NHI Advisory Committee

NHI Advisory Group

The NHI Advisory Committee is comprised of Members of Congress, representatives of the real estate and lending industries, and advocacy organizations. They advise and assist CHCI and its housing fellows with the formulation of the NHI’s goals and objectives and bring resources and expertise to the Initiative.

Peter R. Villegas (Committee Chairman)
The Honorable Nydia Velázquez
The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
The Honorable Anibal Acevedo-Vila
Mercy Jimenez
Mary Salinas Durón
Charles Kamasaki
Henry Cisneros
Zixta Martinez
Guarione Diaz
Manuel Mirabal
Art Ruiz
Arturo Vargas
Yamila M. Ayad

Committee Chairman:
Peter R. Villegas
First Vice President
Community and External Affairs Division

Peter R. Villegas is first vice president and national manager of Emerging Markets for Washington Mutual. In his position, he is responsible to reinforce the company's leadership position in key geographic and ethnic markets nationwide.

With his wide-range knowledge in numerous banking and community issues, he is responsible for key national partnerships and new corporate initiatives. He manages various community business development initiatives for the bank.

Prior to joining Washington Mutual in 1994, Villegas served as community outreach coordinator for American Savings Bank. He has 15-years of experience in the financial industry and began his career as a teller.

Villegas is a board member of the following organizations: Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute based in Washington D.C., National Association Latino Elected Officials, MALDEF, United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Senior Executive Corporate Advisory Board,
Hispanic Education Endowment Fund in Orange County, Past-President of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Orange County, chairman-elect of the Orange County Business Council and University of Notre Dame Institute for Latino Studies.

He was also listed by the Orange County Business Journal as one of the most influential Hispanics in Orange County.

Villegas has received numerous awards including: the 2003 Corporate Responsibility Award from Central America Resources Center (CARECEN), 2000 Mexican American Opportunity Foundation Corporate Leadership Award, 2000 La Casa de San Gabriel Community Leadership Award, 2000 Black Chamber of Commerce of Orange County Community Leadership Award, 1999 Orange County United Way Hispanic Influential Business Award, 1997 Minorities in Business Magazine Latin American Award and City of Santa Ana Exceptional Volunteer Service Award.

Villegas attended Fullerton College specializing in Business Administration.

The Honorable Nydia Velázquez
U.S. House of Representatives (D-NY) Chairwoman, Business and Economic Development Task Force,
Congressional Hispanic Caucus

Congresswoman Nydia M. Velázquez has made history several times during her tenure in Congress. In 1992, she was the first Puerto Rican wo man elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. In February of 1998, she was named Ranking Democratic Member of the House Small Business Committee, making her the first Hispanic woman to serve as Chair or Ranking Member of a full committee in the history of the House.

Given her achievements, her roots are humble. She was born in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico - a small town of sugar-cane fields - in 1953, and was one of nine children. Velázquez started school early, skipped several grades, and became the first person in her family to receive a college diploma. At the age of 16, she entered the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras. She graduated magna cum laude in 1974 with a degree in political science. After earning a master's on scholarship from N.Y.U., Congresswoman Velázquez taught Puerto Rican studies at C.U.N.Y's Hunter College in 1981.

But her passion for politics soon took hold. In 1983, Velázquez was appointed Special Assistant to Congressman Edolphus Towns (D-Brooklyn). One year later, she became the first Latina appointed to serve on the New York City Council.

By 1986, Velázquez served as the Director of the Department of Puerto Rican Community Affairs in the U.S. During that time, she initiated one of the most successful Latino empowerment programs in the nation's history - "Atrevete" (Dare to Go for It!).

In 1992, after months of running a grassroots political campaign, she was elected to the House of Representatives to represent New York's 12th District. Her district, which encompasses parts of Brooklyn, Queens and the Lower East Side of Manhattan is the only tri-borough district in the New York City congressional delegation. Encompassing many diverse neighborhoods, it is home to a large Latino population, with pockets of Polish communities, and parts of Chinatown.

As a fighter for equal rights of the underepresented and a proponent of economic opportunity for the working class and poor, Congresswoman Velázquez combines sensibility and compassion as she works to encourage economic development, protect community health and the environment, combat crime and worker abuses, and secure access to affordable housing, quality education and health care for all New York City families.

As the Ranking Member of the House Small Business Committee, whic h oversees federal programs and contracts totaling $200 billion annually, Congresswoman Velázquez has been a vocal advocate of American small business and entrepreneurship. She has established numerous small business legislative priorities, encompassing the areas of tax regulations, access to capital, federal contracting opportunities, trade, technology, health care and pension reform, among others. Congresswoman Velázquez was recently named as the inaugural "Woman of the Year" by Hispanic Business Magazine in recognition of her national influence in both the political and business sectors and for her longtime support of minority enterprise.

Although her work on the Small Business Committee and the House Financial Services Committee (where she is second in seniority on its Subcommittee on Housing and Community Opportunity) keeps her busy, Representative Velázquez can often be found close to home, working for the residents of her district.

The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
U.S. House of Representatives (R-FL)

The first Hispanic woman elected to the United States Congress, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was born in Havana, Cuba on July 15, 1952, and came to the United States with her family fleeing communist aggression when she was seven years old. She earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Florida International University and her Associate in Arts degree from Miami-Dade Community College. She has also been bestowed an honorary Doctor of Pedagogy Degree from Nova Southeastern University. She is presently working on her doctoral dissertation in higher education from the University of Miami. Ros-Lehtinen began her career as an educator and founded a private elementary school in South Florida.

Since 1982, Ileana has demonstrated 20 years of legislative leadership. She served four years in the Florida House of Representatives and then became a State Senator. As a state legislator, she introduced and achieved the creation of the Florida Pre-Paid College Tuition Program; since its inception, nearly 700,000 plans have been purchased across the state and it continues to be the largest program of its kind in the U.S. Following the death of Claude Pepper, she won a special Congressional election by beating 10 opponents to represent South Miami Beach, Little Havana, Westchester, Coral Gables, Key Biscayne, parts of Kendall and Homestead, and suburban Miami.

Ileana currently serves on the International Relations and Government Reform Committees, and she is the first Hispanic woman to chair a subcommittee. As Chair of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, she has become a leading figure shaping foreign policy. Since September 11th, 2001, Ileana and her colleagues in Congress have funded our war to combat terrorism, provided humanitarian assistance for the women and children of Afghanistan, and increased support for Israel. Ileana continues to be a fighter for our U.S. ally, Israel, participating in the Jewish Federation's fund-raising phon-a-thons in Miami, as well as numerous visits to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and the Golan Heights during the bombings to demonstrate our steadfast solidarity with this beleaguered nation.

The Congresswoman is widely regarded as an international defender of human rights and democracy. She has played a key role in the passage of the Cuban Democracy Act, the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act (the Helms-Burton Law), and has been a leading voice warning the world about the Castro dictatorship's plans to complete a dangerous nuclear power plant on the island of Cuba. Her ongoing efforts to remove the Russian Federation's spy station from Cuba's Lourdes Intelligence Facility have begun to bear fruit, as President Putin has recently announced its withdrawal.

Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen has also been active on the domestic front primarily on issues concerning education, children, senior citizens, women and their health, victims' rights, the environment, among numerous others. She is the champion spearheading the clean-up and dredging of the Miami River, the conservation of Stiltsville and our national treasure, the Everglades. She led the battle in Congress to pressure President Clinton into signing an executive order requiring federal buildings to exhibit pictures of missing children; she's a member of the Speaker's Task Force for a Drug Free America; she's the architect of the successful Victims' Rights Amendment for Florida and has proposed a Constitutional amendment to protect the rights of those who have been victims of violent crimes nationwide.

Ileana has spent most of her adult life committed to enhancing the lives of others: the disabled, the elderly, our veterans, the homeless, and students. She thrives at her job, and it shows! Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen and her husband, Dexter Lehtinen, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, met in the Florida House, were State Senators together, and share four children, their daughters, Amanda and Patricia; and his two, Douglas and Katharine, plus four dogs, and one cat.

The Honorable Anibal Acevedo-Vila
U.S. House of Representatives (D-PR)
Resident Commissioner Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
Chairman, Livable Communities Task Force
Congressional Hispanic Caucus

The Honorable Aníbal Acevedo-Vilá was elected as Resident Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in November 2000, and was sworn in on January 2001. The sole congressional representative for 4 million Puerto Ricans, he is a member of the Popular Democratic Party in Puerto Rico and of the Democratic Caucus. In Congress, Resident Commissioner Acevedo-Vilá serves on 3 committees - Agriculture, Resources, and Small Business, in addition to serving as a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), where he is the Chair of the CHC Livable Communities Task Force.

Born in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico on February 13, 1962, to state Senator Salvador Acevedo and Elba Vilá, Aníbal Acevedo-Vilá attended San José High School where he graduated in 1979. In 1982, he obtained his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), and graduated Magna Cum Laude. Resident Commissioner Acevedo-Vilá then attended the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, where he again graduated Magna Cum Laude, was elected Vice President of the Student Council and served as Editor-In-Chief of the UPR Law Review.

After passing the Puerto Rico Bar, Acevedo-Vilá completed a year-long clerkship at the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, where he worked under Justice Federico Hernández Denton. Following his clerkship, Acevedo-Vilá earned a Master of Laws (LLM) degree from Harvard Law School in 1987. From 1987-88, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Levin Campbell, Chief Judge of the Federal Court of Appeals, First Circuit Court in Boston, MA.

Returning from Boston in 1989, Acevedo-Vilá was recruited by then- Governor Rafael Hernández Colón to be his Advisor in Legislative Affairs. In this position, he was responsible for writing, analyzing and evaluating some of the most important legislation of this period, particularly those laws and regulations that pertained to education and municipal reform.

Following in his father's footsteps, Aníbal Acevedo-Vilá first ran for elected office in 1992. After being nominated in a primary from a pool of 14 candidates, he was elected as a state Representative At-Large for the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) in the Puerto Rico House of Representatives. He was reelected in 1996, and subsequent to his reelection, his PDP colleagues chose him to be House Minority Leader in 1997. In December 1996, Acevedo-Vilá was appointed President of the PDP Status Committee. In February 1997, at the age of 37 he was elected as President of the Popular Democratic Party in Puerto Rico, becoming the second-youngest Puerto Rican to hold that important post.

The Honorable Aníbal Acevedo-Vilá has strongly defended the Commonwealth as the status option for the U.S. - Puerto Rico relationship. He has participated in diverse state and federal forums on status, and has spoken at Harvard, Georgetown, George Washington University and other educational settings on the issue of Puerto Rico' status as well. In addition, Acevedo-Vilá is the author of En Honor a la Verdad, a compliation of speeches on issues regarding Puerto Rico's democracy and self-determination.

Resident Commissioner Aníbal Acevedo-Vilá is married to Luisa Gándara, and they live in San Juan, PR with their two children, Gabriela and Juan Carlos.

Mercy Jimenez
Senior Vice President
Fannie Mae
Washington, DC

Mercy Jiménez is Fannie Mae's senior vice president for business and product development and single family mortgage business. She is responsible for developing; marketing, and implementing Single Family mortgage product and process enhancements as well as new strategic initiatives to better serve borrowers and Fannie Mae lenders.

Previously, Ms. Jiménez managed the Southwestern Regional Office, located in Dallas, TX. In that role, she was responsible for company assets and customer relationships managed from Dallas, and the executive in charge of Fannie Mae's Expanded Approval product line nationally.

Prior to joining Fannie Mae in 1996, Mercy was vice president for corporate development at Chase Manhattan Mortgage Corporation. There, she was responsible for the mortgage servicing sales and acquisitions, in addition to new business development and financial management for the servicing portfolio. Her career has also included management of financial product lines for Citicorp Global Payments Products, both domestically and in international markets.

Jiménez holds an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business and a BA from Northwestern University. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals; the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council; and on the Housing Initiatives Advisory Committee to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Mary Salinas Durón
Senior Vice President, National Emerging Markets Division
Countrywide Home Loans
Rosemead, CA

Mary Salinas Durón is Senior Vice President and Manager of Countrywide Home Loans’ National Emerging Markets Division. She is responsible for developing and implementing the strategic plan for increasing Countrywide’s penetration into emerging markets. She continues to direct Countrywide’s House America initiatives, which include affordable housing programs and products, as well as community partnership programs on a national basis.

Previously, Ms. Durón was Senior Vice President and Director of Fair Lending and House America for Countrywide. She also held the titles of Senior Vice President and CRA Officer of Treasury Bank, N.A., a subsidiary of Countrywide Financial Corporation. In her role as CRA Officer, Ms. Durón directed the CRA activities for the Bank.

Prior to joining Countrywide, Durón was Senior Vice President and Manager of the Community Development Department at Sumitomo Bank of California. She established the department at Sumitomo and was responsible for Community Reinvestment Act compliance and community development initiatives and outreach programs.

Previously, Durón was employed for 19 years at First Interstate Bank of California, where she served in various capacities including: Hispanic Marketing Manager, Urban and Community Affairs Manager and Vice President and Manager of its Community Reinvestment Department.

Durón maintains an active presence in the community and has served as a director or member of numerous organizations, including: the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders, the American Homeowners Education and Counseling Institute, the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, the LATTC/Fannie Mae Foundation Mortgage Finance Program, the Coalition for Women’s Economic Development, Leadership California, the Angeles Girl Scout Council, the Bilingual Foundation of the Arts, the National Hispanic Corporate Council and the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. She was also recently selected to serve on Fannie Mae’s Housing Impact Advisory Council and on the State of California's Housing and Community Development Department's Local Assistance Loan and Grant Committee, as well as the Los Angeles City Workforce Investment Board.

Her leadership and accomplishments have been widely recognized. Ms. Durón has received awards from the NAACP, YWCA, CARECEN, the Los Angeles City Commission on the Status of Women and was named one of the nation’s 100 Hispanic Influentials by Hispanic Business.

Durón received a BA degree from Loyola Marymount University and earned an MBA from the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Charles Kamasaki
Senior Vice President
National Council of La Raza (NCLR)
Washington, DC

Charles Kamasaki has headed the Office of Research, Advocacy and Legislation of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) since 1989; he was previously Director of NCLR's Policy Analysis Center, a position he held for seven years. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., NCLR is the nation’s principal Hispanic organization, representing nearly 300 affiliates – community-based organizations who together serve more than three million Latinos each year, and more than 35,000 individual associate members. In addition to providing capacity-building technical and financial assistance to its affiliates, NCLR carries out public policy advocacy on behalf of all Hispanics in the United States.

Kamasaki is responsible for managing NCLR's research, policy analysis, and advocacy activity on a wide range of issues, including civil rights, education, economic mobility, housing and community development, immigration, and other issues. In this connection, he has authored, coauthored, and supervised the preparation of several dozen policy and research reports, journal articles, and editorials. He has testified frequently at Congressional and Administrative hearings, and often represents NCLR at research and policy conferences and symposia.

He has lectured at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs at Princeton University, Brown University, the University of Texas, The American University Law School, and many others. His work has been widely cited in the press, and in the policy and academic literature.

Kamasaki is past Chair of the Compliance and Enforcement Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, past Chair of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and past Chair of the National Immigration Law Center. He has served on the Boards of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the National Immigration Forum, the National Neighborhood Coalition, and the Coalition on Human Needs, among others.

In addition to supervising its public policy work, Kamasaki coordinates NCLR's public information and leadership development activities, and serves as a Director of the Raza Development Fund, an NCLR subsidiary and one of the nation’s largest Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). He directly oversees a staff of more than 30 professionals and support personnel, and administers a budget of approximately $4 million, and is the senior member of the executive management team of NCLR, which currently has 125 staff and a $30 million consolidated annual budget.

Prior to coming to Washington, he specialized in housing and community development technical assistance to elected officials and community-based organizations in his native South Texas, worked as a city planner and served brief stints as acting city manager for a small town, and managed two local political campaigns. He is an avid outdoorsman and sports fan.

Henry Cisneros
Chairman and CEO
American CityVista
San Antonio, TX

As the founder and chairman of American CityVista, Henry Cisneros brings executive and urban planning experience to the community-building joint venture he formed with KB HOME in August 2000.

American CityVista’s focus is to build significant numbers of homes – "villages within the city" – in the central neighborhoods of major metropolitan areas. The need for new homes within cities, the redevelopment priorities of local governments, and the homeownership dreams of urban families – all make American CityVista’s concept of building reasonably priced communities in central city areas an attainable business goal.

American CityVista and KB HOME are now successfully building and selling homes in Los Angeles, San Antonio, Dallas, Forth Worth, Austin, Houston, Laredo, and the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

Previously, Cisneros was President and Chief Operating Officer of Univision Communications in Los Angeles, the Spanish- language broadcaster which has become the fifth-most-watched television network in the nation.

From 1993 to 1997, Cisneros served as the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. As a member of President Clinton’s Cabinet, Secretary Cisneros was assigned America’s housing and community development portfolio. He is credited with initiating a major revitalization of many of the nation’s public housing developments and with formulating policies which have contributed to today’s record homeownership rate. Prior to joining the Cabinet, he was Chairman of Cisneros Asset Management Company, a fixed-income money management firm operating nationally.

In 1981, Cisneros became the first Hispanic American Mayor of a major U.S. city – San Antonio. During his four terms in office, Cisneros helped rebuild the City’s economic base and created jobs through massive infrastructure and downtown improvements, earning for San Antonio a reputation as one of the most progressive cities in the nation in that era.

In 1984, he was interviewed by the Democratic Presidential Nominee as a potential candidate for Vice President, and in 1986 was selected the Outstanding Mayor in the nation by City and State Magazine.

Mr. Cisneros has served as President of the National League of Cities, Chairman of the National Civic League, Deputy Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and as a board member of the Rockefeller Foundation. Mr. Cisneros presently serves as Chairman of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and as a board member of KB HOME, Countrywide Mortgage, The Enterprise Foundation, and the New America Alliance.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Texas A&M University. He earned a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard, a Doctorate in Public Administration from George Washington University, and has been awarded over 20 honorary doctorates from leading universities across the nation.

Zixta Martinez
Fair Housing Policy Consultant
Washington, DC

Zixta Martinez, an attorney, has been working on fair housing and civil rights issues for more than a decade for numerous national organizations. Most recently, Ms. Martinez worked for Relman & Associates on police conduct and public accommodations discrimination. Previously, she served as a director at the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) where she managed and oversaw the establishment and development of private enforcement fair housing centers in Fresno, CA; Montgomery, AL; New Orleans, LA; and Houston and San, Antonio, TX.

The centers filed dozens of meritorious fair housing complaints each year, several of which lead to legal/court settlements on behalf of victims of housing discrimination. Prior to working at NFHA, Ms. Martinez was a housing policy analyst and spokesperson for the National Council of La Raza, and in the late 1980s served as House Floor advisor to the late Representative Henry B. Gonzalez on "colonia" is sues. Ms. Martinez was also a certified law clerk for the U.S. Department of Justice, Asset Forfeiture Division in Miami Florida and a co-chair of the Fair Housing Task Force of the Leadership Conference of Civil Rights (LCCR). Ms. Martinez has a BA from Yale University, a Masters in Public Affairs from the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, and a Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Miami. Ms. Martinez is a member of the Texas Bar.

Guarione Diaz
President
Cuban American National Council, Inc. (CANC)
Miami, FL

Mr. Diaz was born in Havana, Cuba and is currently a resident of Dade County, Florida. He holds a Masters Degree from Columbia University and a B.A. from St. Francis College, in New York City.

At present, Guarione M. Diaz is President and Executive Director of the Cuban American National Council, Inc., a private nonprofit organization involved since 1972 in policy analysis, leadership development, education, employment, housing and community development. The Cuban American National Council is based in Miami-Dade County, Florida and has regional offices in Washington, DC, and Orlando, FL. CNC serves 5,000 individuals yearly, has a professional staff of 150, and is governed by a Board of Directors from various states who are elected annually.

Mr. Diaz’ responsibilities at the Council include the setting of operational policy, direction and administration of agency programs, and participation in national activities affecting Cubans, Hispanics and other minorities.

Before establishing residence in Miami, Mr. Diaz held management positions at New York City’s Department of Employment and the Community Development Agency.

Since his relocation in the Greater Miami area in 1978, Mr. Diaz has been actively involved in many community organizations. He has served on the Board of Directors of Children Have All Rights: Legal, Educational, Emotional (CHARLEE); HACR; National Association for the Hispanic Elderly; National Council of La Raza; and the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda. The Florida Commission on Education Reform and Accountability, the National Hispana Leadership Institute and the U.S. Census Advisory Committee on Race and Ethnic Populations. More recently, Mr. Diaz was appointed to the Verizon Community Consumer Advisory Board, and to Burger King Corporation Diversity Advisory Council.

In 1994, he was appointed as United States Ombudsman/Civilian Liaison at our naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, where he assisted over thirty thousand (30,000) Cuban rafters interned in camps and provided coordination among the U.S. military, and civilian government agencies, and the public at large.

In the last decade, Mr. Diaz has authored and/or edited a textbook, over thirty research and policy papers, and written over fifty articles for newspapers and magazines.

He is married to the former Teresita Otazo and has two daughters, Cristina and Susana.

Manuel Mirabal
President
National Puerto Rican Coalition (NPRC)
Washington, DC

Manuel Mirabal is the President of the National Puerto Rican Coalition, Inc. (NPRC). NPRC is the leading national advocacy and public policy organization representing the Puerto Rican community in Washington, DC. NPRC is a non-profit organization founded in 1977 to advance the social, political and economic well being of the Puerto Rican community, and has a membership of over 400 civic organizations throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.

Mr. Mirabal is an outspoken national leader with a distinguished career in the public and private sectors. He has been recognized as one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States and as one of the twenty-five most influential Hispanics in Washington, DC.

Mr. Mirabal serves as the Chair of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, (NHLA), a position he was reelected to in February of 2002 for a two-year term. NHLA is a coalition of 41 National Hispanic organizations and civic leaders that addresses public policy issues affecting the Hispanic community. In October 2000, NHLA issued a national public policy document “An Agenda for the Advancement of Hispanic Americans” addressing social and economic issues affecting all Latinos. NHLA has also established “Unidos for America” in response to the tragic events of September 11th. “Unidos for America” calls for solidarity and unity with all Americans.

Mr. Mirabal, is also the immediate past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility, (HARC). HARC is a coalition of ten national Hispanic organizations working to ensure the full inclusion of Hispanics in Corporate America in the areas of governance, procurement, franchising, employment, and philanthropy.

As a vocal advocate for social and economic justice, Mr. Mirabal has spearheaded many national efforts to address issues affecting the Puerto Rican and Hispanic community. These have included national protests over the bombing of Vieques, Puerto Rico, and the filing of a violation of civil rights complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice against the U.S. Navy for use of excessive force on civilians exercising their First Amendment rights. Mr. Mirabal has also challenged the NBC network for airing television shows that were offensive to Latinos. These included a 2001 Law and Order Episode unfairly casting Puerto Ricans as anti-social thugs, and a May 1998, episode of the Seinfeld Show, which was offensive to Puerto Ricans and Hispanics. As a result of Mr. Mirabal's leadership, community protests were held nationally and the issues received widespread media coverage. The President of NBC subsequently apologized for the insulting shows, and gave Mr. Mirabal a commitment that NBC would never re-run the episodes.

From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Mirabal served as Chair of the Puerto Rican Leadership Summit, (Boricua First), which sponsored "Camina Con Nosotros", a national affirmation day held in Washington, DC on March 29, 1996. Boricua First! was attended by seven thousand persons. The event also included the first public tribute given to Puerto Rican Veterans by the President of the United States and the Department of Veterans Affairs at a ceremony held at the Vietnam War Memorial.

From 1990 to 1994, Mr. Mirabal served as the President of the New York Puerto Rican Parade, (a voluntary civic position). The annual parade is the largest outdoor-cultural celebration in the U.S. It draws more than two million spectators to 5th Avenue in Manhattan each year.

Mr. Mirabal was also the founder of the Puerto Rico Disaster Reconstruction Fund which helped Mother Teresa's Sisters of Charity build a home in June 1988 for homeless elderly persons in the community of El Tuque, in Ponce, Puerto Rico. The home now provides full time care for eighty frail elderly men and women through the efforts of volunteers and the support of local businesses.

For information about NPRC visit WWW.BATEYLINK.ORG or please call, 202-223-3915, ext. 308.

Art Ruiz
Federal Affairs Director
State Farm Insurance Companies
Washington, DC

Art Ruiz, CPCU Federal Affairs Director - Public Affairs for State Farm Insurance Companies. He began his career with State Farm in 1981 as a Fire Underwriter in Southern California. In his twenty-one years with State Farm, he has worked in various capacities including Agency Recruitment, Human Resources, Administrative Services and Public Affairs before assuming his current position in 1996. He has worked in California, Missouri and Illinois prior to coming to Washington, D.C.

Building national coalitions, grassroots legislation and media outreach are his main focus. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, National Hispanic Corporate Council, National Hispana Leadership Institute, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Hispanic Women’s Corporation and National Job Corps Association. He received the America Association of Higher Education Award from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus for Outstanding Support on Hispanic Issues in March 2000. He has served a number of other community organizations, including Americans with Disabilities Commission and the American Cancer Society in Missouri and the National Housing Services . Art is a Fellow of the Mexican American Solidarity Foundation.

Art graduated from California State University of Los Angeles with a degree in History. Prior to joining State Farm, he taught English in Spain. He has earned the professional insurance designation of Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Charter Life Underwriter (CLU).

Arturo Vargas
Executive Director
National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO)
Los Angeles, CA

Arturo Vargas is the Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, a national membership organization, and the NALEO Educational Fund, a national nonprofit civic participation and civic research organization. The NALEO Educational Fund is the leading organization that empowers Latinos to participate fully in the American political process, from citizenship to public service. The Fund's primary programmatic activities include U.S. citizenship outreach and assistance, civic participation, voter education and mobilization, campaign training, technical assistance to elected and appointed Latino officials, youth leadership development, research on Latino demographic and electoral trends, and policy analysis and advocacy on access to the democratic process.

Prior to joining NALEO, Arturo Vargas was the Vice President for Community Education and Public Policy of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. His responsibilities included supervision and direction of MALDEF's community education and leadership development programs. His prior positions at MALDEF included Director of Outreach and Policy where his responsibilities included the coordination of the organization's 1991 redistricting efforts, which led to an historic increase in the number of Latinos serving in the California legislature. Before that, Arturo directed MALDEF's National 1990 Census Program, an award-winning national outreach and public policy effort to promote a full count of the Latino population. This program was recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau as the most effective outreach effort in the 1990 Census.

Before joining MALDEF, Arturo was the senior education policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza in Washington, D.C. His major focus area were language issues, including bilingual education, the English-Only movement, and literacy in the Latino community.

Arturo presently serves on the boards of the Edward W. Hazen Foundation, Hispanics in Philanthropy, the National Civic League, the National Immigration Forum, and the United Way of Greater Los Angeles. Arturo has received Hispanic Magazine’s 1995 Hispanic Achievement Award for Community Service, the National Federation of Hispanic Owned Newspapers 1998 Leadership Award, the National Association for Bilingual Education's 1999 President's Award, and has been included in Hispanic Business Magazine’s List of 100 Hispanic Influentials in 1996 and 1998.

Arturo holds a master's degree in Education and a bachelor's degree in History and Spanish from Stanford University. He is from Los Angeles, and was born in El Paso, Texas.

Yamila M. Ayad
Member, Board of Directors, National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals |(NAHREP)
San Diego, CA

Fifteen years of Neonatal Intensive care Nursing prepared Yamila M. Ayad for the rigors of mortgage lending. An energetic, upbeat professional by nature, Ayad simply shifted her role as counselor to parents of newborns, to counselor of Hispanic borrowers as new homeowners. Her motto: With good information, people make better choices. Her positive approach made the career shift 10 years ago seamless and helped to establish her quickly as a reputable lender to the Hispanic community.

Today Ayad heads her own company Mission Home Loans in San Marcos, a suburb in North San Diego County. She is passionate about helping the Hispanic community achieve homeownership and takes special pride in getting clients with less-then-steller credit approved and into homes. More importantly, she and her staff of 14 loan officers prepare Hispanic borrowers for the responsibility of homeownership and the practice of sound financial decision making that support it.

A native of Columbia, Ms. Ayad joined the board of directors for the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals (NAHREP) in 2002 and is a compelling voice in the organization's quest to lobby major lenders for products that better meet the needs of the Hispanic community. She is also an "Eagle", a by- invitation-only distinction bestowed by NAHREP on 15 leading Hispanic real estate entrepreneurs in the nation.

Ms. Ayad makes her home in Encinitas.

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