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Speakers

Rodri J. Rodriguez, creator of the Mariachi USA Festival, celebrates 26 years of playing to sell out crowds at the famous Hollywood Bowl, is a multi-talented artist/producer, visionary and arts advocate. Rodri, who played a key role in the decision to have the Latin Category added to the Grammy Awards currently sits on the Board of Trustees of the Hollywood Arts Council, she is a member of the Grammy Foundation and served as President of the Vikki Carr Scholarship Foundation. Rodri has continued to advocate for culture and arts as tools for empowerment and change and her international work has extended to Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Israel and Europe and includes concerts with artists like Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, Eric Clampton and among the Latin artists concerts with Julio Iglesias, Vicente Fernandez, Lola Beltran and Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine to name a few. In 2014, Rodri launched a 3-day festival, Dia De Los Muertos USA in Cochella, California to celebrate the ancient Aztec tradition that includes art, entertainment food and libations. This October, Rodri will be introducing Mariachi USA to the people of Habana, Cuba for the first time. KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Rodri is among the group of 25 successful entrepreneurs who in 2006 became Founding Shareholders of the first Latino owned bank, ProAmerica Bank, headquartered in downtown Los Angeles, catering to the burgeoning Latino entrepreneurship in the #1 Latino market in the nation. In 1991, Rodri founded the Mariachi USA Foundation, to provide a vehicle to nurture the proliferation of the culture through music and performing arts education in school-based programs.

Ramona Ortega is the Founder & CEO of My Money My Future, a mission-driven financial tech company that combines tailored content and simple to use tools to empower underserved Millennials manage their money with confidence. Mi Dinero Mi Futuro aims to help build and grow wealth by combining culturally relevant financial content with comprehensive money management tools on one on-line platform. MMMF personal finance platform provides daily financial advice on all of life’s financial decisions. Latinos have a Trillion dollars in buying power but only 2% of the wealth so Ortega created her company that includes nationwide Boot camps to empower, encourage and support Latinas managing their money by simplifying the options for investment and engaging in a more comprehensive discussion about building wealth in their communities. Ortega is a serial entrepreneur with over a decade of leadership in the public and private sectors. Prior to My Money My Future, she was a corporate securities attorney in New York where she worked on complex securities litigation. She has spent over a decade working on policy initiatives involving inequality and human rights. She has a B.A. from UCLA and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. She was recently named one of six Latina founders to watch and is a board member of the Latino Startup Alliance. She is a contributor to TechCrunch and the Huffington Post on issues of law, tech and diversity. PLENARY SPEAKER

Dr. Christina Bejarano is the author of The Latina Advantage: Gender, Race, and Political Success (2013) and The Latino Gender Gap in U.S. Politics (2014). In her books Bejarano recognizes that Latinas are increasingly present in U.S. politics, but they and women in general are still greatly underrepresented. However, in the Latina Advantage a key finding is that instead of being a hindrance, candidate gender can de-emphasize the disadvantage posed by racial/ethnic differences with voters and identity similarities in gender and race/ethnicity can increase electoral support. Dr. Bejarano who received her B.A. in Psychology from University of North Texas; M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa argues that Latinas are catalysts of political change as they are key to mobilizing Latino families and communities. Her research and teaching interests are in American politics, primarily in areas of gender, race/ethnicity and political behavior. She is particularly interested in studying the conditions under which racial/ethnic minorities and women successfully compete for U.S. electoral office. Bejarano currently serves on the national advisory council for LatinasRepresent, a joint initiative working to increase Latina political leadership and representation and serves as a guest expert for Presidential Gender Watch, a non-partisan project to track and analyze the gender dynamics of the 2016 presidential election. Bejarano born in El Paso, Texas is currently an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Kansas. PLENARY SPEAKER

Elizabeth Robles is a native El Pasoan with roots in Zacatecas, Mexico. Elizabeth has worked in the counseling field as a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and a Certified Clinical Training Professional (CCTP) and is also trained in Critical Incident Debriefing. Her professional focus includes women’s issues, depression, anxiety, grief and loss and she has a deep interest in spiritual issues related to the process of death and dying. She treats individuals throughout the lifespan ranging from children to the elderly. Ms. Robles delivers training on a number of topics including assertive speaking. Deeply committed to social justice, she is Co-Chair of the Senate District 29 Health Care Advisory Committee and has served on the Mano y Corazon Healthcare Education Planning Committee since 2012. In that capacity she has directed a number of inter-professional education events, including “Human Trafficking: What Health Care Professionals Must Know,” that brought together El Paso health care professionals with the federal Anti-Traffic Coordination Team (comprising the U.S. Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Labor) to brief participants on human trafficking in the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez/Las Cruces region. Prior to establishing her private practice in 2014, she worked as a development professional, directing her efforts to strengthen the system of social services for women, families and other vulnerable populations. She currently serves on the El Paso Human Trafficking Task Force and previous board experience includes the Children’s Grief Center of El Paso and Sin Fronteras Organizing Project (a farmworker initiative). Ms. Robles has Bachelor’s in Business Management and a double Master’s in Counseling and Mental Health from the University of Phoenix. PLENARY SPEAKER

Dr. Barbara J. Robles is a Principal Economist in the Division of Consumer and Community Affairs Board of Governors of the U.S Federal Reserve. She received her PH.D. in Economics with fields in Money and Banking and Econometrics from the University of Maryland-College Park. She is the author of Economic Inclusion and Financial Education in Diverse Communities: Leveraging Cultural Capital and Whole Family Learning (2014); Financial and Asset-Building Capabilities of Southwest Border Working Families: An Action Research Approach to Culturally Responsive Economic Resiliency Behaviors (2013); U.S. Latino Families, Heads of Households, and the Elderly: Emerging Trends in Financial Services and Asset-Building Behaviors (2009), and a co-author of the 2006 Gustavus-Meyers Human Rights award book, The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide (2006). She has taught at Arizona State University, the University of Texas-Austin and the University of Colorado-Boulder. She has held the position of Revenue Estimator/Economist for the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation scoring tax legislation for the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees. Her research focuses on wealth inequality, community asset-building, community economic development, economic inclusion, tax and economic education, micro-businesses and entrepreneurship with special focus on Borderlands and low-to-moderate income populations. PLENARY SPEAKER

Sponsors

Major Sponsors & Partners: Bank of America, Official Airline Sponsor- Southwest Airlines, The Electric Company Official, Hotel Sponsor- Camino Real Hotel, City of El Paso, Museums and Cultural Affairs Department, The Law Office of Enrique Moreno,

Media Partners: Telemundo KTDO 4, News Channel 9, KBNA Radio, EXA Radio, El Diario