Latino Education Conference

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Alfredo José Estrada
Editor and Publisher, LATINO Magazine

Alfredo José Estrada was born in Havana, Cuba and graduated with honors from Harvard University. After practicing law in New York City, he founded HISPANIC, an award-winning magazine based in Washington, DC. Estrada later moved to Paris and wrote a novel, Welcome to Havana, Señor Hemingway, and the nonfiction Havana: Autobiography of a City, lauded by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos as capturing “the imagination from the first page to the last.”

He now lives in Austin and is the Editor and Publisher of LATINO Magazine, which launched in 2008. Focusing on issues, politics, and culture, it reaches a select audience of Latino opinion makers, influencers, and community leaders. According to one reader, Henry Cisneros, LATINO is “a definitive source of information about the Latino community…a must-read.” Estrada is a nationally recognized expert on Hispanic media has served on the boards of KRLU-TV, the Harvard Hispanic Policy Journal, and other organizations.

Juan Sepúlveda
Director, White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans

Juan Sepúlveda was appointed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in 2009 to the position of Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. In this capacity, he is responsible for directing the efforts of the White House in engaging Hispanic students, parents, families, organizations, and anyone working in or with the education system nationwide in improving the academic achievement of Hispanic Americans.

For the last 20 years, Sepúlveda has been a senior executive, strategist, and advocate in the nonprofit and philanthropic worlds, with a focus in community development, capacity building, and transformational management. Prior to assuming his current position, Sepúlveda was president of The Common Enterprise (TCE), which he founded in 1995 as an outgrowth of a national Rockefeller Foundation initiative to help build stronger communities across America by making nonprofits, philanthropic organizations, governments, businesses, and communities more effective in tackling significant critical social issues.
Sepúlveda attended Harvard University and was the third Latino ever to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, graduating with a combined degree in politics, philosophy, and economics from the Queens College of Oxford University. He received a J.D. from Stanford University and has been admitted to the Texas Bar.

José Antonio Tijerino
President and CEO, Hispanic Heritage Foundation

José Antonio Tijerino is president and CEO of the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, which identifies, inspires, prepares and positions Latino leaders in the classroom, community and workforce. Mr. Tijerino has led the 24-year-old leadership organization for nine years.

Prior to this position, Mr. Tijerino was director of public relations for the Fannie Mae Foundation, specializing in strategic planning, public affairs, media outreach and grass roots mobilization campaigns for America’s largest affordable housing nonprofit. Before that, he served as a manager of corporate communications for Nike’s marketing department, where he developed, managed and implemented communications, public relations and public affairs strategies for the company’s global community affairs department and served as a media spokesperson.
Mr. Tijerino is active in the community and serves on various boards including Harvard’s Latino Leadership Initiative in the Kennedy School, America’s Promise, the National PTA, Museum of the American Latino, Smithsonian Latino Center, Board of Advisors for Diversity Discover through Howard University, Voto Latino, among others. He attended the University of Maryland’s prestigious school of journalism and lives in Chevy Chase, MD with his wife Dinah, daughter Mercedes Grace, son Juan Antonio, and dog Bella.

Tom Luce
President and CEO, National Math and Science Initiative

Tom Luce is the President and CEO of the National Math and Science Initiative, a non-profit organization created in 2007 to improve math and science achievement in America’s public schools. Mr. Luce served as the Assistant Secretary of Education for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development during 2005 and 2006. He was a co-founder of the National Center for Educational Accountability and also founded Communities Just for the Kids.

An attorney, Mr. Luce received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Southern Methodist University and has been honored with the SMU Law School and University Distinguished Alumni Awards. He was a founding partner and managing partner of the law firm of Hughes & Luce.

PANEL 1

Lily Eskelsen
Vice President, NEA

Lily Eskelsen, an elementary teacher from Utah, is vice president of the National Education Association. She is one of the highest-ranking labor leaders in the country and one of its most influential Hispanic educators. She began her career in education as a lunch worker in a school cafeteria. She became a kindergarten aide and was encouraged by the teacher to think about going to college and becoming a teacher herself. So she did, and worked her way through the University of Utah on scholarships, student loans, and as a starving folk singer. She graduated magna cum laude in elementary education and later earned her Master's degree in instructional technology.

After teaching for only nine years, she was named Utah Teacher of the Year in 1989, and she used that title as a platform to speak out against the dismal funding of Utah schools. One of her colleagues suggested she run for president of the Utah Education Association. In 1990, she was elected UEA President, her first elected position in the Association. She has since served in key leadership posts, including the NEA Executive Committee and NEA Secretary-Treasurer. Lily has also served as president of the Utah State Retirement System; as president of the Children at Risk Foundation; as a member of the Utah La Raza Education Committee; and as a member of the White House Strategy Session on Improving Hispanic Education. She also authored a humor column on parenting that ran in 22 local newspapers and her education advice for parents and has been published in Time, Working Mother, and Woman's World.

Miriam Leiva
President, TODOS: Mathematics for All

Miriam Leiva is the Founding President of TODOS: Mathematics for All, a national organization committed to equity in mathematics education for all students, in particular Latinos and English Language Learners. She has been a teacher for over 35 years, grades K-12 and university, and is Distinguished Professor of Mathematics Emerita at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. According to the archives of the Mathematics Association of America, she is among the first Hispanic-American women, for whom English is a second language, to receive a doctorate in mathematics education in the U.S.

Dr. Leiva served as Director of the Teacher Preparation Program in Science and Mathematics at the National Science Foundation. She has also served on the Boards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics, Center for the Mathematics Education of Latinos/as, and Chair of the NC Math Curriculum Framework. She has published in journals and books and has made hundreds of presentations nationally and internationally including the first US/Russia Mathematics Education Conference in Moscow. Among her awards are the Diamante Award for contributions in education to Hispanics; Iris Carl National Leadership and Equity Award; NCSM Glenn Gilbert Leadership Award, Guilford College Alumni Excellence Award; and the Bank of America Teaching Excellence Award.

Maria Reyes
Associate Dean for Occupational Education, Estrella Mountain Community College

Maria Reyes is the Associate Dean for Occupational Education at Estrella
Mountain Community College (Estrella Mountain). Maria established and served
as the Director of the NASA Center for Success in Math & Science at Estrella
Mountain, funded by NASA. She also served as the Title V Hispanic Serving
Institution Department of Education Grant Director at Estrella Mountain from
2001-2006. She serves on the Engineering Pathways Taskforce for the AZ STEM Initiative, a statewide effort to bring STEM programs to underserved areas and expand outreach. She also serves as the Chairwoman for the Hispanic Women's Conference, the largest national conference for Latina professionals.

Maria has worked in higher education for more than sixteen years. Her areas of expertise include recruitment and retention of underrepresented populations in STEM throughout the educational pathway, and transition for students from high school to community college to university in STEM career areas. She is an engineer with both a BSE and MSE in Civil Engineering from Arizona State University. Recently, she completed a Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Ricardo Rincon
Teacher, Sunrise Elementary

Ricardo Rincon is an educator currently teaching 5th grade students at Sunrise Elementary in Las Cruces, New Mexico. In addition to his elementary classroom, Mr. Rincon facilitates several graduate pedagogy courses at the University of Phoenix Online. His work with NEA includes being a member of the NEA ELL Cadre, and the NEA ELL Advisory Online Committee. Other works and affiliations include the ELA Common Core State Standards Review Committee, the CCSSO and NGA review Committee, and the Project Learning Tree Steering Committee.

Mr. Rincon has collaborated with others to present several workshops and trainings locally and in several states in the nation. These presentations have included topics such best ELL practices, math instruction, science Instruction, and integration of technology. Each of these workshops has included sections that reflected the need to address the learning needs of English language learners.

PANEL 2

Dr. Antonio Flores
President and CEO, HACU

In 1996, Antonio R. Flores became the third president and CEO of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). Established in December 1986 with 18 founding members, HACU is a national organization that represents more than 450 colleges and universities that collectively serve two-thirds of the more than 2 million Hispanic students in U.S. higher education across 32 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. HACU’s international membership includes 50 institutions in Mexico, Central and South America, Portugal and Spain.

Dr. Flores is responsible for the overall leadership, executive management, public and community relations, policy formulation and advocacy, association governance affairs, advancement planning, financial and investment oversight, human resources policies, strategic planning, and programmatic accountability and reporting. Prior to his position at HACU, he served as director of programs and services for the Michigan Higher Education Assistance Authority and the Michigan Higher Education Student Loan Authority. Dr. Flores holds a Ph.D. in higher education administration from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, a Master of Arts degree in counseling and personnel from Western Michigan University, and undergraduate degrees in business administration and elementary education from Universidad de Guadalajara and Centro Normal Regional, Mexico, respectively.

Dr. Robert S. Nelsen
President, UTPA

Dr. Robert S. Nelsen is the eighth and newly appointed President of the University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA). He comes to UTPA with a demonstrated commitment to higher education and a distinguished career history of educational leadership and community service.

Dr. Nelsen has lived in Texas since 1990, leaving his home state of Montana for career opportunities in academia. Nelsen was raised on a small cattle ranch in the "Big Sky Country" of Montana near Madison Valley just outside of Yellowstone Park. Like the majority of students at UTPA, Nelsen faced great financial hardships while seeking to get his degrees. He put himself through college by working as a janitor in the pre-dawn hours before classes and by selling fish hooks and western clothing in the evenings. President Nelsen earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His Ph.D. fields of specialization were modern literature, modern philosophy and modern political theory. Prior to his arrival at UTPA, Nelsen was an administrator at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC) serving as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. He was also a distinguished faculty member at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) for almost two decades where he started the creative writing program and nurtured the development of an arts and humanities curriculum. Dr. Nelsen is an accomplished author with numerous publications of fiction in journals which include the Story Quarterly, Other Voices, Chariton Review and Southwest Review. While at UTD, Nelsen completed a collection of short stories, Orphans, Bums and Angels as well as a novel, Spirits Colliding, which is currently under review by a publisher.

Adalio Sanchez
General Manager, IBM System x

Adalio Sanchez is General Manager of IBM System x and BladeCenter server product lines. In this role, Mr. Sanchez is responsible for all facets of IBM's x86 server business including product development, marketing, sales, operations, and overall financial performance. Prior to his current position, Mr. Sanchez was General Manager of IBM Microelectronics and responsible for the operational and financial performance of IBM’s semiconductor and engineering services operations. As part of this mission, he had responsibility for IBM's custom microprocessors and ASICs products used both internally and sold to external clients, and for IBM's semiconductor process alliance with six other semiconductor industry players.

Mr. Sanchez has more than 25 years of experience in the Information Technology marketplace with an extensive background in product development, manufacturing, operations, and brand management. Before his position as the General Manager of Microelectronics, Mr. Sanchez was General Manager of the IBM System p server business. Over a four year period, he significantly grew this multi-billion dollar business and increased IBM’s market share to overtake both HP and SUN as the worldwide leader in the UNIX server marketplace.

Mr. Sanchez holds a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Miami and a Masters of Business Administration from Florida International University. He was named the 2007 Hispanic Engineer of the Year and has frequently been named to the list of the Top 50 Hispanics in Technology and Business. He is Chairman of the Florida International University Engineering School Executive Advisory Council, and serves as Chairman of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) Advisory Board.

Dr. José Muñoz
Director (Acting), NSF Office of Cyberinfrastructure

Dr. Muñoz has over thirty-five years of experience in Federal service and is a member of the Senior Executive Service. He is currently Director (Acting) of the National Science Foundation’s Office of Cyberinfrastructure where he was its Deputy Director. Dr. Muñoz has collateral duties in OCI as Program Director in the area of high performance computing and software. Previously, he was Director of the Simulation and Computer Science Office in NNSA’s Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASCI) program; Program Manager and Assistant Director in DARPA’s Information Technology Office where he worked on Adaptive Computing Systems; and Data Intensive Systems and Power-Aware Computing and Communications. He was at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) for over 20 years, conducting research on sonar/signal and image processing as well as high-end computing in combat systems.

Dr. Muñoz received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Connecticut and is a member of the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society. He has several publications in the area of high performance computing (including a patent), and has served in various capacities in the Super Computing conferences. Dr. Muñoz co-chairs the Federal government’s High-End Computing Interagency Working Group (HEC-IWG) and serves on various committees and study groups looking at various aspects of technology and science.

PANEL 3

Joe Garcia
Director , Office of Economic Impact & Diversity , Department of Energy
Mr. Garcia's dynamic public service career spans over 20 years and reflects his dedication towards energy, foreign policy and human rights. While in law school, Mr. Garcia directed the Exodus Project, a non-profit refugee resettlement program, which was responsible for reuniting over 10,000 families at no cost to American taxpayers. In 1992, the late Governor Lawton Chiles appointed Garcia to the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC), where he fought for lower utility bills for the people of Florida. In 1998, Garcia was elected by his fellow commissioners as chairman of the PSC.

In 2001, Mr. Garcia was named as the Executive Director of the Cuban American National Foundation, where he served as a tireless proponent of freedom and improved human rights conditions in Cuba and throughout the Americas. In 2004, he was named Executive Vice President and Director of the Hispanic Project for NDN, a policy research institute in Washington D.C. A native of Miami, Garcia earned his Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor degrees from the University of Miami.
Mr. Garcia was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as the Director of the Office of Economic Impact at the Department of Energy in July 2009. He was also appointed by Secretary Steven Chu to serve on the President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's Status and Interagency Council on Homelessness.

Bill Valdez
Associate Director, Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists, Department of Energy

Bill Valdez is the Director of the Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists within the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. His responsibilities include developing workforce strategies for the Department’s scientific and technical workforce, and creating opportunities for students and educators to participate in the nation’s research enterprise as a means to improving the competitiveness of U.S. industry and overall scientific literacy.

Previously, Mr. Valdez was the Director of Planning and Analysis at the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. He was awarded the Presidential Rank Award (meritorious) in 2007, was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2006, and is Vice Chair of the Senior Executive Association’s Board of Directors. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas and his Master of Arts in International Economics and Energy Policy from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Deborah A. Santiago
Vice President for Policy and Research at Excelencia in Education

Deborah Santiago brings her extensive experience in education policy and research to the challenge of accelerating Latino student success. Among her experiences, Deborah has worked in Federal policy as an analyst at the Congressional Research Service and the Department of Education. She has also worked with Federal agencies to evaluate programs and produced multiple reports on the status of Latinos in education as the Deputy Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. Her community work has included program design and implementation for the ASPIRA Association and translating data for community engagement as the Vice President for Research and Data at the Los Angeles Alliance for Student Achievement.

Her current research focuses on state and Federal policy, financial aid, effective institutional practices, and student success in higher education. Recent publications include, The Condition of Latinos in Education: 2008 Factbook; Student Aversion to Borrowing: Who Borrows and Who Doesn't (co-author); and Leading in a Changing America: Leadership at Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Deborah serves on the education research committee for the Public Education Network, the Education Campaign Advisory Board for Univision, and was appointed by Governor Kaine to serve on the Latino Advisory Board for Virginia.

Manny Hernández
President, SHPE

Manny Hernández is the National President for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), a professional organization that serves as the source for quality Hispanic engineers and technical talent. His term began in July 2009. A dedicated board member since 1990, Manny served as the National Vice President from 2002-2009 and also from 1993-1995. He served as Region Two Vice President from 1990-1993 and from 1996-2002.

His work with SHPE is on a voluntary basis. He is a Manager III, Systems Engineering for Raytheon Systems Company, and a Six Sigma Specialist. Manny began his career with Raytheon in 1974 as a microwave systems engineer. After leaving Raytheon in 1977, he went on to work for Martin Marietta Aerospace as a digital design engineer, TRW Space and Defense Sector as a senior project engineer and the Aerospace Corporation as a project engineer before returning to Raytheon in 2000.

Manny earned a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering in Microwave Systems from City College of New York and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering in Communication Systems Design from University of Southern California. In 2005, he added an Imaging Sensors and Systems Certificate from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2008 he earned an EVM Level 1 Certification from Raytheon SAS. He also holds Management Growth Training and Executive Leadership Institute Certificates from SHPE.

PANEL 4

Martha Poulter
CIO, GE Capital, Americas
Martha Poulter is the Chief Information Officer of GE Capital, Americas. This business provides financing for equipment, inventory and franchises; fleet services and M&A, buyout and restructuring capital to companies in over 40 industries, including healthcare. Prior to this role, Martha was CIO of GE Capital Solutions, an equipment leasing and lending business with operations in 30 countries and assets of approximately $130 billion. In that role, Martha was responsible for driving global digitization strategy, organization, and delivery of customer value through technology.

Previously, Martha was CIO and Quality Leader for GE Corporate Financial Services. Her career spans a range of information technology, e-business, and Quality Leadership roles at Southern New England Telephone Company and GE. She served for three years as the national co-leader for the GE Hispanic Forum and is an active member of the GE Women’s Network and a member of the board of directors for the Southern Connecticut Child Guidance Center. Martha graduated with a B.S.E. degree in Computer Science & Engineering from the University of Connecticut and she completed her M.B.A. at the University of New Haven.

Victor L. Maruri
Founder, Hispania Capital Partners

Victor Maruri is a co-founder of Hispania Capital Partners (HCP), with over 30 years experience as a private equity investor, investment banker, financial advisor and capital markets specialist. His experience encompasses strategic portfolio company management and a broad range of financial products expertise, including structuring and executing public and private equity transactions worldwide, designing and placing new mezzanine products, providing advisory services to private and publicly held companies, as well as capital raising for governments and agencies in over thirty countries.

Prior to co-founding HCP, Mr. Maruri worked at Banque Paribas (New York) from 1993 to 1999 as Regional Head for Latin America. He also built the bank’s investment-banking department for the region, eventually consolidating this unit with the commercial banking offices in Latin America. In 1996, Mr. Maruri was appointed to the Board of Directors of Paribas North America. From 1987 to 1993, he worked at CS First Boston (London), where he became a Managing Director and member of the Managing Board of the UK subsidiary CS First Boston. He started his career as an equity analyst monitoring the Chemical Bank’s Latin American equity investments. Mr. Maruri earned a BS in economics from the University of Miami and pursued graduate studies in business administration at New York University. He is a board member of the New America Alliance.

Rick Dalton
President and CEO, College for Every Student (CFES)
Rick Dalton is the founder, president, and CEO of College For Every Student (CFES). For the past 19 years, Dalton has worked to make CFES a national leader in helping underserved students gain access to college and be successful there. CFES serves 15,000 low-income students in 20 states. Over the last four years, 95% of CFES high school seniors have gone on to college.
Dalton's qualifying paper for his doctoral work at Harvard University focused on strengthening college access for Hispanic students. While Director of Enrollment Planning at Middlebury College, Dalton led a three-year study, the National College Counseling Project, that paved the way for CFES. Dalton has written more than 60 articles, op-eds and monographs on college access for underserved youth.

Mickey Ibarra
Founder, ISG
Mickey Ibarra served as Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House from 1997-2001. There he built support for the President's policy initiatives and responded to the concerns of elected officials across the country. In 1998, President Clinton appointed Ibarra vice-chair of the White House Task Force for the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

He went on to establish a government and public affairs firm in Washington, DC. His clients include corporations, associations and governments in need of issue advocacy, intergovernmental support and Hispanic outreach.The recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Utah in 2007, Ibarra is the Founder and Chairman of the Latino Leaders Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing leaders together. Ibarra serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and the Board of Directors of eLeaderTech, Inc.

Prior to his White House appointment, he was the Political Manager for the National Education Association. He also served as the Senior Advisor and Director of Special Projects for the Clinton-Gore '96 campaign. A native of Salt Lake City, Ibarra taught at-risk high school students for five years in the Utah public schools. He served in the U.S. Army from 1970-1973.