Hispanic Leadership Institute Class VI

HISPANIC

LEADERSHIP

INSTITUTE

CLASS OF 2016-2017 SPONSORED BY

HISPANIC LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE The Hispanic Leadership Institute is a skillsbased leadership training program whose main goal is to develop the next generation of Hispanic leaders for the St. Louis business community. HLI consists of nine training sessions conducted once a month. Each session will focus on a particular skill set for the developing leader.

The institute will train this group of Hispanic professionals on for-profit and non-profit management skills and network development within the St. Louis business community. In addition to leadership training, participants will be encouraged to give back to the St. Louis region through community involvement.

The three essential competencies to be acquired in this class are leading an organization, leading oneself and leading others in the organization.

The participants of Class VI are as follows:

Claudia Barona

LifePack

Claudia was born and raised in Cali, Colombia where she achieved a Bachelor’s of Science in Industrial Engineering from the Universidad Pontifica Javeriana. After getting her Bachelor of Science she pursued her specializations in Engineering Management Systems with an emphasis on Projects and another in Logistics, both from the same university as her undergraduate.

Nowadays, she is the Co-founder and CMO of Lifepack. The company is dedicated to the production and selling of products with high social and environmental impact. In 2014, her company won an Arch Grant, additionally, Empower Women recognized her as a Successful Story for the 2015 year. That same year, she won the mentorship of Yield Lab. In 2016, she was recognized by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as the Hispanic Emerging Business of the year, SBA as the Immigran Owned Small Business of the year and finally SBA as with “Future 50 Awards”.

In 2015, along with her husband and business partner Andres and her daughter Isabella they decided to move to the United States, to Saint Louis, MO specifically, after winning the Arch Grant. In St. Louis, Claudia and her family are very happy and grateful for all the support they have received from individuals, companies, organizations and others. claudiaibarona@papelyco.com

314.305.3901

Cynthia Chavez Language Access Multicultural People

Cynthia Chavez is the Project Coordinator for Language. Access.

Multicultural. People., LAMP, a non-Profit organization that serves the immigrant and refugee communities throughout Missouri.

Cynthia grew up in small town New Haven, Missouri and then went on to graduate from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri in 2014. There, she became the first in her family to receive a college degree. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and Biology and hopes to continue her education and receive a master’s degree in the future.

As Project Coordinator, Cynthia works directly with LAMP’s executive director to track timelines and plan the development of future processes. Cynthia trains new interpreters in the national standards and code of ethics, LAMP’s policies and procedures, and covers all aspects of compliance for all of the fields that LAMP serves. She is also a licensed “Bridging the Gap” trainer, which is a nationally recognized 40-hour medical interpreter course that prepares interpreters to become nationally certified. Cynthia has also worked closely with LAMP’s Marketing and Community Outreach department.

In her free time, Cynthia loves to spend time with her family and friends, exercise, watch movies, read, and trying new restaurants. cchavez@ccstl.org 314.722.4016

Liliana De La Garza

St. Francis South-side

Community Center

Liliana De La Garza is an immigrant native of Mexico who came to the United States as a child and pursued her associate degree at Black Hawk College. In January 2016, Liliana began attending the University of Missouri-St. Louis, pursuing a degree in criminal justice with a psychology minor.

Liliana is currently the lead teacher for the Best Foot Forward Youth Program at St. Francis Community Services Southside Center. The youth program serves children from kindergarten to high school, providing services which include tutoring, homework assistance, STEM projects, soccer, music, and art.

As an immigrant herself Liliana strives to make a positive impact within the Hispanic community. After graduating from high school, Liliana worked for seven years with the migrant population in West Michigan assisting in the successful enrollment of children in a seasonal Head Start program.

Liliana has been active in her community serving as a student ambassador at both Black Hawk College and UMSL. Liliana also volunteers for the World Pediatric Project and works with the Children’s Education Alliance of Missouri to support education equality in the State of Missouri. ldelagarza@ccstl.org 314.773.6100

Mercedes DĂ­az Arias Monsanto

Mercedes Diaz Arias is a Plant Disease Scientist at Monsanto Co. She has worked for over 3.5 years in the Biotechnology and Chemistry divisions focused in research and development of agricultural products. Mercedes is also part of the Monsanto Latin Network Leadership team, focused on communications and marketing.

Mercedes was born and raised in Cartago, Costa Rica. In 2004, she obtained her Bachelors degree in Biotechnology and Agronomy from Technological Institute of Costa Rica and University of Costa Rica (UCR) respectively. In 2005, she moved to U.S to conduct one year research study at Iowa State University (ISU) to fulfill her requirements to obtain her master degree in Crop protection and Integrate Pest Management at UCR. In 2007 she had the opportunity to return to U.S to obtain her PhD in Plant Pathology at ISU. In 2013 Mercedes move to St Louis, Missouri with her husband and 2 dogs. She enjoys living in St Louis because the weather and there are many attractions she can do. During her free time, she enjoys traveling, practicing boxing and kickboxing, and Zumba classes.

mdiaz5@monsanto.com 314.452.9816

Claudia

Espinoza Smith

Monsanto Claudia J. Smith was born in Lima and grew up in Mexico City where she graduated as Chemical Engineer with a major in molecular biology from U.N.A.M. and Instituto de BiotecnologĂ­a (U.N.A.M.).

Claudia has 14 years combined experience in the biotech and chemical industries. She acquired team management, negotiation with government agencies, project management and budget management skills. Claudia currently works for Monsanto as a Biotech Regulatory Affairs Manager where she gained licensing management, product safety assessment and business acumen skills.

As a member of the Monsanto Latin Network Leadership Team Claudia has had the opportunity to help promote the Latin culture and be an advocate for diversity at work and outside work. She is a member of the United Way Early Education allocation panel.

Claudia has now settled in Saint Louis with her husband and two daughters. Her family has English (husband), German (daughter’s place of birth), Mexican and Peruvian heritage. Swimming is the main family activity; Claudia is a swim coach for the YMCA Piranhas while her daughters swim competitively year round. claudia.j.smith@monsanto.com 314.694.3711

Esti Fernandez

Thomson Reuters

Esti Fernandez Cereceda is a Lead Technical Business Analyst at Thomson Reuters. Esti’s role in the company is writing requirements to model the incoming raw binary data into proprietary systems by closely working with software engineers code as directed.

Esti currently works with the Latin American markets and leads a group of 3.

Esti Fernandez was born and raised in the city of Bilbao, Spain. At age 20 she moved to London where she worked and studied for 6 years and then started her first job with British Telecom and later with Bridge Information Systems in St. Louis.

Esti studied a lot of music as a child and still enjoys playing the accordion. She is a Board Member of the ATG, Accordionist Teacher’s Guild, which promotes the inclusion and enhancement of the accordion as a classical instrument.

She is married to Rich and they have 2 girls, Nadia 12, and Eva 10.

The family dedicates a lot of their time to their kid’s extracurricular activities and competitions on piano, choir, theater performance and rock climbing. These activities often lead them to travel around the country which they love. They also enjoy annual vacations overseas, primarily to Europe to meet with family and friends.

esti.fernandez@tr.com 314.468.8238

Nathalia

Garcia

Southern Illinois University

Nathalia Garcia is a Colombian Dentist and specialist in Periodontics; current Section Head of Periodontics at Southern Illinois University, School of Dental Medicine; and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Graduate Periodontics Program at Saint Louis University, Center for Advanced Dental Education.

Besides her passion for teaching, Nathalia has a strong devotion for clinical research in dentistry and periodontics. Nathalia is the author of more than 20 journal articles and book chapters in the dental discipline, and serves as a member of the editorial board of 3 scientific and dental journals. She has been invited to present her projects at national and international level.

Nathalia is also engaged with different professional service committees and in activities such as developing programs, policies, both at the Dental School and SIUE. She is looking for opportunities to be more involved within the Hispanic Community in the Saint Louis area and to become a support for Hispanic women who may be considering careers in dentistry, science and academics.

She is a wife and a mother of two young daughters, Isabel and Sarita; her family take time to travel and engage in many cultural activities, especially those than can encourage the kids’ appreciation of their Hispanic heritage. Oscar, her husband is Nathalia’s strong support and they share the passion for biking. migarci@siue.edu 618.474.7180

Jesse

Mรกrquez

Centene Jesse is a first-generation Mexican-American and oldest of three children. Jesse attended Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and graduated with a degree in Business Administration in 2000 and became the first in his family to obtain a college degree.

After college, Jesse began working for the United States Social Security Administration. During this time, Jesse showed interest in technology and took initiative and began teaching himself graphic design and web development. During the next several years, Jesse left the government and honed his skills working for a web development company. This experience allowed Jesse to advance to the next chapter of his life as an Application Software Engineer at Centene Corporation in 2012.

At Centene, Jesse is part of the IT Service Management team where their goal is to improve processes that help the customer. Being on the ITSM team has allowed Jesse to further his skills learning new languages and creating tools that assists the end user.

Jesse currently lives in Saint Charles, MO. In his free time, Jesse loves to travel, bike Katy Trail, kayak at Creve Couer Lake, play tennis, play guitar, spend time with friends and visit family in Illinois. jesmarquez@centene.com 314.445.0313

Gaby

Marroquin

ReMax Gold

Gaby is originally from Stanford, CT and grew up in Chicago, IL and moved to St. Louis where she graduated from McCluer North High School. At only 19 she was offered her first corporate job at SBM Management with no previous experience in the management field. Two years later, she was offered a job at Prestige USA as a Regional Manager where she managed and oversaw several accounts in three different states with a count of over 150 employees.

Gaby currently forms a part of the Ponce Realty Group as a Licensed Real Estate Agent, where she has put to use her good cross cultural communication skills along with her passion for helping others. As a Realtor she helps and enjoys to see many families make their home owning dream become a reality. She is currently working to increase her knowledge in leadership and business administration at her current position.

Being brought up in a Spanish-speaking household she knows the importance of keeping your native language, values and making sure it transcends to the following generations. As a mother of three she makes sure her children know how important it is to believe in yourself, to have the will power to succeed and to never forget that you never stop learning. She enjoys spending time with her family, charity marathons and traveling. gabym@stlgoldhomes.com 314.498.5055

Priscila

Melo NestlĂŠ Purina

Priscila Melo was born and raised in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Priscila is multilingual in English, Spanish and Portuguese. She has a bachelor degree in Communications and an MBA in Administration with HR emphasis.

Priscila joined Nestle in 2003 in Brazil, and since then have been developing in different positions from Communications and Change Management, Learning & Training and HR Manager (and Business Partner) for different divisions at Nestle. During 2004 and 2005, she had the opportunity to work at Nestle Mexico on a mission assignment.

Throughout these different assignments Priscila was able to acquire an extensive management experience and background under complex environments and different cultures. She wishes to continue developing her leadership skills for her current and future positions.

She moved to St. Louis 3 ½ years ago with her family as HR Manager for around 200 employees in IT groups in North America.

priscila.melo@purina.nestle.com 314.982.5956

Georgina

Montero

Monsanto

Georgina Montero is an HR professional interested in HRIS, development, inclusion and diversity. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts and Sciences with a focus on Latin American Literature and Political Sciences and a Master Degree in Human Resources Management from Washington University in Saint Louis. She also holds an MBA from Missouri Baptist University and a Six Sigma Green Belt Certification.

She is currently a Human Resources professional working for Monsanto Co. as their Development and Performance System Administrator. Previously, Georgina was the Latin America HR Service Specialist. In that role she served as the master data manager for Latin America.

Georgina is part of the Monsanto Latin Network Leadership Team, which focuses on employee development and engagement and in giving back to the community through numerous initiatives.

Georgina enjoys hiking with her husband and kids. Helping her kids enjoy the outdoors is important for her. Her current interest are family, kids’ education topics, reading, dogs and the great outdoors.

Georgina.Montero@monsanto.com 314.694.2097

Luimil Negrón

UMSL

Luimil Negrón joined UMSL’s College of Arts and Sciences team as the graduate assistant for Latino Recruitment and Retention in the fall of 2015.

To that task, she has begun an expansion of the school’s Hispanic Latino Association which she believes is key to building a community on campus. It is this work which she finds most rewarding. To see students grow into becoming leaders has become an inspiration for her to work harder because, after all, to work with students is to work with the future.

This work ties in perfectly with her doctoral studies in global education, which has dealt mostly with how globalization has impacted student populations, particularly the Latino population. Through her classwork she was able to intern at the International Institute helping women learn how to read and write to pass their citizenship exams. Currently, she has great interest in how DACA legislation is playing out in states like Missouri and how such legislation is affecting students.

When she is not working or studying with her dog beside her, Luimil loves to explore St. Louis, learn about new cultures and to practice her beloved violin which she has played most of her life. lmngd5@umsl.edu 636.209.1480

Carolina

Nunez Meridian

Carolina Nunez is from Venezuela. She has a Bachelor’s of Scienceand Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. She works at Pfizer as a Senior Plant Engineer.

She truly enjoys the work she does at Pfizer because the product they make saves lives.

Carolina.Nunez@meridianmt.com 314.236.4200

Claudia

Ortiz

The Nielsen Company

Claudia Ortiz is a Client Manager at The Nielsen Company, in charge of providing consumer insights and solutions to Nestlé Purina. She is also a member of Nielsen’s Multicultural Center of Excellence. Claudia started working for Nielsen in 2010 in Mexico, her native country. However, in 2013 the company transferred her to St. Louis to support the Schnucks business as well as other regional retailers.

Claudia has a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico and a Master of Business Administration from St. Louis University, where she was awarded with the Beta Gamma Sigma, the highest recognition a business student anywhere in the world can receive in a business program accredited by AACSB International.

Among the things that Claudia enjoys the most about St. Louis is the variety of options available to serve the community. She volunteers with Junior Achievement and is a member of the United Way Multicultural Leadership Society. Additionally, Claudia spends most of her free time volunteering at the World Pediatric Project (WPP), a non-profit organization that has not only changed her life, but has also made St. Louis feel like home. She was recently recognized as the World Pediatric Project “Volunteer of the Year 2016”. claudia.ortiz@nielsen.com 314.280.8289

Diana Ramírez McCarthy Building Companies

Diana Ramirez was born in Medellín, Colombia were she earned a Bachelor Degree in Civil Engineering in the Escuela de Ingeniería de Antioquia. Later she moved to St. Louis were she earned her Master’s degree on Earthquake Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.

She has worked in the Construction Industry for over 20+ years managing, budgeting and controlling constructions projects and labor since early design phase to the construction and finish phases.

Diana currently works for the first leading Healthcare Construction Company in the country, McCarthy Building Companies were she has been since 2005 in the Preconstruction Department.

Diana has two boys, Joshua (12) and Lucas (9) and enjoys all outdoor related activities and spending time with friends.

DRamirez@McCarthy.com

314.629.3837

Tony

Randazzo Facilitec Corporate

Furnishings

Tony Randazzo is a St. Louis-native raised by an American father and a Mexican mother. He currently works in Corporate Sales for Facilitec Corporate Furnishings, a family-owned business founded by his Hispanic mother, Georgina, in 1993.

Tony graduated in 2014 from the University of Missouri – Columbia with a Major in Journalism and a minor in Business and Sales.

Tony’s professional career has included experiences in entrepreneurship and sales, including roles with the St. Louis Cardinals and in self-employed situations.

Coming from a family of Hispanic decent, Tony has a special connection to the Latin American community. Many of Tony’s family members still reside in Mexico, where he and his family take multiple trips to visit with them and connect with Hispanic culture.

In high school, Tony went on a mission trip for a month in Yoro, Honduras, where he and others assisted in caretaking malnourished Honduran children.

In his free time, you’ll normally find Tony in the middle of the fairway or traveling with his friends and family. His immediate goals include finishing a basement at his newly-purchased house and continued education in management and Business Ownership. trandazzo@facilitec-stl.com 314.428.4900

Angel

Recci

Emerson

Angel Recci-Gonzalez was born and raised in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. He moved to St. Louis in 2009 with a baseball scholarship at the University of Missouri – St. Louis where he obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Management Information Systems in 2013 and completed his baseball career. Currently, Angel is working at Emerson, one of the 500 Fortune Companies in the St. Louis area, as a Regional Security Service Manager for Latin America.

For the last 5 years, Emerson has giving him the opportunity to grow as a professional and they have giving him the exposure needed to gain as much knowledge in the IT industry as possible. Today, besides Angel’s management position he also pursues a Project Management and a Security Analyst roles. As a Project Manager, Angel has completed over 10 internal and global projects for the Global Communications and Information Security organization in the last 2 years. Also, as a IT Security Analyst, he is responsible to oversee Corporate Business Units around the world.

Angel Recci-Gonzalez is very passionate about helping others and that is why he likes to engage and be involved especially with the Hispanic community. For the last four years Angel has been the Vice President of the Puerto Rican Society from St. Louis and the Chairman of the Scholarship Program. This is exactly what motivates Angel Recci every day to continue growing as a professional and as a Hispanic leader to be able to give back to the community.

arecci_ito@yahoo.com 314.553.1553

Carlos Restrepo Hispanic Chamber

of Commerce

Carlos Restrepo is the Membership Coordinator of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan St. Louis. Restrepo is a trained bilingual communicator, graphic designer, freelance journalist, translation specialist and public relations professional, committed to the betterment of the Hispanic and immigrant communities in St. Louis and beyond.

He is currently a board member of the St. Louis Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Restrepo, a graduate from Webster University with a degree in Global Journalism, has been published in local and national media outlets such as the Riverfront Times, the Marshall Democrat-News, the Associated Press, The St. Louis Post Dispatch and The Huffington Post, among others.

He has lived in St. Louis for more than a decade and is a proud naturalized citizen of the United States of America.

He firmly believes Colombian arepas are better than their Venezuelan counterpart, but is willing to be swayed.

crestrepo@hccstl.com 314.664.4432

Cintia

Ribeiro Monsanto

Cintia Ribeiro was born and raised in Brazil. Since 2014, she works at Monsanto as part of the fast-track program Emerging Leaders in Science as part of the R&D organization, which is what brought her to St. Louis. She received her B.S in Biology and B.A in Science Education from SĂŁo Paulo State University and Ph.D. in Genetics and Molecular Biology from University of Florida.

While doing her PhD, she served as Student Body Representative at the Graduate School Council and Elected Class Chancellor for Alpha Zeta Agricultural Honorary Fraternity. She also presented science workshops for middle schools, served as judge for local and regional middle/high schools science fairs and mentored undergraduate students for careers in science.

At Monsanto, Cintia is Emerging Leaders Program lead and part of the Monsanto Latin Network leadership and Science Ambassadors teams. She has won 12 awards for academic and scientific merit and gave 13 talks for national and international scientific community.

Cintia lives in Chesterfield with her Chilean husband and they enjoy doing outdoor activities and traveling. She also enjoys doing a variety of crafts and home improvement projects. cintia.l.ribeiro@monsanto.com 352.246.8495

Bernardo

Romero

Citi

Bernardo migrated to the United States at the age of 15 and graduated from Parkway North in 1988. In 1989 he joined the United Stated Army and participated in the liberation of Kuwait, under the command from President George W Bush Senior.

Since 2001 Bernardo Romero has been working for Citi, as Assistance Vice President for the Loss Mitigation Department, within the Default Management area. His areas of expertise are Systems, Technology and Loss Mitigation, his duties include managing a staff of 17+ full time employees. His main goal is to enforce the goals set by upper management such as service levels, standards, performance evaluations, assist with the training of new hires, perform side by sides with staff reviewing productivity and quality reviews. Furthermore, Bernardo handles all personal and HR related issues with his staff and ensure all issues are directed to the proper groups to be resolved.

To wrap everything up, I could say that Bernardo is grateful to God for his life, wife, children and job and as Bernardo participates with the Hispanic Leadership Institute, his goal is to gain more experience, implement his knowledge to become a successful leader within Citi and share the grand opportunity with others. bernardo.r.romero@citi.com 636.261.7469

Michele

Suazo SSM Health

Michele Lynn Suazo currently works for SSM Health in Talent Acquisition. Her primary focus is recruiting nurses for all SSM St. Louis Hospital locations. Michele holds a Bachelor’s degree in Management and International Business as well as Masters in Human Resources Management both from Webster University.

Michele was born and raised in St. Louis Missouri. Her father is from Cuba and came to the United States in the Mariel Boatlift in 1980. Michele’s mother is from Boyaca, Colombia and came to the United States in the early 1970’s. Michele has siblings in Cuba and in the United States and has two beautiful daughters, Karla Michele and Angela Rosa.

Michele has participated and performed at many Hispanic and International festivals over the last 15 years with Folkloric Group Colombia. Her most recent performance being at the Festival of Nations and the Hispanic Festival in Soulard.

Michele is also a frequent traveler to Cuba. She loves the culture, the food, and the people of Cuba. Michele appreciates diversity and finds that area of HR to be very interesting. She hopes to complete a certification in Diversity Inclusion very soon through the Society of Human Resources Management.

Michele_Suazo@ssmhc.com 314.344.6690

Program Dates: October 14, 2016 November 11, 2016 December 9, 2016 January 13, 2017 February 10, 2017 March 10, 2017 April 14, 2017 May 12, 2017 HLI Graduation

June 9, 2017

Program Sponsors Title Sponsor: Session Sponsors: