Policy & Advocacy Panel: Current LatinX Affairs in Pennsylvania
According to the 2020 U.S. Census, there are more than one million people of Hispanic/Latinx/Latin@ or Latine origin in Pennsylvania. What does that mean to be Hispanic or Latinx in this state? We celebrate Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month by highlighting our heritage and what we contribute to this country. In the midst of the celebration, we need to reflect upon pressing issues that we face as a community, diversity, education, health, and inclusion.
How are we doing? How can we work as a community to elevate everyone, especially the people most in need? How can we be part of the change? Process, be by running for office, volunteering, or collaboration? What does it mean to run for office, volunteer or find collaborators within and beyond our community?
This panel brings together people that work directly with the community and healthcare workers, whether from academia, as community or political leaders to reflect on the diversity of our communities, aiming to spark further reflection our future in the Commonwealth.
Moderator:
Keila Grinberg, Director of the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) and Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh
Featured Panelists:
Caelan Hidalgo Schick (she/her/hers) is the Latinx Constituency Director for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party
Luz Colon, Executive Director of the Governor’s Advisory Commission for Latino Affairs (GACLA)
Eddie Morán, Reading’s 84th mayor and the first Latino to be elected mayor in a Pennsylvania municipality with more than 85,000 residents
Monica Ruiz-Caraballo, Executive Director at Casa San José
Diego Chaves-Gnecco, developmental-behavioral pediatrician, Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Director/Founder of the Salud Para Niños program at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh
This event is hosted by the Center for Latin American Studies as part the University of Pittsburgh’s Latinx Connect: Elevating Latinx Identities and Contemporary Issues Conference within the Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month celebration.