Marisa Franco is a Phoenix-based organizer, writer and strategist. She is the Executive Director and co-founder of Mijente and Mijente Support Committee, a digital and grassroots organizing hub for Latina/o and Chicanx people. In her nearly 20 years of work as an organizer and movement builder, Marisa has helped lead key grassroots organizing campaigns rooted in low-income and communities of color, characterized by their innovation and effectiveness. She led the #Not1More Deportation campaign, recognized in 2014 by the National Organizing Institute as Campaign of the Year and co-authored How We Make Change is Changing, which describes Not1More’s campaign strategy and structure that activated hundreds of organizations across sectors and communities to demand a stop to deportations. Media includes: The Washington Post, The New York Times, Univision, Politico, Democracy Now, MSNBC, CNN.

Rossana D’Antonio is a Deputy Director for Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, the largest department of public works in the nation. She provides executive leadership for the development of sustainable communities, resilient housing, and emergency management. With 30 years of broad-based experience, Ms. D’Antonio has extensive background in many disciplines of engineering, management, operations and business processes. She has successfully established herself as an expert in a STEM-related profession, navigating the political environment of county government, providing public works infrastructure services with dwindling resources, and addressing communities with diverse interests. Media includes: Ms. Foundation for Women, The Beat Radio Show, Pasadena Now 92.3 FM.

Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez is the president and executive director of NextGen America, the largest youth-vote mobilization organization in the country. She is a Millennial, a civil rights leader and a 2020 U.S. Senate candidate who has spent the last 20 years taking on some of the most powerful special interests in her home state of Texas. Cristina’s dedication to lifting up the largest and most diverse generation in history is rooted in her conviction that young people have the power — and the right — to determine the future of our country. Before joining NextGen, Cristina was the founder and executive director of Jolt, an organization dedicated to lifting up the voice, vote, and issues impacting Latinos in Texas. The organization became well-known for its vibrant and attention-grabbing events infusing political activism with beloved elements of Texas and Latino culture. Media includes: The New York Times, USA Today, Southern Living Magazine, NPR.

Sherridan Schwartz is a Visiting Professor in the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at Texas Southern University. She does extensive research in the fields of political science, race, higher education, sports, and African American Studies and African diaspora studies. She is a former program specialist at Rice University, where she helped develop a pioneering international exchange program for Brazilian scholars. She has worked in higher education for nearly ten years as faculty, staff and administration – and also has significant government and Government Affairs experience. Professor Schwartz is a former writer and editor, who has taught and written about international politics, immigration policy, and education and health care policies of North and South American (particularly Latin America) and African policy. Media includes: Houston Chronicle, The Undefeated News.

Sofia Quintero is a Gen-X Afro-Latina screenwriter and novelist. Raised in a working-class Puerto Rican-Dominican family in the Bronx, the self-proclaimed “Ivy League homegirl” graduated from Columbia University and began her first career as a policy analyst and advocate working for various nonprofit organizations and government agencies including the Vera Institute of Justice and the Hispanic AIDS Forum. After years of working on diverse policy issues, Sofia turned to cultural work with the intention to meet audiences where they are yet take them someplace better. Since Sofia has published six more novels and twice as many short stories and novellas with every major house and across genres – young adult, “chick lit”, erotica and hip-hop noir. Because of her gift for translating complex social issues into accessible and compelling stories, her commercial fiction is assigned in college classrooms across the nation and in multiple disciplines from English to criminal justice. Extensive media experience.

Lourdes Guadalupe Martinez is an immigrant originally from Mexico City, a home that she left at the age of 13 to move to Texas with her family. Today, she is the Political Director of Mujeres Unidas y Activas, or MUA, a grassroots organization of Latina immigrant women in the San Francisco Bay Area with a double mission of promoting personal transformation and building community power for social and economic justice. MUA’s focus issue areas are Immigrant Rights; Domestic Worker Rights; and Violence Against Women. Before joining MUA, Lourdes was an immigration attorney, working as an immigration legal educator with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) in San Francisco; and, prior to that, representing immigrant women fleeing gender-based violence at the Tahirih Justice Center in the Washington D.C. area. Media includes: Univision, Telemundo, KQED News, NBC.

Jessica Montoya Coggins is currently the Features and Opinion Editor of The Texas Signal, a progressive media company in Texas. The mission of The Texas Signal is to build a media ecosystem in Texas to help get the progressive message out and challenge right-wing Republicans. Think of it as a megaphone to finally counterbalance right-wing conservatives who have successfully built their own media empire in the Lone Star State. She is also the host of the podcast the Tex Mix, as well as the co-host for the weekly SignalCast. In 2015 she was invited by the White House to cover the inaugural “Beating the Odds Summit” hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama for first-generation Black and Latino college students. Media includes: Jezebel, Salon, Latino Magazine, NBC.

A. Susana Ramírez is an expert in media, inequality and dietary health, and Latinx culture. Her program of research aims to advance the science of communication to improve population health. One line of research examines the nature of the public information environment (i.e., news, advertising, social media, misinformation), how people make sense of it, and how that affects health. Another line of research considers the design of communication strategies to improve their reach and effectiveness among Latinx populations. Dr. Ramírez is currently Associate Professor of Public Health at the University of California in Merced. During the 2019-20 academic year, she was a Visiting Professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City, where she conducted ethnographic research to better understand Mexican and Mexican-American culture and structural factors that contribute to health outcomes. Media includes: Huffington Post, Univision, Merced Sun Star, Fresno Bee, ABC.

Marisol Quevedo Rerucha, author of Beyond the Surface of Restorative Practices: Building a Culture of Equity, Connection and Healing, serves as the Chief of Strategy and Partnerships for the National Parents Union. As a former teacher, principal, and district leader she uses her voice to challenge systems of oppression and more importantly amplifies the voices of others. The impact of her passion, experience, work, and voice is felt beyond her own community as she serves in the following ways as: Director of Culture and Community for DBC Inc; Chair of Unidos US National Institute for Latino School Leaders alumni council; as the Chief Financial Officer and Board Member of Youth Empowerments Finest; and as a partner consultant with nonprofit, for profit and educational systems. Media includes: The Dave Burgess Show, UnidosUS, La Comadre.

Erica González Martínez is on the board of the Women's Media Center and is founding editor of WMC IDAR/E. Outside of WMC, Erica is also the Director of #Power4PuertoRico, a national coalition of organizations working to clear federal hurdles in the way of the Island’s ability to become more self-sufficient. She is a lifelong advocate for social justice and Latino issues. With expertise in news media, government communications and digital engagement, Erica is a leader in strategic and transformational work. At the New York City Council, she led the development and implementation of the Council’s first-ever digital inclusion and innovation plan. As the former executive editor of El Diario/La Prensa, Erica conceptualized “Sept.11 – the Latino experience,” a 10^th anniversary, ground-breaking, multiplatform project that focused on the implications of this devastating event on Latino workers, immigration policy, the New York City mayoral race, and gentrification. Media includes: USA Today, Spectrum News, Poder Magazine, NY1, CNN.

Yadira Sanchez is an advocate for Latinx civic empowerment and has worked tirelessly throughout her career to advance the rights and collective power of the Latinx community, as a proud daughter of immigrants. She co-founded and is currently serving as Co-Executive Director of Poder Latinx, a civic and social justice organization dedicated to building Latinx political power. Previously, Yadira served as the Development Director for Mi Familia Vota, where she helped raise over $20 million and expanded the number of strategic partnerships with major organizations and allies to increase year-round civic participation within the Latinx community. Media includes: Univision, Telemundo, The Boston Globe, NBC.

Elissa Salas is the Vice President of Partnerships and Operations for Skillup, a non-profit organization that connects workers with the right tools, resources and support to make confident career shifts. Previously she was chief executive officer of College Track, a comprehensive college access and completion program that equips students confronting systemic barriers to earn a bachelor’s degree, in pursuit of a life of opportunity, choice, and power. From ninth grade through college graduation, the 10-year program systematically removes the academic, financial, and social-emotional barriers that keep first-generation students from low-income communities from completing college and thriving in the workforce. Elissa is a member of the Latino Community Foundation Latina Giving Circle and chairs the Leadership Council for Great Oakland Public Schools. Media includes: Time, Education Week, The Washington Post, Denver Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Business Times.

Dr. Vanessa Pérez-Rosario is an expert on 19th – through 21st – centuries U.S. Latinx and Caribbean literatures and cultures; American studies; U.S. bilingualism; multilingual American literature; poetics; gender and sexuality; transnational feminisms; translation. She is the author of Becoming Julia de Burgos: The Making of a Puerto Rican Icon, (Spanish edition is titled “Julia de Burgos: la creación de un ícono puertorriqueño). She is editor of Hispanic Caribbean Literature of Migration: Narratives of Displacement. Vanessa Pérez-Rosario received her Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of California, Davis. Media includes: Huffington Post, ABC, NPR.

Anne Kraemer Diaz is an anthropologist and one of the co-founders of Maya Health Alliance, an organization created in 2006 to improve health in rural Guatemala. She has served as Executive Director since 2009. Her passion is building high-impact, collaborative, and culturally and linguistically appropriate health and development programs. Anne trained as a cultural anthropologist at the University of Kansas, where she received her master’s degree and did doctoral coursework. She was the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship in 2007 to examine the relationship between rural Guatemalan communities and the NGOs that serve them. Media includes: La Prensa, Al Jazeera, ABC, NBC.

Jess Woolford is a communications strategist based in NYC who believes in building political power for marginalized communities. She’s worked in local and national Democratic politics and government for nearly a decade including at the 2016 Democratic Convention, the UFCW International, the de Blasio administration, New York Immigration Coalition, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s office. At the height of the pandemic, Jessica started Kingsbridge Unidos: a volunteer-run, mutual aid effort to deliver over 30,000 pounds of fresh produce, in addition to thousands of masks, and valuable bilingual information about COVID-19 and more, to families in Kingsbridge. What started as a door-to-door delivery program at her grandma’s building, has grown to include and prioritize families experiencing homelessness through creative, uplifting and joyful programming. Media includes: Los Angeles Times, Remezcla, La Opinion, Refinery29, Elite Daily, AfroPunk, Huffington Post.

Elisa Tinsley, Deputy Vice President - Programs at Emerging Markets Communications (EMC), has more than three decades of professional journalism and media-management experience. Her focus has been on international reporting, editing, media management and media innovation. From 2007 to 2013, Tinsley led ICFJ’s flagship program, the Knight International Journalism Fellowships. The Fellowships make lasting, tangible changes that improve the free flow of news and information in the public interest around the world – in the digital age. Previously, Tinsley was USA Today’s world editor. For more than a decade, she helped oversee the expansion of USA Today’s international bureaus and the newspaper’s coverage of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. She also developed the newspaper’s network of international freelance reporters and helped conceive and administer the safety policy for journalists working in war zones. Media includes: Time, Newsweek, USA Today, Advertising Age, ABC.

Iza Montalvo is a veteran journalist, media executive and career strategist with extensive experience on Latino culture, news production and politics. Listed as Central Florida’s 25 Most Influential Hispanics, Montalvo is a former congressional staffer with a career in multimedia production serving in different capacities as a news reporter, newspaper editor, television producer and radio host for mainstream and Spanish-language media outlets in New York, Florida and Puerto Rico. She served as the press secretary of two U.S. Members of Congress elected in the Ninth Congressional District of Florida. In 2017, Montalvo started her own business, Olán Media Group (OMG), a media and communications company specialized in the U.S. Hispanic market. Media includes: The Ledger, La Prensa, El Diario, Univision.

Born in Mexico City and growing up in California, Maria Cadenas has had the advantage of living and traveling across Mexico and the United States. She is the Executive Director of Santa Cruz Community Ventures, a nonprofit focused on developing compassionate and equitable local economies that contribute to the region’s wellbeing. Previously, she served as the Associate Director of the American Civil Liberties of Wisconsin and later joined Cream City Foundation as their Executive Director where she developed local business networks, corporate partnerships, and youth homelessness initiatives with a focus on LGBT populations across southeastern Wisconsin. Media includes: Santa Crus Sentinel, Milwaukee's Journal Sentinel, About.com, NBC.

An award-winning multicultural communications expert and strategist, public speaker, journalist, published author and small business advocate, Susana G Baumann, MAA, MLS, is the President, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Latinas in Business Inc. An Argentinean immigrant, Baumann founded her own small business over 20 years ago, LCSWorldwide Multicultural Marketing Communications in New Jersey, USA. Among their clients, LCSWorldwide serviced major pharmaceutical and healthcare corporations, and national non-profit organizations and government agencies in healthcare and education in nine states. A highlight of Baumann’s career included being part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Spanish Outreach Program trainers’ cohort at WebJunction.com in 2007 and 2008. Media includes: The Huffington Post, La Vox Media, Abasto Magazine.

Betty Torres is a certified aromatherapist, hypnotherapist, transformational coach & facilitator and combines these practices with traditional healing techniques to support activists, healers, empaths, artists and social entrepreneurs with their self care needs. Having a passion for making a positive impact in the world, she creates safe spaces for change makers and leaders practicing "self care for social action", a term she coined as inspiration for creating socially responsible success and prioritizing holistic self care in order to avoid burnout while being of service to others. She was Regional Director for National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy (NAHA) for over two years from 2018-2020 and is currently a professional member of NAHA with over 15 years of aromatherapy experience and more than 250 hours of CE credits in essential oil education. Media includes: Beyond Aromatics Podcast.

Alicia Bassuk is a leadership & performance advisor to individuals and teams internationally. Bassuk provides clients guidance in maximizing individual effectiveness, optimizing team cohesion, and shifting cultures. Her clients have nicknamed her a CEO whisperer, work shrink, executive muse, Yoda, Chief Inspiration Officer, and drill sergeant. Clients include the NBA, McKinsey & Company, Salesforce, Christie’s, United Nations, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Sienna Capital, The Rockefeller Foundation, presidential appointees, world class artists and executives in the sports and entertainment sectors. Media includes: Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, CNN, BBC.

Dr. Lisa Orbé-Austin is a partner and co-founder of Dynamic Transitions Psychological Consulting, LLP, an executive coaching & organizational consulting practice. Dr. Orbé-Austin is a counseling psychologist and an executive coach with a focus on career advancement, leadership development and work transitions. Her private practice is located in NYC, where she works mostly with high potential female managers and executives. She earned her PhD in Counseling Psychology from Columbia University. Her views about career advancement, leadership, and diversity & inclusion are regularly sought by the media and she has appeared in outlets such as NBC News, Forbes, Huffington Post, Business Insider, and Insight Into Diversity.

Eman Tadros is an Assistant Professor and the Marriage and Family Counseling Track Leader at Governors State University in the Division of Psychology and Counseling. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Akron's Counselor Education and Supervision: Marriage and Family Therapy program. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist, MBTI certified, and an AAMFT Approved Supervisor. She is the Illinois Family TEAM leader advocating for MFTs and individuals receiving systemic mental health services. Her research focuses on incarcerated couples and families. She has been honored with awards from The New York Knicks and SAMHA's minority fellowship program. Extensive media experience.

As a Clinical Psychologist and Educator, Dr. Isaura de la Caridad Gonzalez has utilized her expertise and trailblazing skills to support others, specifically the Latina population, to expand their businesses and create top sum financial legacies. She is a multilingual innovator who founded one of the top Psychology practices in Staten Island as well as multiple other organizations, which aim to empower and inspire Latina entrepreneurs to learn the skills that will bring their businesses to the highest level. Dr. Gonzalez has taken the initiative for the Latina market and exemplified her knowledge of entrepreneurship through her recent development, Latina Mastermind. This was made successful by a group of highly motivated and driven Latinas who are working on building economic prosperity for themselves as well as helping other Latina women to do the same. Media includes: Cosmopolitan, NBC, NPR.

Patricia Valoy is a Latina STEM and women’s rights advocate, blogger, and civil engineer. Patricia speaks and writes on a variety of issues affecting the Latino community and women including under representation of women in STEM, safe abortion access, racism, immigration, cultural and religious pressures, and living at the intersection of two cultures. She combines her experiences as a Latina and an engineer to advocate and inspire girls considering careers in the fields of STEM. Among other things, Patricia has been known to write about embracing feminism as a Latina, stereotype threat in male dominated fields, and sexual harassment in the construction industry. Media includes: PolicyMic, Everyday Feminism, Double X Science, STEMinist, NPR.

Viviana Hurtado, Ph.D. is former on-air reporter for Bloomberg Television U.S., covering global business, the economy, politics, and commercial real estate. She is an Edward R. Murrow and Emmy award-winning journalist and news anchor. In addition to the Murrow and Emmy, she is a recipient of numerous awards and honors granted by organizations such as the Columbia Journalism Review and South by Southwest (SXSW). She has also delivered keynote speeches at Johns Hopkins University and the White House. A San Francisco, California native, Hurtado is the proud daughter of Colombian immigrants with native fluency in Spanish and English, as well as speaking Portuguese and French. Viviana is the founder and executive director of Viviana Luxury Candles. Media includes: Rolling Stone, Time, Al Jazeera English, The Washington Post, MSNBC, NPR.

Bisila Bokoko is a phenomenal businesswoman internationally acclaimed for successfully taking companies from local to global. For 7 years, she held the position of Executive Director of the Spain-US Chamber of commerce in New York. She then launched BBES, her consulting firm in 2012. Bokoko’s efforts have won her widespread recognition and led to dynamic involvement in EMPRETEC, a United Nations programme that supports up and coming entrepreneurs. Ms. Bokoko fronted the women’s scheme and actively worked to support female entrepreneurs in their efforts to launch hard hitting businesses. She is the face of “Bisila Wines,” her namesake global award-winning drop made in Spain. Media includes: Harper's Bazaar, Black Enterprise, Huffington Post, Forbes, Bloomberg.

Nathalie Virem Inc. is a #1 international best-selling author, speaker, philanthropist and coach based in Los Angeles, California. A native French and Spanish speaker, Nathalie has been living in the U.S. for over 15 years. With family roots stemming from France, the Spain-born “change catalyst” blends her corporate and coaching expertise to help Fortune 500 leaders and entrepreneurs align their business and life purpose the world over. Her first book Live With Purpose is part of the MBA curriculum at California State University where she teaches Entrepreneurship and Management. Media includes: Thrive Global.

Catalina Valenzuela is a solution designer. She is highly skilled in leading, analyzing, designing, developing, and/or managing top-quality learning solutions for different types of clients in the private and public sectors. She has worked and lived in the U.S., U.K., and Colombia. Valenzuela has more than 15 years experience working and writing about education, economics and businesses and is an expert on education and technology issues and particularly on the need to train teachers to become digital and understand the power of technology to create more inclusive learning environments. Previously, Valenzuela sourced and produced interviews for a Colombian technology TV show featuring key Latino/Hispanic technology players in Miami, Fl. and wrote for local newspapers profiling women in technology. Extensive media experience.