Center for Hispanic Leadership Launches Scholarship Program for Online Leadership Training
10/01/2014 05:47pm | 24310 viewsRaising Multilingual and Multicultural Children
12/08/2015 02:02pm | 7542 viewsAccording to the National Center for Educational Statistics, more than one in five school-aged children (21%) speak a language other than English at home. That number of bilingual speakers is projected to increase in the coming years. Yet many school systems and society, as a whole, seem hesitant to encourage and/or develop language-immersion programs.
How Connecting with Other Cancer Survivors Saved My Life
10/02/2015 07:52am | 8407 viewsLilly Lorenzo-Luaces was diagnosed with breast cancer in her early 30s. As a breast cancer survivor, she describes how meeting other cancer survivors and going out of her comfort zone in a kayak helped her regain her joy for life.
The Messy Art of Balancing Life and Work
30/07/2015 06:00am | 6889 viewsI remember the day I came home with my newborn son. I sat down on the couch and began incessantly sobbing. In a flash, I thought oh my, I have this small child now. How am I going to go to work? Take him to daycare? School? High school? College? How will I manage? In a flash, 18 years flashed before me. It was overwhelming.
About the Author
A seasoned corporate communications, PR, public affairs, marketing, and media relations professional with experience working with domestic and international non-profit and for-profit organizations and companies, Marisa has effectively developed, led, and executed strategic communications and relationship-building initiatives over the past 18 years.
A journalist by trade, she launched her career as the only
bilingual journalist at People Magazine
and People En Español in the Miami
Bureau in 1995.
In 2000, the University of Florida Journalism School graduate joined an Atlanta market research firm specializing in providing consulting services to non-profits and later worked for an international orphan advocacy group where she and other staff members met with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child regarding the basic right of a child, without parents, to have a permanent home.
In 2005, she continued honing her communications expertise by serving as the national media spokesperson and trade association member liaison to the $4.6 billion-dollar global infant formula industry. In addition to leveraging relationships with print and online media outlets, Marisa led outreach initiatives to form alliances with medical and healthcare groups and gained a penchant for navigating politically sensitive issues and advocating on public policy positions.
Spearheading Hispanic marketing and outreach efforts for a national financial services agency in 2010, Marisa developed national, regional, and local corporate and non-profit partnerships that increased the organization's visibility across the country as well as leveraged relationships with Spanish-language media outlets to garner additional exposure for the organization.
In her last position, Marisa was part of the corporate communications department at UPS headquarters where she worked in collaboration with the internal team to inform, engage, and empower the company's 400,000 employees across 220 countries regarding key internal and external initiatives and programs.
Born to Cuban immigrants, Marisa has always valued her Hispanic heritage, culture, and Spanish language as well as been active in the Hispanic community. In August 2012, she was selected to serve as the President of the Center for Hispanic Leadership's inaugural Atlanta chapter with a focus on providing culturally-relevant educational online and onsite training to help Latino professionals lead in the workplace and advance in their careers.
Marisa serves on several boards in the Atlanta area, where she lives with her husband and two children, including: Emory Goizueta School of Business Hispanic Recruiting Advisory Board of Directors, the International Charter School of Atlanta, and the Childcare Congo Foundation. She is also member of the National Association of Professional Women, the International Association of Business Communicators, and the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association.