6pm – 7:15pm In-person ¡Pa’lante! Reception and Networking – Kick off the evening with our vibrant in-person reception. Enjoy delicious food and connect with fellow attendees while exploring resources and information that can empower you to make a difference for yourself and others. 7:30 – 8:45pm Hybrid Conversation Ray Suarez - Journalist and author Rosalin Acosta - Managing Director and National Practice Leader for Labor and Workforce Development, Ernst & Young Gonzalo J. Puigbo - Chief Executive Officer, Somerville Community Corporation Lorna Rivera - Director, Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development & Public Policy, University of Massachusetts Boston Evelyn Barahona, Senior Vice President, United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) Moderated by Jorge Quiroga. Presented by Conexion GBH WORLD The Latino Equity Fund RAY SUAREZ Ray Suarez is the host of the public radio program and podcast On Shifting Ground, produced by Commonwealth Club-World Affairs and KQED-FM. His latest book, on the modern era of American immigration, We Are Home: Becoming American in the 21st Century, was published in April 2024 by Little, Brown. He is also the author of Latino Americans: The 500-Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation (Penguin, 2013), The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America (Harper, 2005), and The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration (Free Press, 1999). Earlier in his career, Suarez was the host of the daily news program Inside Story from Al Jazeera America, Chief National Correspondent for The PBS NewsHour, and the host of Talk of the Nation from NPR. JORGE QUIROGA Award-winning television news reporter Jorge Quiroga covered every major national and local story of significance to New Englanders during his 45-year tenure at Boston’s WCVB TV. From the Blizzard of '78, to the 9/11 attack on America, the Sandy Hook school shootings and the Boston Marathon Bombings, Quiroga was on assignment. His investigative work took him to the frontlines of the civil war in Nicaragua, drug trafficking in Colombia, and illegal adoptions in El Salvador.
