Hispanic Vote 2012: Understanding Our Strength

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Etter-Harbin Alumni Center, Connally Ballroom

Hispanics are the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the United States, comprising 6.9% of the electorate. How will this changing demographic affect the 2012 presidential election? What are the issues most important to the Latino community? 

Agenda

12:00 – 1:30 Lunch with United States Congressman Charles A. Gonzalez 

$30 per person (UT faculty, staff, students free/click student ticket upon registration)

1:45 – 3:15 Changing Demographic, Limitless Potential

• Moderator: Jim Henson, PhD, Lecturer; Associate Director of LAITS; Director, Texas Politics Project, University of Texas at Austin
• Jason Casellas, PhD, Assistant Professor of Government, College of Liberal Arts, University of Texas at Austin
• Claudia Ortega-Hogue, Texas Director of Civic Engagement, National Association of Latino Elected & Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund
• Lloyd Potter, PhD, Texas State Demographer
  

3:30 – 5:00 Grasping the Issues: Education, Health Care, Immigration & Jobs

• Moderator: Julián Aguilar, Reporter, Texas Tribune
• Sylvia Manzano, PhD, Senior Project Manager, Latino Decisions 
• Jessica Lavariega Monforti, PhD, Assistant Dean, College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Texas - Pan American
  
• The Honorable Aaron Peña, Texas State Representative, District 40 - Edinburg

Attire

Attire for the Hispanic Leadership Summit is business or business casual. 

Parking

Parking is available in Manor Garage (click for more information and pricing). Below is a map for your convenience. 

Doing Well and Doing Good: Ethical Business Leadership

Friday, April 1, 2011 at the Etter-Harbin Alumni Center

Presented by AT&T

How can business leaders act with integrity in good economic times as well as downturns?  What are our expectations for corporate social responsibility? The 2011 Hispanic Leadership Summit convenes experts and leaders from across the country to examine the role of the business community in our society.  

Agenda

12:00 – 1:00    Lunch

• Welcome: Veronica Vargas Stidvent, Lecturer and Director, Hispanic Leadership Initiative, McCombs School of Business 
• Opening Remarks: Thomas Gilligan, Dean, McCombs School of Business, Univeristy of Texas at Austin
• Opening Remarks: William Powers Jr., President, University of Texas at Austin
• Keynote Speaker: Ralph de la Vega , President & CEO, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets 

1:00 – 1:30      Special Press Conference for Subiendo: The Academy for Rising Leaders

1:30  – 3:00       Crisis Management: Public Policy, Public Perception, and Business Reality

• Introduction: Teresa Arnold, Inclusiveness Consultant, Ernst & Young's Inclusiveness Center of Expertise
• Moderator: Leslie Enriquez, Noticias Univision Talent, Univision 62 
• Dan Bartlett, President and CEO, Public Strategies
• Bob Inman (Admiral, U.S. Navy Ret.), Chairman of the Board, Massey Energy Company
• Sol Trujillo, former CEO, Telestra, Orange and US West; Director, Target Corporation, WIND TELECOM S.p.A. and WPP plc

3:15 – 4:45      New Expectations for Corporate Social Responsibility

• Introduction: Robert Prentice, JD, Associate Chairman, Business, Government and Society
• Moderator: Pablo Schneider, Contributing Editor, Latino Leaders Magazine
• Roel Campos, Senior Partner, Cooley, LLP and former SEC Commissioner
• Sonia Perez, President, AT&T Louisiana 
• Hector Ruiz, CEO, Bull Ventures, LLC and former CEO, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)
• David Spence, Associate Professor, Department of Business, Government and Society, McCombs School of Business

5:00 – 6:00    Reception

• Recognition of the 2010 Class of Subiendo: The Academy of Rising Leaders
• Wolfgang Niedert, Principal/Financial Planner, E. Wolfgang Niedert and Associates, LLC  
• Entertainment: The University of Texas Mariachi, the Mariachi Paredes de Tejastitlan
• Student Art Exhibit sponsored by the Center for Latin American Visual Studies and the Visual Arts Center

Education: The Key to Unlock our Future

Thursday, March 25, 2010 at he Texas Exes Etter-Harbin Alumni Center

Agenda 

 Opening Remarks

• William Powers, Jr., President, University of Texas at Austin 

Panel Discussion: Closing the Education Gap 

• Moderator: Richard Flores, PhD, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Liberal Arts, The University of Texas at Austin
• Sylvia Acevedo, President and CEO, Communicard
• Mark Hugo Lopez, PhD, Associate Director, Pew Hispanic Center
• Raymund Paredes, PhD, Commissioner, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board
• Pablo Schneider, CEO, Career Educational Services and Contributing Editor, Latino Leaders Magazine

Lunch  

• Keynote Remarks by Julián Castro, Mayor of San Antonio, Texas 

Panel Discussion: The Role of Universities in Developing the Next Generation of Leaders

• Moderator: Dr. Jim Henson, PhD, Director, Texas Politics Project, The University of Texas at Austin
• Antonio Flores, PhD, President and CEO, Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities 
• Robert Hutchings, Dean, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin
• The Honorable Diana Maldonado, Texas State House of Representatives
• Victor Saenz, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Administration, The University of Texas at Austin
• The Honorable Michael Villarreal, Texas State House of Representatives

Closing Remarks

Biographies

William Powers, Jr.

Bill Powers took office as president of The University of Texas at Austin in February, 2006. Since then, he has pursued an ambitious set of established goals for UT Austin, aimed at securing its position among the nation’s leading public universities. From 2000 to 2005, he served as dean of the UT School of Law, where he won recognition for recruiting a world-class faculty and attracting highly diverse and talented students.

A native of Los Angeles, President Powers received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1967. After serving in the United States Navy, he attended Harvard Law School, where he was managing editor of the Harvard Law Review and graduated magna cum laude in 1973. He taught at the University of Washington Law School before joining UT’s faculty in 1977.

In 1997, the University named him to its Academy of Distinguished Teachers. He has worked as a legal consultant with the U.S. Congress, the Brazilian legislature, and the Texas legislature. In 2001, he chaired a committee that examined the financial transactions of the Enron Corporation. The resulting report received widespread attention and has come to be known as “The Powers Report.”

Julián Castro

Julián Castro was elected Mayor of San Antonio on May 9, 2009. A 35-year-old San Antonio native, Mayor Castro is the youngest mayor of a Top 50 American city.

In 2001, at the age of 26, Castro became the youngest elected city councilman at that point in San Antonio history. Throughout his tenure in public service, Mayor Castro has championed a vision of economic growth and a top-notch quality of life for all San Antonians.

Befitting those goals, Mayor Castro has placed an emphasis on education during his first term in office with a goal of positioning the city to attract the jobs of the future. His initiatives include a holistic approach to raising local educational attainment levels by increasing city participation in early childhood education, high school dropout prevention and comprehensive higher education counseling.

In 2005, Castro founded The Law Offices of Julián Castro, PLLC, a civil litigation practice. He has served on the board of Family Services Association, the Clear Channel San Antonio Advisory Board and the San Antonio National Bank Advisory Board. In addition to his community service, Mayor Castro has taught courses at The University of Texas at San Antonio, Trinity University, and St. Mary’s University.

Mayor Castro earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford University with honors and distinction in 1996 and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School in 2000. He is married to Erica Lira Castro, an elementary school teacher, and they are the proud parents of a baby girl, Carina, born in March 2009.

Mayor Castro’s brother, Joaquin, serves in the Texas House of Representatives.

Sylvia Acevedo

Sylvia Acevedo, President and CEO, CommuniCard, LLC, is one of the nation’s foremost Hispanic thought leaders and strategists on today’s demographic shifts. Her work, inspired by a rocket scientist background before Stanford, focuses on mobilizing the educational support network across regions to fuel workforce development among a rising 21st Century youth population.

Acevedo spearheads the nation’s largest Spanish language education and college-readiness events known as Feria Para Aprender™ (The Learning Fair.com). Founded in Austin by Acevedo, these “mobilization events” have drawn more than 45,000 Spanish speaking parents and children in Texas and Los Angeles to help them navigate the U.S. education system towards academic success. More than 70, 000 books have been distributed at these events. Acevedo also created the prominent “million-dollar” For a Better Life campaign (Para Una Buena Vida™), which has trained more than 2,000 representatives from nonprofits, agencies, schools, and businesses nationwide on engaging Spanish-speaking parents about the value of a higher education and being bilingual.

Acevedo’s cost-effective, scalable programs have led to systemic changes for school districts, universities, non-profits, and corporations. Ferias and the Better Life campaign have also been credited with helping to remove barriers to Latino college enrollment, drive the growth of ESL classes, and create jobs for Hispanics.

Antonio R. Flores, PhD

Antonio R. Flores is the President of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). During his tenure as president of HACU, the association has nearly tripled its membership (from 161 members in 1996 to 455 in November 2009) and its budget, expanded its programs three-fold, significantly improved legislation for HSIs, increased annual federal funding for HSIs from $12 million in fiscal 1995 to over $100 million for fiscal 2008, and secured millions of dollars in new private funding for HSIs and associate members, including a $28 million HSI Kellogg initiative. HACU’s strategic plan calls for even greater gains for its membership in the years ahead. More than $1.2 billion in federal funding has been allocated to HSIs during Flores’ tenure.

Prior to his position at HACU, Flores served as director of programs and services for the Michigan Higher Education Assistance Authority and the Michigan Higher Education Student Loan Authority. His statewide responsibilities included policy analysis and development, legislative affairs, administrative leadership for programs, technical assistance and outreach services for all Michigan colleges and universities, program evaluation and research, and overall management.

Richard Flores, PhD

Richard Flores is Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for the College of Liberal Arts and Professor of Anthropology and Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin where he holds the C. B. Smith, Sr. Centennial Chair in U. S.—Mexico Relations. He works in the areas of critical theory, performance studies, semiotics, and historical anthropology. He is a native of San Antonio, Texas, and received his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989.

He is the author of Remembering the Alamo: Memory, Modernity, and the Master Symbol (University of Texas Press, 2002), Los Pastores: History and Performance in the Mexican Shepherd’s Play of South Texas (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995), editor of Adina De Zavala’s, History and Legends of the Alamo (Arte Público Press, 1996). He has published essays in American Ethnologist, Cultural Anthropology, American Literary History, Radical History Review, and in the edited volume, Latino Cultural Citizenship, published by
Beacon Press.

As part of his administrative portfolio, Dean Flores works on internationalizing the curriculum through study abroad and international studies programs, faculty recruitment and retention, including minority faculty recruitment, retention, and pipeline issues. In addition, he oversees the college’s curricular and academic mission, undergraduate research, and UTeach‑Liberal Arts, the college’s secondary teacher preparation program.

James Henson, PhD

James Henson directs the Texas Politics Project in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas at Austin, where he also teaches in the Department of Government. The Texas Politics Project produces an open access multimedia education resource that combines an online textbook with original high quality video and multimedia content, and produces original public opinion research and public events focused on politics and policy in Texas.

Henson helped design public interest multimedia for the Benton Foundation in Washington D.C. in the late 1990’s, and his academic writing about American and international politics has appeared in The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Theory & Event, and elsewhere. In 2008, with Daron Shaw and colleagues in the Government Department, he collaborated in establishing the only statewide publicly available public opinion poll for Texas, which is now co-sponsored by The Texas Tribune, where Henson is now a regular contributor.

Robert Hutchings

Robert Hutchings is dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining the LBJ School in March 2010, Hutchings was Diplomat in Residence in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. He was also faculty chair of the Master in Public Policy program and served for five years as assistant dean of the school.

During a public service leave from Princeton University in 2003-05, he was Chairman of the U.S. National Intelligence Council in Washington. His combined academic and diplomatic career has included service as Fellow and Director of International Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Director for European Affairs with the National Security Council, and Special Adviser to the Secretary of State, with the rank of ambassador.

Ambassador Hutchings also served as deputy director of Radio Free Europe and on the faculty of the University of Virginia, and has held adjunct appointments at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. He is author of At the End of the American Century and of American Diplomacy and the End of the Cold War, which was published in German as als der Kalte Krieg zu Ende war, along with many articles and book chapters on European and transatlantic affairs.

While chairing the National Intelligence Council, he directed the year-long “NIC 2020” project resulting in a report called Mapping the Global Future, examining the forces that will shape world affairs out to the year 2020. His current research springs from that project and aims at developing a global policy agenda, based on a series of structured strategic dialogues over the past two years with leaders in China, Russia, India, Brazil, South Africa, and a dozen other key countries around the world.

Hutchings is a director of the Atlantic Council of the United States and of the Foundation for a Civil Society and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the British- North American Committee. A recipient of the National Intelligence Medal and the U.S. State Department Superior Honor Award, he was also awarded the Order of Merit (with Commander’s Cross) of the Republic of Poland for his contributions to Polish freedom.

He is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

Mark Hugo Lopez, PhD

Mark Hugo Lopez is the Associate Director of the Pew Hispanic Center where he studies the attitudes and opinions of young Latinos, the political engagement of Latinos, and Hispanics and their interaction with the criminal justice system. Lopez also coordinates the Center’s national surveys. Additionally, he currently serves as a Visiting Professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, as the Second Vice President of the American Society of Hispanic Economists (ASHE) and as a member of the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economics Profession (CSMGEP). Prior to joining the Pew Hispanic Center, Lopez was the Research Director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) where he studied the civic engagement of young people.

Lopez received his Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University in 1996. He joined the Pew Hispanic Center in January of 2008.

Diana Maldonado

Diana Maldonado was elected to serve as State Representative for House District 52 in November of 2008. District 52 encompasses a portion of Williamson County, including Round Rock, Taylor, Hutto, Thrall, Coupland and part of Georgetown.

A lifelong Texan, Maldonado moved to Round Rock in the late-nineties to find more affordable homes, good public schools and safer neighborhoods for her two children. Maldonado has a long history of supporting teachers and students as a parent, on the PTA, and serving as President of the Round Rock ISD Board of Trustees. During her tenure, Round Rock ISD became one of the fastest growing and highest rated school districts in Texas. It gained recognition from Texas Monthly and from Forbes Magazine, who ranked Round Rock ISD ninth in the nation as best public education for the taxpayer dollar. As President of the school board, Maldonado always worked hard to listen to different viewpoints, bring a voice to students and families of low socio-economic and educational disparities, find common ground, and have the integrity to put the people’s business first while operating in an open and honest fashion. Her focus in putting children first is what earned her the trust of her colleagues and residents.

Maldonado also spent over 20 years at the Texas Comptroller’s Office (24 years total in state government) before seeking election in House District 52. During the 81st Legislative Session, Diana was appointed to serve on the House State Affairs Committee and the House Defense & Veteran’s Affairs Committee.

Raymund A. Paredes, PhD

Raymund A. Paredes is the Commissioner of Higher Education at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Prior to joining to the Coordinating Board in July 2004, Paredes was Vice President for Programs at the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF) where he was responsible for scholarship and outreach programs. Before joining HSF, he was Director of Creativity & Culture at The Rockefeller Foundation from 2001 to 2003. Before joining The Rockefeller Foundation, Paredes was Vice Chancellor-Academic Development for 10 years at UCLA, where he had also been a professor of English since 1971. In addition, he served as special assistant to the President of the University of California system from 1998-2000 on outreach efforts intended to improve access to higher education for students from educationally disadvantaged communities.

Paredes currently serves as a trustee of The College Board and on the Board of Directors of the Texas Cultural Trust. He was appointed by Governor Rick Perry to the Education Commission of the States and also serves on their Advisory Committee for Developmental Studies. He is President of Big Brothers Big Sisters’ Nationwide Hispanic Advisory Council, a member of the NAEP High School Achievement Commission and was named one of Hispanic Business Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Hispanics of 2007.

Victor B. Saenz, PhD

Victor B. Saenz, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in Higher Education Administration and a faculty associate with the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a faculty affiliate with the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute (HERI). Prior to working at UT‐Austin, Saenz was the research manager for the Cooperative Institutional Research Program—housed at HERI—where he coordinated several national data collection efforts and studies of college students in partnership with hundreds of institutions across the country.

In 2005, he received his PhD from UCLA in Higher Education and Organizational Change with a focus on access, equity, and diversity issues in postsecondary education. Saenz was a Spencer Foundation pre‐doctoral fellow while at UCLA, where he also completed a Masters in Education in 2002. He also received a Masters degree in Public Affairs (1999) and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics (1996) from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Saenz was born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. His research interests include: Chronicling the educational benefits of racial/ethnic diversity on college campuses; Desegregation issues in education; Access, transition, and retention issues for Latina/o, first‐generation, and minority male students; and Assessment issues in higher education.

Pablo Schneider

Pablo Schneider is a bilingual and bicultural entrepreneur, senior executive, and board member. Over the past twenty plus years he has demonstrated dynamic leadership in sales and marketing, business development, executive management, and corporate governance. Schneider is President and CEO of Career Educational Services, a DFW-based company that partners with colleges and universities to deliver job training programs.

Schneider previously held senior executive positions with Fusion Mobile, BlueCross and Blue Shield, Delta Dental, and Community Health Group. Schneider is a member of the Thunderbird Global Council of the Thunderbird School of Global Management; Contributing Editor for Latino Leaders Magazine and a member of the Texas Manufactured Housing Board. Additionally, Schneider is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors (cofounder of the North Texas Chapter), a Lifetime member of the National Society of Hispanic MBA’s, an alumnus of the Texas Lyceum Association, and an alumnus of LEAD San Diego.

Michael Villarreal

Michael Villarreal, State Representative for House District 123, was born and raised in San Antonio. His father immigrated from Mexico as a child. His mother is a product of the Edgewood community on the West Side of San Antonio. He was the first in his family to graduate from college, earning an economics degree from Texas A&M and a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard. He now directs the San Antonio office for the nation’s leading public finance advisory firm.

In 1999, Villarreal launched a grassroots campaign for the Texas House of Representatives. He knocked on 4,000 doors and won by one vote, defeating a judge backed by the local political establishment. In 2009, Texas Monthly gave Villarreal an “Honorable Mention” for Best Legislators after he secured financial aid funding for thousands of college students. He also won the Renewable Energy Association’s “State Leadership Award” for passing the only renewable energy bill of the session. Villarreal also brings a great sense of humor to his work.

He lived in a state park when the state was renewing its parks department. He also appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart poking fun at legislation to regulate “sexy cheerleading.” Villarreal and his wife Jeanne Russell are raising two children, Bella and Marcos. 
 

Hispanic Leadership Initiative Launch

Monday, May 4, 2009 at Etter-Harbin Alumni Center

Agenda 

Introduction to the Hispanic Leadership Initiative

• Veronica Vargas Stidvent, Director, LBJ School Center for Politics and Governance

Opening Remarks

• Admiral B. R. Inman, U.S. Navy (Ret.), Interim Dean and LBJ Centennial Chair in National Policy, Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs

Keynote Speech “The Road Less Traveled”

• Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., Chancellor, The University of Texas System

Panel Discussion

• Henry Bonilla, Former U.S. Congressman
• Ted Cruz, Former Texas Solicitor General
• Pete Gallego, Texas State Representative
• Orlinda Naranjo, 419th District State Judge

Closing Remarks

• Susana Aleman, Chair, Texas Exes Hispanic Alumni Steering Committee

Reception

Biographies

Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa, M.D.

As chancellor of The University of Texas System, Dr. Francisco G. Cigarroa oversees one of the largest public systems of higher education in the nation, with nine universities and six health institutions, an annual operating budget of $11.5 billion (FY 2009), including $2.5 billion in sponsored programs funded by federal, state, local, and private sources, and more than 194,000 students and 84,000 employees. He also serves as vice chairman for policy on the Board of Directors of The University of Texas Investment Management Co. (UTIMCO). A nationally renowned pediatric and transplant surgeon, Dr. Cigarroa served as president of the U.T. Health Science Center at San Antonio from 2000 until his appointment in January 2009 as chancellor. A native of Laredo, Dr. Cigarroa earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale in 1979 and received his medical degree with highest honors from U.T. Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in 1983. He has completed 12 years of postgraduate training. He was chief resident at Harvard’s teaching hospital, Massachusetts General in Boston, and completed a fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. In 1995, he joined the U. T. Health Science Center faculty in San Antonio. Dr. Cigarroa was on the surgical team that in 1997 split a donor liver for transplant into two recipients; it was the first operation of its type in Texas. In 2000, he headed the team that performed South Texas’ first successful pediatric small bowel transplant. Dr. Cigarroa serves on the medical staffs of University Hospital, CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital-Downtown, CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children's Hospital, CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital-Medical Center, and the Baptist Health System, and as a consultant at Methodist Children's Hospital. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgery and a Diplomat of the American Board of Surgery. He has received a certificate in pediatric surgery from the American Board of Surgery. His many professional affiliations include the American Medical Association, Texas Medical Association, and Bexar County Medical Society. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County. In 2003, President George W. Bush appointed Dr. Cigarroa to serve as a member of the President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science. In October 2006, Dr. Cigarroa was elected to membership in the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. He also serves as a member of the Secretary’s Council on Public Health Preparedness.

Admiral B. R. Inman, U.S. Navy (Ret.)

Admiral Bobby R. Inman, USN (Ret.), graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1950, and from the National War College in 1972. He became an adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin in 1987. He was appointed as a tenured professor holding the Lyndon B. Johnson Centennial Chair in National Policy in August 2001. He served as Interim Dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs from 1 January to 31 December 2005 and was appointed in January 2009 to serve as Interim Dean a second time.

Admiral Inman served in the U.S. Navy from November 1951 to July 1982, when he retired with the permanent rank of Admiral. While on active duty he served as Director of the National Security Agency and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. After retirement from the Navy, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) in Austin, Texas for four years and Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Westmark Systems, Inc., a privately owned electronics industry holding company for three years. Admiral Inman also served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from 1987 through 1990.
Admiral Inman’s primary activity since 1990 has been investing in start-up technology companies, where he is a Managing Director of Gefinor Ventures and Limestone Ventures. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Massey Energy Company and of several privately held companies. He serves as a Trustee of the American Assembly and the California Institute of Technology. He is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Veronica Vargas Stidvent

Veronica "Ronnye" Vargas Stidvent is Program Director of the Hispanic Leadership Initiative and a lecturer in the Department of Business, Government and Society.  She previously served as the inaugural Director of the Center for Politics and Governance at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.

From 2004-2007, she served as the Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor, where she provided advice and counsel to the Secretary of Labor on issues including immigration reform, worker health and safety, and job training. Her office was responsible for the management and implementation of policy development, regulations, and program implementation. Prior to her appointment as assistant secretary, Stidvent served in the White House as special assistant to the president for policy, where she helped develop policy on a wide range of issue areas, including labor, education, justice, homeland security, and regulatory reform. Before that, she served as a policy adviser in Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. In that position, she provided counsel on federal regulatory policy.

A native of El Paso, Stidvent received her B.A. in the Plan II Honors Program and American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, where she was honored as a Dean's Distinguished Graduate. After earning her law degree at Yale, she served as a judicial clerk for the Honorable Sidney Fitzwater, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

She served on the University Texas Commission of 125, a group of citizens convened to express a vision of how the University of Texas can best serve Texas and society during the next 25 years.  In 2006, Stidvent was honored by the National Association of Hispanic Publishers as a Latina Role Model.

Stidvent has served on the Travis County Elections Study Group.  She is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for Indiana University School of Public Affairs.  She currently serves as an at-large representative to the Texas Exes Council and chairs the Hispanic Alumni Steering Committee for the organization.  She also sits on the Boards of Directors for The Texas Tribune and the Texas Exes Scholarship Foundation.  In 2009, she was appointed to a six-year term on the Texas Commission on Human Rights. 

Henry Bonilla

Henry was a member of the United States Congress from 1993 to 2007. In his first term in office, Henry quickly made his mark. He was featured by TIME magazine as one of America’s Top 50 Up and Coming Young Leaders. But more importantly, that same year, Henry was recognized as an Outstanding Young Texas Ex. In addition, Henry was presented an award for dedicated leadership and distinguished service by UT President Robert M. Berdahl in 1996.

During his time on Capitol Hill, Henry rose to become the 7th most influential member of congress in the Power Rankings by Congress.org. He was a member of the powerful Appropriations Committee. He chaired the subcommittee that funded the Agriculture Department, the Food and Drug Administration, and was also a senior member of the subcommittee that funded the Department of Defense and the CIA. Henry was in the perfect position to help his alma mater with federal resources and he did. The University of Texas leadership consistently partnered with Henry over the years to bring millions of federal dollars into our classrooms and research facilities around the state. Henry’s impact on Hispanic voters was historic. He represented a congressional district that spanned hundreds of miles along the Texas-Mexico border. The population was overwhelmingly Hispanic and had never before been represented by a Republican. Henry also became a national political leader. He co-chaired the Republican national conventions in 2000 and 2004.

Henry began life in a housing project on San Antonio’s west side which was almost 100% Hispanic. He later attended South San Antonio High School, which had a 50% drop out rate. His mother always encouraged education. His father encouraged hard work and self responsibility. With those values, Henry graduated high school and entered the University of Texas in the fall of 1972. He graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor of Journalism and spent the next 15 years in broadcast news. At the peak of that career he was the producer of the 11 p.m. news at WABC-TV in New York City, the flagship station for the ABC television network. His newscasts were watched by some two to twelve million viewers each night.
Henry is now in his third career as a partner with The Normandy Group, a Washington D. C. government relations firm. His wife Sheryl is a Public Affairs Manager in the Washington office of UPS. Henry’s daughter Alicia graduated from Princeton in 2007 and is now in Tokyo, Japan. His son Austin is a sophomore at NYU.

Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz is a former Solicitor General of Texas. Appointed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot, Ted served from 2003 to 2008 as the chief appellate lawyer for the State of Texas, representing Texas before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Texas Supreme Court, and the state and federal appellate courts. He was the first Hispanic Solicitor General in Texas, the youngest Solicitor General in the Nation, and the longest serving Solicitor General in Texas. He has authored more than 70 U.S. Supreme Court Briefs and presented 34 oral arguments, including eight before the U.S. Supreme Court, more than any other lawyer in Texas. Before the Supreme Court, he has won landmark decisions successfully defending the Texas Ten Commandments monument, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, the Texas congressional redistricting plan, and the U.S. sovereignty from attempts by the World Court to bind the U.S. justice system. Ted has been named by American Lawyer magazine as one of the 50 Best Litigators under 45 in America; hailed as a "rising star" in the Wall Street Journal; and named by National Law Journal as one of the 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America.

Ted is a Partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, the Nation’s twelfth largest law firm, where he leads the firm’s U.S. Supreme Court and national Appellate Litigation practice. In addition, he serves as an adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Texas Law School. Ted is the son of a Cuban immigrant, was raised in Texas, and attended Princeton University and the Harvard Law School. He previously served as the Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission, as Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, as Department of Justice Coordinator for the 2000 Bush Transition Team, as Domestic Policy Advisor to President George W. Bush on the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, and as a law clerk to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist on the U.S. Supreme Court. He is the only Hispanic in history to have clerked for the Chief Justice of the United States.

Pete P. Gallego

Pete P. Gallego, 47, is a member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 74, the largest House district and the largest Texas U.S.-Mexico border district stretching nearly 39,000 square miles and containing over half of the Texas/Mexico border.

Elected in 1990, Representative Gallego is the first Hispanic to represent this vast border district. In 1991, he became the first freshman member and the first ethnic minority member ever elected as chair of the House Democratic Caucus, a post he held until January of 2001. In January of 2001, Representative Gallego was unanimously elected by his colleagues to serve as chair of the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus (MALC), a group of 43 House members who are of Mexican-American descent or who serve a significant Mexican-American constituency.

Representative Gallego served as MALC Chair for 8 years.Now in his tenth term, Representative Gallego is Chair of the Committee of Criminal Jurisprudence and serves as a member of the Committees on General Investigating and State Affairs. His career has included chairmanships of the General Investigating Committee and several select and subcommittees.

He has also served as a member of the Sunset Commission and the Committees on Appropriations, Calendars, Criminal Jurisprudence, Higher Education, Elections, Government Reform, and Natural Resources. An Alpine native, Gallego graduated from Sul Ross State University (SRSU) in 1982 with a bachelor's degree in political science.

In 1985, he earned a Doctor of Jurisprudence from The University of Texas School of Law. Representative Gallego is a member of the Sul Ross State University Hall of Fame as an outstanding booster, and has been named a Distinguished Alumnus by the SRSU Ex-Student Association. In the Legislature, Representative Gallego is an expert in appropriations, law enforcement, criminal justice, campaign finance and victims' rights. He served on the joint House/Senate conference committee on the state budget for five consecutive sessions from 1993 to 2001 and has received numerous awards, including the Advocate for Justice award from a coalition of Texas victims' groups and the Star of Texas public service award by Common Cause of Texas. Following the 1999 session, he was selected as one of Texas Monthly's Ten Best legislators.

Most recently, Representative Gallego received the prestigious OHTLI Award from the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his contributions to the betterment of the Mexican community in Texas. A supporter of both public and higher education, Representative Gallego was honored by the Eagle Pass Independent School District in 2000 with the naming and dedication of the Pete Gallego Elementary School. He has also been honored by the Texas State University System, The University of Texas System, and the Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas in appreciation for his support of higher education. The National Council of State Governments awarded Representative Gallego a prestigious Henry Toll Fellowship, recognizing him as one of the outstanding young leaders in the nation. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Texas Equal Access to Justice Foundation and was recently named to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO).

Representative Gallego is also a past chair of the Texas Lyceum Association, an organization comprised of individuals under the age of 45 who have demonstrated leadership abilities throughout the State. Representative Gallego still lives in Alpine, where he was born and raised. He is currently of counsel to the law firm of Brown McCarroll, LLP, which has offices in Austin, El Paso, Houston, Dallas, and Alpine. In addition, he and his wife own the Holland Lofts, a small boutique inn operated under the auspices of the historic Holland Hotel in Alpine.

Orlinda Naranjo

Judge Orlinda Naranjo was elected to Travis County 419th District Court in November, 2006 to a four year term. Judge Naranjo served as Judge of County Court at Law No. 2 for twelve years having been elected to that bench in 1994.

She is a former attorney at Small, Craig & Werkenthin, P.C. and the City of Austin in their litigation sections. She is licensed in New Mexico and Texas and received her law degree from UNM School of Law in May, 1985. She was appointed to the Texas Judicial Council from May, 2000 to September, 2008 by Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips and reappointed by Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, September, 2008 to present. From January, 2002 to September, 2008 she was appointed by Governor Rick Perry to serve as a member of the Task Force on Indigent Defense (TFID), a standing statewide 13-member committee that improves the delivery of indigent defense services. The Task Force’s mission is advanced through awarding state funding of over $100 million in grants to counties; also development of uniform indigent defense policies, standards, grant rules and procedures, model forms, and minimum CLE requirements for attorneys appointed to representing indigent defendants.

She is a community advisor for the Junior League of Austin, an Alumni of Leadership Texas and Leadership Austin, and an officer and former board member of numerous professional and community organizations. Wife of Attorney, Jim Ewbank of Ewbank & Byrom, P.C. and mother of two daughters, Alena and McLean and has two beautiful 2 year old granddaughters, Adrienne and Simone.