Abigail Golden-Vazquez - Abigail Golden-Vazquez coordinates and supports the Aspen Institute's growing portfolio of leadership initiatives, designed to stimulate a new generation of business, government and civil society leaders to play a greater role in the development of their countries. Working closely with the Institute's Executive Vice President for Leadership and Policy Programs, Abigail is responsible for effectively knitting these initiatives into a coherent and impactful "Aspen Global Leadership Network ".
Manuel Hidalgo - Manuel Hidalgo has served as Executive Director of the Latino Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) in Washington, D.C since May 2005. Manuel has over 17 years of experience in the field of community development and advocacy. In the Washington area, Manuel has served as Executive Director of the Spanish Catholic Center, Director of Development at CASA of Maryland, and YouthBuild Program Manager at the Latin American Youth Center. He sits on various boards and steering committees in the Washington area including the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development and the American Housing Opportunity Fund. He also serves on Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett's Wheaton Redevelopment Advisory Committee.
Octavio Hinojosa - Octavio A. Hinojosa Mier is Executive Director of the Congressional Hispanic Leadership
Institute (CHLI), a 501 (C) (3) non-profit and non-partisan organization dedicated to creating a
broader awareness of the diversity of thought, heritage, interests and views of millions of
Americans of Hispanic and Portuguese descent.
Walter Isaacson - Walter Isaacson is the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He has been the Chairman and CEO of CNN and the Managing Editor of Time Magazine.
He is the author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003) and of Kissinger: A Biography (1992) and is the coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986). His biography of Albert Einstein - Einstein: His Life and Universe - was released in April 2007.
Isaacson was born on May 20, 1952, in New Orleans. He is a graduate of Harvard College and of Pembroke College of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
He began his career at the Sunday Times of London and then the New Orleans Times-Picayune/States-Item. He joined Time Magazine in 1978 and served as a political correspondent, national editor and editor of new media before becoming the magazine's 14th managing editor in 1996. He became Chairman and CEO of CNN in 2001, and then president and CEO of the Aspen Institute in 2003.
He was appointed after Hurricane Katrina to be the vice-chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. He is on the Board of Directors of United Airlines, Tulane University, the National Constitution Center, and he is chairman of the board of Teach for America.
Leslie Sanchez - Republican strategist and former adviser to President George W. Bush, Leslie Sanchez is a CNN political contributor. An author and frequent columnist, Sanchez is founder and CEO of Impacto Group LLC, a communications and market research firm, which specializes in defining social and economic trends affecting women and the emerging U.S. Hispanic community. For her work, Hispanic Business magazine named her one of the nation's "100 Most Influential Hispanics."
Dina Siegel Vann - Dina Siegel Vann, a native of Mexico City, serves currently as Director of the Latino and Latin American Institute of the American Jewish Committee in Washington, DC.
Ms. Siegel Vann’s involvement has been central in the development of the vision and the Business Plan for this Institute, reflecting the developing intersections between Latino priority concerns and issues driving the US- Latin American agenda today. Among the Institute’s main goals is pursuing outreach and coalition building efforts with the Latino communities in the US. At the same time it seeks to ensure the strengthening of ties between the US, Israel and Latin America, Jewish life in the region, and the stability and prosperity of all of the Americas.
Arturo Vargas - Arturo Vargas is the Executive Director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
In a luncheon discussion to celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month, the Aspen Institute and the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute brought together a panel to discuss the impact of the growing Hispanic population in America on our politics and U.S. culture.
