National Association of Hispanic Journalists
Elizabeth Aguilera
Elizabeth Aguilera recently completed an extended one-year fellowship at the University of Southern California.
As an Annenberg Fellow she earned a Masters Degree in Specialized Journalism, her research focus was urban populations, culture and immigration. She is also a 2010 graduate of the Multimedia Reporting and Convergence Workshop at the Knight Digital Media Center at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. In the fall Aguilera will travel to Europe as a Marshall Memorial Fellow, a program of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The Fellowship works “to expose future U.S. leaders to a changing and expanding Europe.”
The award-winning journalist has been a newspaper reporter for 13 years covering a broad range of communities and issues. Aguilera was a reporter at The Denver Post before leaving in 2009 for the fellowship at USC. At the Denver Post Aguilera wrote about business, urban affairs and immigration. She covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, for which she was named a Livingston Award finalist in 2005, and also traveled to Cuba to chronicle life there.
Prior to moving to Denver Aguilera worked at the Orange County Register and the Long Beach Press-Telegram. Throughout her career Aguileras has been an active member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the California Chicano News Media Association. She is a former board member of NAHJ and is the current Co-Chair of the2010 Annual NAHJ Multimedia Convention and Career Expo in Denver.Aguilera grew up in Los Angeles and earned her undergraduate Bachelor’s degrees in Journalism and Political Science from Pepperdine University.
Her first newspaper job after college was with the former Knight-Ridder Company’s one-year training program that took her to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Times-Leader in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and the Kansas City Star. Aguilera considers it “The best hands-on training a newspaper reporter could ever have.”
Aguilera splits her time between Los Angeles and Denver.
Claudia Anderson
Claudia Anderson has been a reporter, editor and copy editor for the last 14 years.
She left her native Bogotá, Colombia more than 20 years ago and enrolled at Ohio Wesleyan University, graduating with a B.A. in both journalism and international business. She also holds an M.A. in international relations from Boston University and an M.S. in journalism from Northwestern University.
Claudia worked as a reporter at English language newspapers, including The Green Bay Press-Gazette and The Daytona Beach News-Journal. In addition, her experience includes working for ethnic publications; performing as the editor of Eco Latino Magazine, a bilingual publication in Northeast Florida, and most recently, as copy desk chief at La Palma, the Spanish language paper of The Palm Beach Post.
Since she was laid off from La Palma, Claudia has been redefining her career goals to become an entrepreneur.
Contact:
Email: clauands@aol.com
Marimer Navarrete
Marimer Navarrete is a bilingual multimedia journalist (even before such title wasn’t invented yet) with more than 15 years of experience as a TV producer and a radio and newspaper reporter.
She received a B.A. in Public Communication from the University of Puerto Rico (the island’s most prestigious university) where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with 2 majors: Journalism and TV & Radio Production.
This seasoned Puerto Rican journalist worked at different outlets in the island (i.e. Channel 6-PR’s PBS affiliate, WKAQ-TV Channel 2-Telemundo, WLII-TV Channel 11, WAPA-TV Channel 4 , SuperKadena Radio-PR), and in New York City (i.e. Telemundo 47-NY, HOY Newspaper- 2nd largest Spanish paper NYC -until it closed in 2008.) At HOY, Navarrete covered different beats such as the NY City Hall news desk, the mayoral, City council and legislative elections, 2004 NYC Republican National Convention, Labor strikes (i.e. Subway union workers), fires, court trials, police cases, and the WTC aftermath, among others.
Navarrete is also an Army veteran from the NJ National Guard where she worked for 8 years as a journalist, interpreter, translator, public affairs specialist, media liaison, and official Spokesperson for Spanish media at Fort Dix Army Base.
Throughout her military career she gets to cover different scenarios such as humanitarian missions (1998′s Hurricane Mitch in Honduras, El Salvador and Panamá) and war issues (i.e. during Operation Enduring Freedom from Jan 2003-July 2004). While covering what the armed forces call “the soldier’s story”, this Army’s Specialist had the opportunity to interview: NY & NJ senators, congressmen, generals, colonels and other military personnel.
All her articles were published in ‘The Post’, Fort Dix Newspaper and ‘Guard Life’ NJANG Magazine, and the Department of Defense website, among others. At the present Marimer is a Press Officer and the Spanish media liaison and translator for the NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. In her spear time Marimer collaborates with photographer and fellow veteran Robert Jones in different magazine articles. She also is an accomplished dancer as she was a member of the ‘Ballet Isleño’ a dancing organization which performed in such public events as the Macy’s Thanks Giving Day Parade.
Currently, Navarrete lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, where she keeps an active life as a community leader. “As a soldier my duty was to stand ready to defend my country from any harm coming from home or abroad. Now as a civilian and as a responsible citizen it is my duty to do whatever I can to serve my fellow citizens as much as I can. With my idea of a news website in Spanish was to give a voice to the Latino community in Jersey City, especially to those without representation whose primary language is not English.” Despite all of these, she still hasn’t decided if getting a puppy would be a good idea.
Contact:
Email: hoyreporter@yahoo.com
Raymond Ruiz
I was born and raised in Corpus Christi (TX), where I lived until my junior year of high school. After graduation, I attended Houston Community College where I received my Associates degree in Electronic Engineering Technology in 2004. Being a big proponent of education and looking to set the tone for my younger siblings, I continued my studies at the University of Houston where I met my loving wife and received a Bachelor’s of Science in Technology Management. My education was funded by working full-time for DHS where I am currently a program manager.
Throughout my undergraduate career, I was involved in a number of community service organizations – namely LULAC – where I became intimately acquainted with the pressing issues of the Hispanic community. To better facilitate change, I became Vice President of LULAC #4688 where I enacted various initiatives and community service projects.
It is in this capacity that I became involved in the media field. During my work with students, volunteers, and the community, I noticed an obvious disconnect between all the community groups that wasn’t due to lack of effort. It was quickly realized that a central information resource was needed to connect the different segments of the collegiate Hispanic community.
Along with 4 other students, the first collegiate Hispanic media organization El Gato Media Network (EGMN) was established in Houston and now boasts two websites (news and sports), The Venture (our print publication), and a staff of over 25 students. The crowning achievement has been our nomination by the Associated Collegiate Press as 2010 national online newspaper of the year – an achievement that was accomplished with EGMN being less than a year old.
In January of 2009, I started my Master’s in Gifted and Talented Education which when coupled with my management degree, will give me a solid foundation for human resource and organizational development. I am currently turning EGMN into a non-profit with a vision for taking The Venture to multiple universities across the country.
It is my hope to be able to enhance this organization into a national entity and develop future journalists full time. With the wonderful support of the community, staff, generous media professionals and my family, I know that I can raise the bar of the Hispanic media industry.
Contact:
Email: director@uhelgato.com
