Featured Speakers and Presenters
Sylvia Mendez - Civil Rights Activist and Plaintiff in historic precursor to Brown v. Board of Education |
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Sylvia Mendez is the oldest daughter of Gonzalo Mendez, a Mexican immigrant, and Felicitas Mendez, a Puerto Rican, who fought so she and her brothers could have equal education through the case of Mendez et al v. Westminster et al. Sylvia continues with the legacy left by her parents to campaign for education. Sylvia Mendez worked for 33 years as a nurse at the USC Medical Center in Los Angeles. Ms. Mendez spends her retirement traveling abroad and speaking at universities, conferences and schools across the nation. Her sole intent is to convey the importance of obtaining an education by encouraging students to stay in school. |
Dr. Juan Sepúlveda - Director, White House Initiative on the Educational Excellence of Hispanic Americans |
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Dr. Juan Sepúlveda was appointed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on May 19, 2009, to the position of director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans. In this capacity, he is responsible for directing the efforts of the White House Initiative in engaging Hispanic students, parents, families, organizations, and anyone working in or with the education system in communities nationwide as active participants in improving the academic achievement of Hispanic Americans. |
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Dolores Huerta - President, Dolores Huerta Foundation, Co-Founder United Farm Workers Union, Vice-President Emeritus |
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We are honored to have Dolores Huerta, social activist, labor leader, lobbyist, and feminist, as one of our featured speakers. Dolores is President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation and co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez. Dolores will lead us in a special screening and post film discussion of "Viva La Causa", a documentary from the Teaching Tolerance Program of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which focuses on one of the seminal events in the march for human rights - the grape strike and boycott led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta in the 1960s. |
See program schedule for a complete listing of Forum Moderators, Presenters and Panel Participants.
