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Movin’ Up

Hires, promotions and honors.

TWO JOIN AHCC
Max Gonzalez, manager for Hispanic marketing with Salt River Project and Diana Bejarano-Medina, director of communications and public relations with Bashas’ Inc., have been re-elected to the board of directors of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Both will serve three-year terms starting Jan. 1.

HAREP ELECTS OFFICERS
The Hispanic Association of Real Estate Professionals has elected Margie O’Campo de Castillo as president. She is an owner broker of Arizona Dream Realty. She also was elected to the board of the National Association of Real Estate Professionals. In addition, HAREP selected Cecilia Kimura as vice president of its 2005 board. Kimura is a Realtor with All Properities Real Estate in Phoenix. More info at www.harepaz.com.

ORTIZ HONORED
Andrew Ortiz, J.D.,M.P.A., recently was inducted into Who’s Who in Finance and Business. He also was elected president of the Congressional Award Alumni Association in Washington, D.C., and selected as Professional of the Year by the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations. A Tempe resident, Ortiz is project manager for capacity building at the Center for Nonprofit Leadership and Management at Arizona State University.

WILCOX NAMED HERO
Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox was named Housing Hero by Arizona Department of Housing Director Dr. Sheila Harris. Harris presented the award to Wilcox in recognition of her part in developing the Human Services Campus for the homeless. Wilcox supervises District 5, where the Human Services campus is located. The award also is for leading the county’s efforts to create a homeless campus to centralize services for the homeless in downtown Phoenix.

PHOENIX COLLEGE ALUMNI AWARDS
Phoenix College recently honored distinguished alumni. Since 1999, the Phoenix College Alumni Association (PCAA) has recognized selected History Makers with its Hall of Fame Award. Among those honored in October were:

Pete Dimas, Class of 1970: A lifelong resident of Phoenix, Dimas has served on the Phoenix College faculty since 1990. “In addition to his distinguished work as a professor, he is a published author and a strong advocate for the Chicano/Mexican American community. He has mentored and inspired countless students over the years, and continues to strive for excellence in education,” reads the citation.

Pete Garcia, Class of 1970: As president and CEO of Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc., (CPLC), Garcia leads “one of the Valley’s most successful community based organizations and one of the nation’s largest community development corporations. The numerous social service programs and economic development ventures that have been initiated through CPLC have positively impacted countless numbers of lives throughout Arizona.”

COLUMNIST JOINS AHCC
Steven D. Strauss, a nationally recognized business expert, has joined the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as a columnist. His column is titled, Ask an Expert, and will appear every week on the AHCC Web site at www.azhcc.com. Strauss will answer questions from the chamber’s more than 650 members. Currently, Ask the Expert appears weekly at USA Today.com. In addition to working with the chamber, Strauss is a speaker, lawyer and author. He is regularly featured on such media outlets as CNBC, CNN and MSNBC. A small business owner himself, Strauss is the president of the Strauss Group, and is also the author of 12 books including, The Small Business Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed in Your Small Business.

LEADERSHIP PROGRAM TAPS ASU VP
The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities has selected Manuel Avalos to participate in its year-long Leadership Fellows Program. Avalos is associate vice provost for research and faculty development at Arizona State University’s west campus. The program is designed to increase the number of Hispanic senior-level leaders at Hispanic-serving Institutions. It focuses on developing leadership skills and those skills necessary to manage issues unique to Hispanic-serving Institutions. “It’s a life-changing program, built around issues that faculty of color have to deal with on a daily basis,” Avalos says. Participants in the program will learn directly from 10 to 15 current or former university and community college presidents over the course of the year. Avalos also is the associate director of the Hispanic Research Center at ASU’s west campus and a tenured associate professor of political science in the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences.