Latino Professionals Gather Together

Event brings together 'a diverse community that doesn't meet regularly'

By Ken Gewertz

Gazette Staff

Last month, Harvard hosted a meeting of the Latino Professional Network (LPN), a Boston-based group that gathers on a monthly basis to network and discuss matters of common interest.

Mela Martorano, director of Equal Employment Opportunity and Compliance in the Office of the Assistant to the President, was instrumental in bringing the group to Harvard. She hopes that the Feb. 21 gathering, which drew about 150 people to the Kennedy School of Government's Malkin Penthouse, will be the first of many such meetings of Latino professionals at Harvard. Attendees included Harvard Latino employees and members of the Human Resources community.

"We are a diverse community that doesn't meet regularly on the basis of ethnicity," Martorano said. "A lot of Latinos who work here in professional positions may not be aware of others in the community. I know that each of us got to know a lot of people we had never met before."

The meeting opened with a welcome address by Jamie Hoyte AB '65, JD '68, Assistant to the President/Associate Vice President. This was followed by brief talks by David Cortiella '77, founding member of LPN and head of CVR Associates, a consulting firm specializing in organizational development for public housing agencies; and Patricia Arredondo, president of Empowerment Workshops of Boston and co-chair of LPN.

Martorano, who is a graduate of the Kennedy School of Government ('91), said she hopes to start an internal group of professional Latinos at Harvard which will continue meeting on a regular basis to socialize and discuss career issues. She believes that this networking group will help send a message of inclusiveness to Latinos throughout the University as well as carry on the positive impact of the February meeting.

"It was wonderful seeing so many Latino professionals together in one room," she said. "I think this reflects the growing role Latinos are playing in the health fields, in corporations, and in the nonprofit sector."

Magdalena Suarez Geddis, director of the Harvard Information Center and Project Teach, agreed that the gathering was significant both for Latinos and for Harvard.

"I thought it was an outstanding effort which brought together Latino professionals in all their diversity for a common purpose," she said. "The program marked a new beginning for fostering goals that will strengthen both the University and the Latino community."