoman, Escutia became the first woman to chair the
Assembly Judiciary Committee. Senator Escutia's varied accomplishments
are highlighted by landmark legislation protecting our health and the
environment, improving opportunities for education, protecting the rights
of consumers and workers. She established the first-ever, Childrens
Environmental Health Protection Act of 1999 to ensure that Californias
children are protected from unhealthy levels of air contaminants. Other
notable healthcare policy accomplishments include the development of a
Judiciary,
comprehensive service center for women with HIV/AIDS and a bold step
Former
HHS,
forward for patients' rights by improving access to specialists in managed
California
Domestic
care. Her environmental protection legislation addresses issues such as
State Senator Policy Council hazardous liquid pipelines and the state's ever-increasing waste tires.
Of Puerto Rican descent, he is a supporter of Puerto Rican independence
(although not necessarily of the Puerto Rican Independence Party, PIP),
the Vieques movement, and other progressive causes. He is a member of
Secretary of
the US Congressional Progressive Caucus. Gutirrez has assembled
Labor in
support from a broad section of Chicagoans, including Mexican Americans
Maryland
Labor
and Puerto Ricans.
Vilma Martinez joined Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP as a partner in 1982. Her
practice focuses on federal and state court litigation and employment
counseling. Ms. Martinez has spent the last 25 years advising and
defending corporate employers in labor and employment matters. Vilma
honed her understanding of employment issues in the areas of diversity,
discrimination, EEO compliance and Title VII compliance prior to joining
the firm. She served as President and General Counsel of the MexicanAmerican Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) for nine years.
Prior to that, she was a litigation associate at New York's Cahill, Gordon &
Partner,
EEOC General Reindel, specializing in employment discrimination matters. She started
Munger,
Counsel,
her career as a staff attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1967,
Tolles, Olson Personnel
where she worked on a number of early Title VII cases.

Fred Alvarez is a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he

heads the firm's employment law litigation practice. He is a specialist in all
aspects of labor, employment, and equal opportunity law. Fred is an
acknowledged leader in the San Francisco Bay Area and the state of
California in his area of practice, and is consistently ranked among the top
employment law practitioners representing employers.

Fred

Cindy

Alvarez

Partner at
Wilson,
Sonsini

Chavez

Former Vice
Mayor, San
Jose City
Council

Fred's distinguished career of government service includes two successive

federal sub-cabinet positions, both of which were appointed by the
President and confirmed by the Senate: Assistant Secretary of Labor for
the U.S. Department of Labor (responsible for the Wage and Hour Division
and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs) from 1987 to
1989, and Commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Labor, EEOC Commission (EEOC) from 1984 to 1987.
As Vice Mayor, Cindy Chavez maintained a reputation as an advocate for
improving the quality of life in neighborhoods throughout San Jose. She
was a leader in developing innovative community based programs to
address crime, education, small business development and neighborhood
revitalization. Elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2002, her tenure was
distinguished by implementing goals to make every neighborhood safe
and enhancing opportunities for residents and providing guidance on
Office of
improving city government's service to them. Recognizing the need for
Urban Policy, increased community-based improvements, Chavez continued to be a
Domestic
leading force behind allocating more Redevelopment Agency funds for
Policy Council enhancing neighborhoods.

Monica

Lozano

Cecilia

Muoz

Lozano studied political science at the University of Oregon and holds an

honorary degree from Occidental College. Lozano is the president and
chief operating officer of La Opinin, the largest Spanish-language daily
newspaper in the U.S., which was founded by her family. She has
increased circulation and advertising revenue, and as vice president of
Lozano Communications, Inc., the paper's parent company, Lozano has
expanded into radio and television. She serves on the board of directors of
the Walt Disney Co., the California Health Care Foundation, the National
Council of La Raza, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Union
Bank of California. In addition, she is a trustee of the SunAmerica Asset
Management Corporation, the University of Southern California, and in
Communicati 2000, she was appointed to the Board of Regents of the University of
ons,
California. A member of the California State Board of Education from 1999
Editor, La
Commerce,
to 2001, she served as president in 2001. Lozano is also a former director
Opinion
Education
of the Fannie Mae Foundation.
Cecilia Muoz was born in Detroit, Michigan. Her parents came to the U.S.
from La Paz, Bolivia. As an undergraduate student, she attended the
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. As a graduate student, she attended the
University of California-Berkeley. Currently, she is the Vice President of the
Office of Research, Advocacy, and Legislation at the National Council of La
Raza. Muoz, 37, is a leader in immigration and civil rights policy and is a
major force in such issues as the legalization of undocumented
immigrants, family-based immigration rights, and access to welfare
Senior Vice
benefits and education. Her accomplishments include working as the head
President in
of Legalization Outreach Programs (Catholic Charities) in Chicago in 1996,
Office of
Muoz assisted 5,000 immigrants obtain U.S. citizenship. In this
Research,
organization, she continues to work as an advocate and activist against
Advocacy and
discrimination, inhumane welfare reform for immigrants, and inhumane
Legislation at
immigration policy. Muoz has also spoken against anti-immigration
NCLR
Public Liasion groups.

Susan

Leal

Former
General
Manager, San
Francisco
Commerce,
Public Utilities Treasury,
Commission Energy

Leal was born in San Francisco. She earned a bachelors degree in

Economics and a Juris Doctorate from the University of California at
Berkeley. Beginning in 1976, Leal served as counsel to U.S. House Energy
and Commerce Committees Subcommittee on Oversight and
Investigations. In 1982, she served as senior consultant to the California
State Assembly's Committee on Ways and Means. In 1985, Leal became
vice-president of a health care management company. Leal also worked as
a businesswomen, a lawyer, and an investigator in state and federal
governments. Leal was appointed to the San Francisco Board of
Supervisors in June 1993. She was reelected the following year to a fouryear term. While serving on the Board, she chaired its Finance Committee.
From 1997 to 2004, Leal served as Treasurer of San Francisco, the City's
banker and chief investment officer, winning re-election in 2001 with 87%
of the vote. Her duties as Treasurer also included managing all tax and
revenue collection for San Francisco. She helped increased tax collection
rates, including a 91% increase in delinquent tax collection, representing
more than $26 million in additional revenue. Leal helped introduce the
City Payment Center a one-stop shop for City transactions such as
transit passes, water bills, and passports spearheading the Citys ecommerce initiative which was named one of the top e-government
projects nationwide and launching the nations first audio ATM for the
visually impaired.

Ana

Perez

Maria Elena Durazo

Ms. Perez began her strategic communications career on Capitol Hill,

serving as Assistant Press Secretary and Communications Director to U.S.
Senator Slade Gorton in 1981 and as Press Secretary to U.S.
Congressman John Miller in 1985. In 1989, Ms. Perez joined the
administration of President George H. W. Bush as Press Secretary to Mrs.
Barbara Bush (1989-1993) where, among other duties, she planned and
managed media coverage of all White House State dinners. In 1993, Ms.
Perez moved to Los Angeles, California, to become head of Media
Relations for Creative Artists Agency, Inc. (CAA). At CAA, she provided
strategic and tactical communications counsel to senior management, and
worked extensively with the firm's corporate clients. From 1995-1998, as
Vice President, California Government Relations, at Walt Disney Co., Ms.
Perez directed and implemented business relations with state, county and
municipal governments as well as with industry and business advocacy
groups. Following a fellowship at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of
Government, Ms. Perez was named General Manager of Corporate
Communications and Programs for the Chevron Corporation (1998), where
she directed and managed a range of functions for the global energy
corporation including media relations, speechwriting, employee and
stockholder communications, web-based communications, public relations,
Former
corporate advertising strategic research and corporate contributions. Ms.
Barbara Bush Communicati Perez attended Hunter College in New York City. She is married to
staffer
ons
Theophilus Sims, they have three children.
Maria Elena Durazo is the current executive secretarytreasurer of the Los
Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. She was appointed the
interim executive secretarytreasurer following the resignation of Martin
Ludlow in February 2006, and was voted as the permanent replacement]
on May 15, 2006. She is the widow of Miguel Contreras, who preceded
Labor, Urban Ludlow as the executive secretarytreasurer of the Los Angeles County
LA Labor
Policy,
Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO. From May 1989 until March 2006, Durazo
Council
Domestic
was the president of UNITE-HERE local 11. Durazo was asked by Barack
President
Policy Council Obama to serve as the national co-chair for his presidential campaign.

Eliseo

Medina

Rafael

Ortiz

Paul

Rivera

SEIU

Labor, Public
Liasion,
White House

Founder of
Commerce,
Next Tag
Ambassador
Senior
Advisor, Kerry
'04;
Coronado
Project cofounder
White House

Eliseo Medina has served as international executive vice president of the

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) since 1996, when he made
history by becoming the first Mexican American elected to a top post at
the 1.8 million-member SEIU. Medina began his career as a labor activist
in 1965 when, as a 19-year-old grape-picker, he participated in the
historic United Farm Workers' strike in Delano, Calif. Over the next 13
years, he worked alongside Cesar Chavez and honed his skills as a union
organizer and political strategist. He left the Farm Workers in 1978, after
rising to the rank of second national vice president. He currently is leading
SEIUs efforts to help workers in 17 states in the Southern and
Southwestern United States - including Arizona, Texas, Nevada,
Colorado, Louisiana, Florida, and Georgia - unite in SEIU so they will
have the strength to improve their jobs and the services they provide in
their communities.
NexTag pioneered the concept of calculating total price by using a zip code
to compute tax and shipping charges, in addition to the product price. This
year, the company introduced what it calls "true price" which differs from
most other shopping search services, according to NexTag co-founder and
vice president of marketing Rafael Ortiz. The site's true price is not just
estimated as it is elsewhere, but is calculated in real-time by taking
information directly from shipping tables or formulas provided by retailers.
NexTag also offers a unique price history graph for tech-related products,
showing fluctuations in average price over time. This makes it easier to
decide whether to wait, or perhaps buy immediately if a recent price drop
has made a product more attractive. The company also offers free price
change alerts via email.
Paul Rivera served as the Senior Political Advisor for the Kerry-Edwards
campaign in 2004, after managing New York State for John Kerry in the
Democratic Primaries. He worked for Carl McCall's 2002 gubernatorial
campaign in New York and previously as a White House advance person
from 1994 through 2000. He is a veteran of the past four presidential
elections and the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Democratic National Conventions.

Luis

Navarro

John

Trasvina

Ida

Castro

Luis Navarro served as national political director for the Service Employees
International Union and the John Kerry for President Campaign through
the Iowa caucuses before directing the western regional operations for
America Coming Together (ACT) in 2004. Prior to that, he was a veteran of
the DNC and DCCC as well as serving as a senior campaign or
congressional aide to Congressman Al Wynn and former House leaders
Campaign
Tom Foley and Vic Fazio. Luis began his career managing Maryland House
manager,
Speaker Michael Busch's first general election campaign and working in
Biden
Southern politics. He currently sits on the boards of 21st Century
Presidential
White House, Democrats and the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center and was named a
bid
VP office
Rising Star of 2000 by Campaigns and Elections magazine.
Appointed MALDEF President and General Counsel in November 2006, Mr.
Trasvia began his career at MALDEF in Washington, DC as a legislative
attorney in 1985. He later worked for U.S. Senator Paul Simon as General
Counsel & Staff Director for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on
the Constitution. In 1997, President Clinton appointed Mr. Trasvia as
Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices. As
Special Counsel, he led the only federal government office devoted solely
CEO and
to immigrant workplace rights. He was the highest ranking Latino attorney
President of Justice, Public at the U.S. Department of Justice. After returning to California, he taught
MALDEF
Liasion
immigration law at Stanford Law School.
Ida Castro rose through the ranks of the U.S. Department of Labor before
being named the first Latina to head the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission in 1998. Over the course of her three years as
the agency's leader, Castro implemented numerous changes and initiatives
that improved its ability to provide quality services to the public. She was
then appointed as secretary of personnel for the state of New Jersey.
Castro was born in 1953 in New York City. Her father, Ezequiel, was a
restaurant worker, and her mother, Aurora, was a garment worker.
Although she was born in New York, Castro spent much of her childhood in
Hato Rey, a suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico. As a first-grader in the
Bronx, Castro was struck by the prejudice and bigotry surrounding her
when a teacher instructed Castro that she was not to translate some
classroom instructions to another student who spoke only Spanish. Years
Former EEOC
later, remembering the teacher's disgust as she referred to the student as
Commissione
a "spic," a racial slur for a Hispanic, Castro would be motivated to do what
r
Labor, EEOC she could to defend the rights of all.

Henry

George

Solano

Former
Solicitor of
Labor

Munoz

Former Under
Secretary for
Treasury (on
transition
Treasury,
team)
Commerce

Labor

Henry Solano advises clients on the broad range of labor and employment
laws covering the full range of personnel matters, policies and practices
including those related to anti-discrimination, wage and hour, occupational
safety and health, employment agreements including restrictive covenants
and confidentiality provisions, terminations, whistleblower protections,
collective bargaining, and ERISA coverage and claims. He regularly
participates in the due diligence review and advice concerning labor,
employment and ERISA matters in merger and acquisition (M&A)
transactions. Mr. Solano supports this advice through litigation
representation on labor and employment matters, where he has appeared
in numerous state and federal jurisdictions. He has successfully defended
clients in class action wage hour and ERISA matters, not only at the trial
court level, but the appellate level. Mr. Solano joined Dewey & LeBoeuf
after serving as the Solicitor of Labor for the U.S. Department of Labor
(DOL) and, for a brief time, the Acting Secretary of Labor. In his role at
the DOL, Mr. Solano provided legal and policy advice to the Secretary and
senior department officials, conducted internal investigations of
misconduct by Senior Executives of DOL, and oversaw all legal
enforcement actions taken pursuant to approximately 150 statutes
protecting worker security and establishing workplace safety including the
Occupational Safety and Health Act, Mine Safety and Health Act, Fair
Labor Standards Act, Family Medical Leave Act, Employee Retirement
Income Security Act and the Executive Order on Anti-Discrimination.
George Muoz (1951 - ) Is currently President of Muoz Investment
Banking Group, LLC, a Washington, D.C. based firm focused on emerging
markets and the U.S. Hispanic community. In addition, he is a Partner at
Tobin, Petkus & Muoz, a Chicago law firm focused on commercial and
international transactions; the law firm also has a Washington, DC office.
Mr. Muoz is the former President and Chief Executive Officer of the
Overseas Private Investment Corporation, an independent federal agency
that provides political risk insurance, financing and private equity funds to
U.S. private sector investments in developing countries. He is also a
former Assistant Secretary and Chief Financial Officer of the U.S.
Department of Treasury. Mr. Muoz is a licensed attorney and certified
public accountant. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Altria
Group, Marriott International and National Geographic Society.

Nydia

Velasquez

Congresswom
an, D-NY
White House

George

Sanchez

Professor at
USC

Civil Rights

Congresswoman Nydia M. Velzquez is currently serving her eighth term

as Representative for New Yorks 12th Congressional District. She has
made history several times during her tenure in Congress. In 1992, she
was the first Puerto Rican woman elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives. In February 1998, she was named Ranking Democratic
Member of the House Small Business Committee, making her the first
Hispanic woman to serve as Ranking Member of a full House committee.
Most recently, in 2006, she was named Chairwoman of the House Small
Business Committee, making her the first Latina to chair a full
Congressional committee.
An award-winning scholar of Chicano history and immigration who joined
the College faculty in 1997, Sanchez is director of the USC Center for
Diversity and Democracy. He is the former director of American studies
and ethnicity, a program he helped build into one of the top American and
ethnic studies departments in the nation. He currently serves as the
departments director of undergraduate studies. Sanchez helped bring to
USC a $3.6 million James Irvine Foundation grant supporting
underrepresented doctoral students when he was director of the Irvine
Fellowship Program. A renowned mentor, he has served on the advisory
board for both the USC Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program
and the McNair Scholars Program. A former president of the American
Studies Association, he now chairs its Committee on Graduate Education.
Sanchez also serves on minority scholars committees within the
Organization of American Historians and the American Historical
Association. Sanchezs 1993 book, Becoming Mexican American: Ethnicity,
Culture, and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 19001945 (Oxford
University Press), earned six awards in fields such as immigration history
and Western history. His article Whats Good for Boyle Heights is Good
for the Jews: Creating Multiracialism on the Eastside During the 1950s
won the 2005 Constance Rourke Prize for best article appearing in
American Quarterly. He is presently working on a book about the impact of
Mexican migration upon late 20th century Los Angeles culture, and a
historical study of multiethnic interaction in East Los Angeles.

Tom

Ramona

Castro

Texas
businessman Commerce

Romero

President,
National
Hispanic Bar
Association

Justice

Tom Castro is a seasoned radio entrepreneur who bought his first station
at age 25. Prior to founding Border Media Partners (BMP) in 2002, he
owned and operated stations in Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix and
Riverside/San Bernardino. Castro is the President and CEO of Houstonbased BMP which primarily targets Hispanic listeners and owns 34 radio
stations in San Antonio, Austin, McAllen/Brownsville, Laredo and Waco,
Texas. Prior to entering the radio business, Castro founded a company
that exported oil field equipment to Mexico and lived in Mexico City for
three years. After college, he worked for the U.S. Senate in Washington
specializing in immigration issues, US-Mexican trade and energy policy
and voting rights matters. Castro also served as the National Youth
Director of the Democratic National Committee in Washington, DC. Most
recently, he served as the National Deputy Finance Chairman of the Kerry
for President Campaign and was profiled along with Senator Barack
Obama and MIT President Susan Hockfield in Newsweek as 1 of 10 people
in the U.S. to watch in 2005.
The Hispanic National Bar Association has named Ramona Romero,
corporate counsel for DuPont, as president for 2008-2009. Romero is the
35th president of the HNBA, and the sixth woman to serve in the top post
since the organization was founded in 1972. Romero is a former president
of the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia and co-founder
and director of the Dominican American National Roundtable. She is
currently corporate counsel for Logistics & Energy at E.I. du Pont de
Nemours & Company in Wilmington, Del. She received a bachelor's degree
from Barnard College, Columbia University, in 1985 and a law degree from
Harvard Law School in 1988.

Eva

Plaza

Former
Assistant
Secretary at
HUD

HUD

Eva M. Plaza is the Chief Deputy City Solicitor for the Solicitor's office of
the City of Philadelphia. Ms. Plaza is in charge of the Neighborhood
Transformation Initiative Unit. Prior to this position, Ms. Plaza served as
Assistant Secretary of Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity at the U.S.
Department of Housing and Urban Development. Ms. Plaza was appointed
to a four-year term by President Bill Clinton and was sworn in on
November 8, 1997. As Assistant Secretary, Ms. Plaza vigorously enforced
the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and its amendments, and waged aggressive
education and outreach campaigns in communities across the country.
Prior to her appointment as Assistant Secretary, Ms. Plaza served as
Deputy Assistant Attorney General over the Torts Branch at the U.S.
Department of Justice. Before serving in the Administration, Ms. Plaza was
litigation trial attorney in the Washington, D.C. law firms of Seyfarth,
Shaw, Fairweather & Geraldson and Arent, Fox, Kinter, Plotkin & Kahn
from 1986 to 1993. Ms. Plaza has received numerous awards for
outstanding achievement, including the Albert Arent Pro Bono Award,
1989; the National Conference for College Women Leaders, Woman of
Distinction Award in 1998; and the Hispanic Bar Association's Equal Justice
Award in 2002. She has been recognized as one of the 100 most
influential Hispanics in America, and is a lifetime member of the American
Bar Association's American Bar Foundation. Ms. Plaza graduated cum
laude from Harvard College in 1980. Ms. Plaza studied law at the
University of California Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, where she
served as Associate Editor of the California Law Review. After graduating
from law school in 1984, Ms. Plaza was selected to the highly acclaimed
Attorney General Honors Program of the U.S. Department of Justice in
Washington, D.C. where she was trial counsel in the Civil Division's
Commercial Litigation Branch.

Janet

Murguia

Susan

Castillo

Janet Murgua has become a key figure among the next generation of
leaders in the Latino community. Since January 1, 2005, she has served
as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Council of La
Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy
organization in the U.S. Murgua began her career in Washington, DC as
legislative counsel to former Kansas Congressman Jim Slattery, serving for
seven years. She then worked at the White House from 1994 to 2000,
ultimately serving as deputy assistant to President Clinton, providing
strategic and legislative advice to the president on key issues. She served
as deputy director of legislative affairs, managing the legislative staff and
acting as a senior White House liaison to Congress. She then served as
deputy campaign manager and director of constituency outreach for the
Gore/Lieberman presidential campaign. In that role, she was the primary
liaison between former Vice President Gore and national constituency
NCLR
White House, groups. She also served as a spokesperson for the campaign, working with
president
Public Liasion radio, print, and TV media outlets.
Susan Castillo (born August 14, 1951) heads the Oregon Department of
Education as the Superintendent of Public Instruction.[1] Although she
currently holds an elective statewide non-partisan office, she is a
Democrat, and served from 1997 to 2003 in the Oregon State Senate as a
Oregon, State Education,
member of that party. Before entering politics, she had pursued a career
Superintende Domestic
in broadcast journalism, first for Oregon Public Broadcasting, and later for
nt of Schools Policy Council KVAL-TV in Eugene, Oregon.