The Honorable U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to deliver keynote address at November 20, 2009 Latino Leaders Luncheon Series

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, will be the featured speaker at the upcoming Latino Leaders Luncheon Series(tm), taking place from 11:30 am-2:00 pm on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at the Capital Hilton, 16th and K Streets, NW in Washington, D.C. Additional speakers for the program include Latino Leaders Network Founder and Chairman, Mickey Ibarra; Gus West, board chair of the Hispanic Institute and California Senator Alex Padilla. The quarterly event provides a platform for prominent Latino leaders to share their personal story of obstacles overcome to achieve success.

“We are delighted to welcome Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis to the Latino Leaders Luncheon Series(tm) and to present her with the Nambe Eagle Leadership Award for outstanding contributions to our community,” says Mickey Ibarra, Founder and Chairman of the Latino Leaders Network(tm).

Secretary Hilda L. Solis was confirmed as Secretary of Labor on February 24, 2009. Prior to confirmation as Secretary of Labor, Secretary Solis represented the 32nd Congressional District in California, a position she held from 2001 – 2009.

Solis demonstrated efforts to expand access to affordable health care, protect the environment, and improve the lives of working families. She is a recognized leader on clean energy jobs, she authored the Green Jobs Act which provided funding for “green” collar job training for veterans, displaced workers, at risk youth, and individuals in families under 200 percent of the federal poverty line.

A nationally recognized leader on the environment, Solis became the first woman to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2000 for her pioneering work on environmental justice issues. Her California environmental justice legislation, enacted in 1999, was the first of its kind in the nation to become law.

Solis was first elected to public office in 1985 as a member of the Rio Hondo Community College Board of Trustees. She served in the California State Assembly from 1992 to 1994, and in 1994 made history by becoming the first Latina elected to the California State Senate. As the chairwoman of the California Senate Industrial Relations Committee, she led the battle to increase the state’s minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.75 an hour in 1996. She also authored a record seventeen state laws aimed at combating domestic violence.

Solis graduated from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and earned a Master of Public Administration from the University of Southern California. A former federal employee, she worked in the Carter White House Office of Hispanic Affairs and was later appointed as a management analyst with the Office of Management and Budget in the Civil Rights Division.

She was nominated by President Barack Obama to serve as Secretary of Labor on January 20, 2009.

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. is the sponsor for the Network reception and the Coca-Cola Company and Verizon are the sponsors for the luncheon. Media partners include the Hispanic Communications Network, Latino Leaders Magazine, and El Tiempo Latino.

The first Latino Leaders Luncheon Series event was held in 2004 and more than 20 luncheons have taken place since that time, featuring such diverse speakers such as Governor Bill Richardson; Senators Bob Menendez, Mel Martinez and Ken Salazar; Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; Father Virgilio Elizondo; actors Wilmer Valderamma and Eva Longoria; journalist Maria Hinojoso; and NY Mets General Manager Omar Minaya, among others. Details and photos from each of these events are available on the Latino Leaders Network(tm) website (www.LatinoLeadersNetwork.org).

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DR. FRANCISCO CIGARROA, CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SYSTEM, TO DELIVER KEYNOTE ADDRESS AT JUNE 30, 2009 LATINO LEADERS LUNCHEON SERIES

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – Dr. Francisco G. Cigarroa, the Chancellor of The Univeristy of Texas System, will be the featured speaker at the upcoming Latino Leaders Luncheon Series™, taking place from 11:30 am-2:00 pm on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at the Capital Hilton, 16th and K Streets, NW in Washington, DC. Additional speakers for the program include Latino Leaders Network Founder and Chairman, Mickey Ibarra; Rafaela Schwan with the Society for Professional Hispanic Engineers and special guest Congressman Ruben Hinojosa from Texas. The quarterly event provides a platform for prominent Latino leaders to share their personal story of obstacles overcome to achieve success.

“We are delighted to welcome Dr. Cigarroa to the Latino Leaders Luncheon Series™ and to present him with the Nambe Eagle Leadership Award for outstanding contributions to our community,” says Mickey Ibarra, Founder and Chairman of the Latino Leaders Network™. “A nationally prominent surgeon, he is the first Hispanic leader to be named the chief executive of a major university system and a U.S. health science university. His work in the field of surgery and medical research make him one of the foremost Latino medical leaders in the world.”

Dr. Cigarroa was appointed Chancellor of the University of Texas System in January 2009, the first Latino to ever lead a major university system in the United States. Previously, he served as the President of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. A renowned pediatric and transplant surgeon, Dr. Francisco Cigarroa earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and his medical degree from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. During his twelve years of postgraduate training, he held internships and residencies at Massachusetts General, where he was named chief surgical resident. He also held both fellowship and faculty positions at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

As a medical researcher, Dr. Cigarroa pioneered several surgical innovations. In 1997, he was part of a surgical team that split a donor liver for transplant into two recipients, the first operation of its kind to be performed in Texas. Earlier that year, he led the surgical team that performed the region’s first successful small bowel transplant in a child. A Mexican American native of Laredo, Texas, he is the son of Laredo physician Dr. Joaquin Gonzalez Cigarroa, Jr.

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. is the sponsor for the Network reception and the Coca-Cola Company and Verizon are the sponsors for the luncheon. Media partners include the Hispanic Communications Network, Latino Leaders Magazine, and El Tiempo Latino.

The first Latino Leaders Luncheon Series event was held in 2004 and more than 20 luncheons have taken place since that time, featuring such diverse speakers such as Governor Bill Richardson; Senators Bob Menendez, Mel Martinez and Ken Salazar; Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa; Father Virgilio Elizondo; actors Wilmer Valderamma and Eva Longoria; journalist Maria Hinojoso; and NY Mets General Manager Omar Minaya, among others. Details and photos from each of these events are available on the Latino Leaders Network™ website (www.LatinoLeadersNetwork.org).

Latino Leaders Network™ (LLN) is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to develop ongoing opportunities to bring leaders together to establish relationships and dialogue on issues important to the Latino community. In addition to the Latino Leaders Luncheon Series™, other signature events supported by the LLN are the Latino Leaders Issue Hour and the Latino Mayors Tribute. LLN is also the producer of the “Latinos on the Hill” directory and first-ever Latino Honor Roll. Mickey Ibarra is President of Mickey Ibarra & Associates, a government relations and public affairs firm . He served as Assistant to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the White House from 1997 to 2001. In addition to Mickey Ibarra, the Board of Directors of the Network includes: Michelle Minguez Moore, Executive Director; Maria Teresa Petersen, Executive Director for Voto Latino; Raul L. Rubio, a government affairs consultant; Ruben Alvarez, co-founder and Managing Partner of the Molera Alvarez Group; and David Ibarra; a Utah business owner and founder of the Ibarra Foundation.

Notes: Participation in the Latino Leaders Luncheon Series™ is by invitation only. For more information, please contact Michelle Minguez Moore at 202-969-8777.

Media wishing to cover the luncheon are asked to RSVP to Jennifer Devlin at 703-876-1714 or jennifer.devlin@cox.net. Press call time is 12:00 pm for the luncheon.

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Parents’ help sought to cut Latina teen-pregnancy rates

Grace Chung
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — A coalition of Latino organizations said Tuesday that teen pregnancies in their community wouldn’t drop without more help from parents.

“To say that we are in a crisis is an understatement,” said Amy Hinojosa, the director of leadership initiatives at MANA, a national Latina organization that’s a coalition participant.

More than half of Latina teens will get pregnant before they turn 20, the coalition reported, which is nearly twice the national average and the highest pregnancy rate of any U.S. ethnic or racial group.

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Las jóvenes latinas y el sexo

Por Milagros Meléndez-Vela
El Tiempo Latino

Una de cada dos adolescentes latinas en Estados Unidos quedan embarazadas antes de los 20 años, según un estudio publicado el martes 19 por la Campaña Nacional para Prevenir Embarazos en Adolescentes.

Las cifras —según activistas y políticos hispanos— reflejan un problema de salud pública que no es atendido en su magnitud.

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