After immigrating from Michoacán, Mexico, at the age of 3, Adela resided in the City of Watsonville. Adela was raised in a house of six children. As a migrant child, her elementary years inspired her to make a difference. Adela attended several local schools, including Watsonville High & Cabrillo College. She rekindled her desire to … Continued

Carolina Echeverria is a bilingual, bicultural partnerships executive with experience in designing and leading visibility initiatives, cultivating strategic alliances that strengthen all associates, and bringing together multicultural audiences. She has an M.A. in Humanistic Philosophy, Universidad Iberoamericana; Post-Graduate Certificate in Marketing, Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM); and a B.A. in Communications, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico … Continued

Felicia Medina is a founding partner of Medina Orthwein LLP, a civil rights and employment law firm in Oakland, CA. Her practice focuses on individual and class action employment discrimination and harassment cases relating to race, gender, gender identity and expression, and sexual orientation, as well as wage and hour collective actions. In the early part … Continued

Olga Talamante became the first executive director of the Chicana Latina Foundation in January 2003. Prior to this position, she was the Western Region Vice President of INROADS, a career and leadership development organization aimed at Latino, African American and Native American college students pursuing careers in business and engineering. In that position, she supervised the … Continued

Melissa Serrano is currently a faculty member of Child Development Family Studies at City College of San Francisco & Administrative Support/Recruiter Felton Institute Child Youth and Families Division. She is a homegrown product of San Francisco’s public school district, where she educated her own children in this same school district with much better results.  The … Continued

From the borderlands of San Diego/Tijuana, Ms. Rivera moved to San Francisco in 1998.  Her early career included work with children, youth and families providing enrichment and direct services. She found a passion for the non-profit community development sector and has over a decade of non-profit administrative experience.  Ms. Rivera joined Galería de la Raza … Continued

Sandra Milan is a Senior Director and Group Leader at Genentech, where she oversees project team leaders responsible for the strategy and operations of biotechnology development programs transforming treatment for a wide range of cancers.  Sandra possesses extensive experience in setting multi-year strategies and leading teams and projects through significant risk and complexity. Currently, she … Continued

Leticia Márquez-Magaña, PhD is the Director of the Health Equity Research Laboratory at San Francisco State University. She is the first-born daughter of Mexican immigrants and began her education in the U.S. as a monolingual Spanish speaker. Professor Márquez-Magaña attended Stanford University as the first member of her extended U.S. family to complete high school, … Continued

Ortensia is a nationally recognized leader in creating coalitions, collaboratives and partnerships, which have resulted in innovative initiatives that have empowered and ensured participation for low-income communities. She has been working in the Non-Profit sector for over forty-one years in executive management positions serving as a change agent for disenfranchised communities. Ortensia is the second … Continued

Ludmyrna Lopez was recently elected to the Richmond City Council and is currently the Principal Financial Analyst for the City of Oakland. Previous to this, she served as the Assistant Chief of Finance and Administration for the San Francisco Department of Child Support Services. Ludmyrna has worked for Mayor Willie L. Brown, Jr. as a … Continued