“Latinas Think Big”, a platform which has grown significantly, has the mission to bring
across the United States, in a national tour, latin innovative projects in USA. In these events, opinion leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs and influencers promote ideas, projects and partnerships and tell their stories.
In 2015, the center of the event were a group of Latinas with amazing ideas: Rocio Romero, Nora Cadena, Pamela Campos-Palma, Verónica Villafañe and Estefanía Ortiz (we already write her story, and you can read it here). Let’s find out the story of the other four “Latinas”
Rocío was born in Chile. She grow up there and then decided to move to the United States.
She graduated as Bachelor of Architecture at Berkeley University, and in 1999, she got a Masters in Architecture at the Southern California Institute of Architecture.
In 2001 she started her own design firm “Rocio Romero LLC”, and also worked for Guthrie+Buresh, Eric Rosen, Matias Klotz, and Space International.
She is recognized for her amazing work as a designer. She has been involved in residential home design and construction in the U.S, Chile, Francia and Canada. Romero’s designs include furniture, custom residential homes, prefabricated homes, commercial interiors and galleries. Her master pieces have been on display in national and international museums, including the Walker Art Center, MOCA, Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Triennale di Milano. Her fame gave her credibility and her work has been published in magazines like: The New Yorker, Dwell Maganize, The Perfect $100,000 house
Nora is part of the first Mexican-American generation. She studied at the MIT and has worked as engineering leader and community volunteer.
Her most important project, “The Boeing Company” currently manages $27M and leads a cross functional team in the assembly, integration and test of commercial satellites.
In 2008, Nora was recognized nationally for her technical contributions with the Most Promising Engineer award during the “Great Minds in STEM” Conference. After that, she participate in the Conference: Adelante Mujer Latina, held in Pasadena in 2012. In 2015, Nora co-founded the “Latinas in STEM Foundation” to inspire and empower Latinas to pursue in STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields.
Pamela is the daughter of a first generation immigrants
from Honduras. Pam entered the U.S. Air Force right after high school. She worked hard and became an Operational Intelligence Officer. She has served there for seven years.
As a volunteer, she raised her voice against Sexual Assault and helps local communities in Europe and Southeast Asia.
Now, a full-time student, Pam will graduate as a B.A in Political Science and Civic Leadership from Portland State University.
Proud of her roots, Pam serves as the Director of a Latina/women’s empowerment organization “Las Mujeres de la Raza”.
She is an alumna of the highly selective National Hispana Leadership Institute (NHLI) in Washington D.C, as well as National Education of Women (NEW) Leadership Oregon.
Recently, Pamela Campos Palma was nominated by the Governor of Oregon as the first and only student voting member on the Board of Trustees for Portland State University.
And last, but not least: Veronica Villafañe
Verónica has lived almost everywhere.
She is the daughter of an Argentine U.S. Foreign Service diplomat.
She was born in India and then lived in the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America. And even when she was established in North America she moved to different cities in the U.S.
She studied journalism, specialized in multimedia, and now has more than 20 years of experience. In her career she has had many bilingual projects in media, broadcast, print and online, on a national and international level.
She founded the popular website that covers Latinos in media “Media Moves,” and plays the role of editor and publisher
Her performance as a reporter, producer, writer and anchor for Univision, Telemundo, CNN and CBS Television news in Spanish, earned her an Emmy. She also worked for Reuters and Los Angeles Fox.
Her experience extends to digital news management, having worked as the Managing Editor for a USC-funded community news website and as West Coast Web Editor for ImpreMedia Digital.
In 2002 she helped the San Jose Mercury News launch a media convergence project, producing and anchoring nightly television segments, webcasts and podcasts for almost 5 years.
In addition to being a columnist and contributor for Poder magazine, she is currently the West Coast Web Editor for ImpreMedia Digital.
Five women have used their roots, their culture, their talent to achieve amazing things. Five women are striking examples of migrants making a name in the US.
Like them, anyone can do it, just the right advice in the process of running for a work visa or green card is required. For more information about visa process, click here.