Latina History Day New York

Former NY City Council Member and Partner, Hollis Public Affairs

Mrs. Ferreras-Copeland is a Founder and Partner at Hollis Public Affairs, where she draws on a lifetime of transformative community leadership to advise organizations and stakeholders on strategies for success. As a New York City Councilwoman from 2009 to 2017, Julissa was the first woman, first person of color, and the youngest chair of the influential Committee on Finance, which oversaw the City’s $82 billion budget process as well as the Department of Finance, Comptroller’s Office, Banking Commission, Tax Commission, Department of Design and Construction, and the Independent Budget Office.

Julissa brings personal experience in complex and community-impacting projects including billion-dollar land-use negotiations, public-private partnerships, crisis management, community benefits agreements, writing of city and state legislation, and organizing issues-based campaigns. She specializes in navigating through regulatory challenges, cultivating grassroots support, and developing broad stakeholder coalitions to deliver meaningful progress.

Julissa previously served as the Vice President of NALEO (National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials) and Executive Board Member of NYC Council’s Black Latino and Asian Caucus. Prior to joining the New York City Council, Julissa also served her community as president of the Corona-East Elmhurst NAACP Youth Council. She supported working families and created educational opportunities in her district.

Director, Global Public Affairs – North America, The Estée Lauder Companies

Kaitesi is the Director of Global Public Affairs at The Estée Lauder Companies, where she helps lead the company’s engagement with government and policymakers across the US States. Before joining The Estée Lauder Companies, Kaitesi served as a Principal at Cozen O’Connor Public Strategies, providing strategic advice and advocacy to clients. She also held positions as a government affairs and social impact associate at The Madison Square Garden Company and as a legislative analyst for the New York State legislature.

A proud daughter of immigrants, she holds a Master of Public Administration from the State University of New York, Albany’s Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, and a Bachelor of Science from the State University of New York, Buffalo. Her background and commitment to advocacy have equipped her with a unique perspective on the intersection of business, government, and community.

Former NY City Council Member and Partner, Hollis Public Affairs

Mrs. Ferreras-Copeland is a Founder and Partner at Hollis Public Affairs, where she draws on a lifetime of transformative community leadership to advise organizations and stakeholders on strategies for success. As a New York City Councilwoman from 2009 to 2017, Julissa was the first woman, first person of color, and the youngest chair of the influential Committee on Finance, which oversaw the City’s $82 billion budget process as well as the Department of Finance, Comptroller’s Office, Banking Commission, Tax Commission, Department of Design and Construction, and the Independent Budget Office.

Julissa brings personal experience in complex and community-impacting projects including billion-dollar land-use negotiations, public-private partnerships, crisis management, community benefits agreements, writing of city and state legislation, and organizing issues-based campaigns. She specializes in navigating through regulatory challenges, cultivating grassroots support, and developing broad stakeholder coalitions to deliver meaningful progress.

Julissa previously served as the Vice President of NALEO (National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials) and Executive Board Member of NYC Council’s Black Latino and Asian Caucus. Prior to joining the New York City Council, Julissa also served her community as president of the Corona-East Elmhurst NAACP Youth Council. She supported working families and created educational opportunities in her district.

President and General manager of WABC-TV

Marilú Gálvez was named President and General Manager of WABC-TV in 2022, becoming the first Latina to lead an ABC O&O and an English-language station in NYC. In this role, Galvez is responsible for ABC7/WABC-TV and its ancillary businesses.

Galvez most recently served as vice president of Community Engagement and Development for WABC-TV, and she is also the committee lead for the Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution Networks’ Diversity Equity and Inclusion team. As vice president of Community Engagement and Development since 2018, she is responsible for community outreach efforts and for growing relationships with key service organizations in the tri-state. She aligns news, programming, marketing and on-air talent with cause-related events and campaigns, and leverages opportunities with advertiser support.

Through strategy and innovation, her leadership has helped expand and elevate a multicultural presence at the station. She is an active member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and was named one of the Top 10 Latina Corporate Executives of the Year by LATINA Style in 2019.

CEO, Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE)

As the CEO of HOPE for 23 years, Helen Iris Torres has strategically built a Latina leadership and advocacy infrastructure in California, composed of thousands of civically engaged Latina leaders serving in elected and appointed office, as business, philanthropic and community leaders. She has created robust pathways to leadership for Latinas in high school to Latinas across the United States, resulting in over 1,600 leadership positions being filled by Latinas. Helen was raised by a single mother outside of Detroit, Michigan. She is a first-generation college graduate. Her passion to fight for women’s rights stems from witnessing the sexual and racial discrimination her mother faced daily.

News Anchor, WABC-TV

Tanya Rivero is co-anchor of WABC-TV’s Eyewitness News This Weekend on 5pm, 6pm, and 11pm. She reports Monday through Wednesday.

Previously, Tanya worked at ABC News as an anchor for World News Now and as a national correspondent for all ABC News broadcasts, including World News Tonight, Nightline, and Good Morning America, where she was also a fill-in anchor. Tanya also anchored for ABC News’s 24/7 streaming service.

Right before coming to WABC-TV, Tanya worked as a correspondent at CBS News. She was one of the first national correspondents on the scene of the Uvalde, Texas school shooting. Tanya covered U.S. politics extensively and was the first broadcast journalist to interview congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, right before she unseated Joe Crowley. Tanya was also an anchor for CBS News’ 24/7 streaming service and has anchored hours of breaking news of history-making events, including the 2020 Presidential election; the Jan. 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol; the release of the Mueller Report; the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the death of Queen Elizabeth.

Prior to CBS, Tanya hosted Lunch Break With Tanya Rivero on the Wall Street Journal’s digital network. Here she interviewed a wide range of luminaries in government, business, and culture. Tanya started in news as a “one-woman-band” at News 12 The Bronx.

Tanya graduated from Yale University and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Prior to college, she danced professionally with the New York City Ballet. Tanya is proudly Cuban-American and a member of NAHJ. She loves New York City and has lived or worked in four out of the five boroughs. She currently lives in Manhattan with her husband and two children.

Executive Vice President and Head of Hispanic & Latino Affairs, Wells Fargo Bank

Patty Juarez has spent more than 29 years at Wells Fargo where she has held a variety of leadership roles. Currently, Patty serves as the Head of Hispanic/Latino affairs. She is responsible for building a Hispanic/Latino external engagement portfolio focused on national cultural engagement, executive recruitment, business development, and stakeholder relations.

She partners with Diverse Segments Representation & Inclusion, External Engagement, and Government Relations to curate national and local stakeholder activities to amplify Wells Fargo’s DE&I commitment. Patty has a long history of leadership in the Latino community. She is former chairwoman and current board member of the Orange County Hispanic Chamber, she is on the board of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and on the advisory board for the Latino Donor Collaborative. She is also on the board of Governors at Chapman University and on the Chancellor’s Council at the University of California, Berkeley. Patty is also involved in diversity and entrepreneurship initiatives at Cal, Stanford, and Harvard Universities.

Externally, Patty often speaks about topics such as Diversity and Inclusion, diverse segments, access to capital, multi-cultural marketing, and financial literacy. Internally, Patty is past president of the Hispanic & Latino Connection Employee Resource Network, which has 53 chapters and represents more than 35,000 Latinos at Wells Fargo. Patty lives in Orange County, California, with her children Isabella and Max.

CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst

Dr. Helen Arteaga-Landaverde is the CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst, a Level Trauma Center and the second oldest public hospital in New York City.  She is the first woman and the first Latina to helm the hospital’s executive team. Under Helen’s leadership, Elmhurst has been recognized as one of U.S. News and World Report’s “Best Regional Hospitals” and as one of the nation’s “High Performing” hospitals. Over the past five years Helen has secured millions in public funding for key capital projects for the facility, including $27.5 Million from New York State for a new Women’s Pavilion and a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. She has a bachelor’s degree from New York University, a Master of Public Health from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. from the City University of New York. In 2025, she was named as one of City and State’s Queens Power 100. She has also been noted as one of Becker’s Hospital Review’s “196 Women Hospital Presidents and CEOs to Know”. Helen is a recipient of prestigious Joan H. Tisch Community Health Prize from the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund for her distinguished accomplishments in the field of urban public health, and the Mujeres Destacadas award from El Diario NY.

Former Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development