Join us on June 22, 2010 to Celebrate Latina Trailblazers
When former LatinoJustice PRLDEF board member Sonia Sotomayor ascended to the Supreme Court, she forged a new path for Latinas nationwide. Justice Sotomayor is just one of many inspiring Latinas to work with LatinoJustice PRLDEF and then go on to become a leader in her community and in her professional life, paving the way for future generations of civic-minded Latinas.
As a tribute to Justice Sotomayor and the other Latinas who have worked closely with this organization throughout the years, we are proud to announce our 2010 Latina Trailblazers Breakfast, taking place June 22, 2010.
Our 2010 Latina Trailblazers – Natalia Martín, Director of Diversity, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Rossana Rosado, Publisher & CEO, El Diario/La Prensa, and Anna Carbonell, Media Strategist, former VP, Press & Public Affairs, NBC Universal and VP, Press & Public Affairs at WNBC – have all forged new paths for Latinas and inspired young Latinas to dream big.
Attorney and journalist Sunny Hostin will host the June 22 breakfast.
Since the organization’s founding in 1972, two of LatinoJustice PRLDEF’s main guiding missions have been cultivating Latino leaders and increasing civic participation. The Latina women who have worked with our organization over the years have always shown a strong commitment to these principles.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor served on the LatinoJustice PRLDEF Board of Directors from 1980 to 1992, beginning as a young prosecutor fresh out of law school, and leaving after she was chosen to become a judge on the federal court of appeals. As a member of the board, Justice Sotomayor exhibited exceptional leadership and professionalism, as well as a strong sense of dedication to civil rights.
One of Justice Sotomayor’s fellow former board members who has also exhibited a commitment to civil rights and to advancing Latino civic participation throughout her career is Judge Margarita López Torres. In 1992 Judge López Torres became the first Latina elected to the Civil Court in New York City.
LatinoJustice’s influential Latinas have not only become leaders in the legal field. Another former board member, Lisa Quiroz, is a founding publisher of People en Español, the best-selling Hispanic magazine in the U.S. She later became Vice President, Corporate Responsibility at Time Warner. She is a director of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and serves on the board of directors of the Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation and the Hispanic Federation of New York.
LatinoJustice PRLDEF’s education programs have also inspired countless numbers of young Latinas to pursue careers in law and politics and assume leadership roles in those fields. Carol Robles Román, Deputy Mayor for Legal Affairs and Counsel to Mayor Bloomberg, attended PRLDEF's pre-law programs while in college. Today, she is the highest ranking Latina in New York City government.
And just last year, Perla Alvarez marked the path for a new generation of Latina leaders to come out of LatinoJustice PRLDEF, when she graduated from Rutgers University School of Law in Newark, NJ and became our first LAWbound scholar to become an attorney. (LAWbound was launched in 2005 to increase the number of Latinos who succesfully stay on the path to law school.)
The Latina Trailblazers Breakfast will be held on June 22, 2010, at the Yale Club of NY, from 8:00am to 10:00am.
Sunny Hostin (Journalist and Legal Analyst for CNN, In Session and Headline News), will moderate “A Conversation among the Trailblazers,” to share insights and experiences on their respective journeys.
(REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT IS NOW CLOSED)
This year's honorees:
Natalia Martín is Director of Diversity at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. She is a former Associate Dean at Yale Law School, and is a Co-founder of a series of networking breakfasts for Latina attorneys in New York City called “Cafecitos.” She is a member of the New York City Bar’s Committee to Enhance Diversity in the Profession and the New York State Bar Association’s Minorities in the Profession Committee.
Rossana Rosado is the Publisher and CEO of El Diario/La Prensa, the oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper in the United States. From 1995 to 1999, she was Editor in Chief of the paper and in 1999 she became the first Latina, and one of just a few women in this country, to hold the position of Publisher and CEO of a major newspaper.
Anna Carbonell was named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the Nation by Hispanic Business Magazine and one of the 50 New York Influential Latinos by the New York Daily News. She has received numerous industry honors and recognitions, most recently receiving the Board of Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement by the local chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.