Latina History Day New York

General Assignment reporter for WABC-TV, Channel 7 Eyewitness News Sonia Rincón is a general assignment reporter for WABC-TV. Raised in four out of five boroughs of the city (all but Queens!), Sonia is thrilled to tell New York’s day-to day stories, documenting its changes, challenges, cultural richness and resiliency. If her name sounds familiar, you may have heard her voice on New York’s all-news radio station 1010 WINS, where she spent 15 years as an anchor and reporter while freelance reporting for New York-area television stations, before joining the Eyewitness News team full-time in May 2022. Her broadcast journalism career began at Emerson College in Boston, where she served as news director for college radio station WERS-FM. Before returning home to New York, Sonia reported and anchored news for radio stations in Connecticut, Maine, Virginia and Pennsylvania including KYW Newsradio in Philadelphia. Sonia earned numerous awards in her 20+ year radio career, including an Edward R. Murrow award for storm coverage of Ida in 2021. She also has served as an adjunct lecturer at CUNY’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.

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.

Global Director, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, Tapestry

Senior Vice President, Global Corporate Affairs, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc

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.

Business Execution Director, Wells Fargo

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.

Appointments Secretary, NYS Governor’s Office

Ms. Rodriguez was appointed in January 2023 by Governor Kathy Hochul to serve as Appointments Secretary overseeing the process for Executive level appointments and nominations to New York State Boards and Commissions. Before joining the Hochul administration, Ms. Rodriguez served as the Vice President and Director of Government Affairs for Ponce Bank where she was responsible for enhancing Ponce Bank’s status among government institutions. Ms. Rodriguez previously served as Chief Diversity Officer for the New York State Governor’s Officer from 2015 to 2018, a Gubernatorial appointment that bestowed upon her the responsibility for the creation and implementation of recruitment and retention initiatives designed to promote workforce diversity and inclusion, while also working to advance the Governor’s Minority & Women Owned Business (MWBE) initiatives. She co-created and lead the efforts of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Diversity in the New York State Government Workforce.

From 2011 to 2015, Ms. Rodriguez served as the Senior Assistant/Chief of Staff to the New York State Commissioner of Labor, representing the Governor’s Office, in the operational management and reorganization of a $9.2 billion agency with approximately 4,000 employees. Leading the coordination of several agency initiatives, she is best known for spearheading the NY Bronx Works Partnership, a model for the Governor’s Strike-Force Initiative to combat unemployment in hardest hit communities. Before returning to state government in 2011, Ms. Rodriguez was the Vice President for Policy and Programs at the Committee for Hispanic Children & Family, Inc. (CHCF), assisting in the efforts to implement the non-profit organization’s five year plan to maintain its competitive edge and leadership role in providing early child care services in New York City.

New York State Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas represents the 34th Assembly District, which includes the diverse communities of Astoria, Corona, East Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Woodside in Queens county. She has dedicated her life to fighting for immigrant rights, racial justice, LGBTQ liberation, health care access, labor power, and gender equity while forging connections between various progressive movements. Jessica is a progressive champion and brings her advocacy and organizing expertise to her work as an Assemblymember.

Since she assumed office in 2021, Assemblymember González-Rojas has introduced and passed several pieces of legislation on maternal health, transgender rights, transportation, election reform, worker protections, healthcare transparency, and more. She has also successfully advocated for funding in the state budget to increase outreach for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) enrollment for hard-to-reach communities, assistance to homeowners impacted by Hurricane Ida, and to require private insurers to cover all abortions at no cost to patients.

New York State Assemblymember Karines Reyes, born in the Dominican Republic, identifies as an Afro-Latina. Her interest in politics was sparked after she became an RN through her work as a union representative at Montefiore Einstein Hospital. She was elected in 2018 as a member of the New York State Assembly, representing District 87 and assumed office on January 1, 2019. Assemblywoman Reyes has two young sons and provides particular inspiration for nurses who wonder how they can balance nursing and political work with the important job of parenting.