Embracing our Changing Community

2023 Embracing our Changing Community Annual Conference

Diversity Advocate Sponsor

Diversity Ambassador Sponsor Raymond James

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Embracing our Changing Community is the diversity annual conference of the InterCultural Advocacy Institute – Hispanic Leadership Council, which attracted over 350 people last year. This year our conference theme is “The Power of Words.”

About the Conference

Each year, the Embracing Our Changing Community conference, brings together a variety of presenters, service providers, professionals, educators, community organizers, students and more to learn about diversity, equity and inclusion issues. During the past 15 years, this conference has addressed many diversity-related topics including race, ethnicity, socioeconomic divides, gender, culture, sexuality, abilities/disabilities, religion and more.

Our focus for this year’s conference is The Power of Words. Have you ever thought about the power of words…your words? The Power of Words is geared to help us better understand how words affect people. The way we use words can include or exclude others. Words can build an engaged and empowered community. Our goal is to highlight the relationship the power that words have on us, and how this in turn influences the issues of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Agenda

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Meet the Speakers

Liz Wooten-Reschke

Liz Wooten-Reschke, MPA CGT CDLTF RYT-200 President & CEO Liz Wooten-Reschke is an experienced facilitator, keynote speaker and strategic expert with over 25 years of service to the Florida and Tampa Bay communities. She works collaboratively with her clients to create customized consulting solutions for personal and professional success. Her work focuses on empowering leaders, connecting philanthropists and providing resources of all kinds to those who want to make a difference in their communities. Whatever the topic of expertise, she focuses on community building and resourcesharing to help an organization, individual or community meet their mission.  Liz personally provides executive coaching and delivers inspiring speaking engagements for all sector leaders, philanthropists, consultants and rising leaders. She is a Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator, BoardSource Certified Governance Trainer and a professional member of the National Speakers Association. Liz is also a credentialed author for several leading business publications and her own management books: Board Engagement & Empowerment in the Fundraising Process and Managing Courageously: Serving Others While Leading from the Middle Office.

A firm believer in continuing education and the importance of mindfulness, Liz is a certified yoga instructor with Yoga Alliance and teaches yoga part-time for her home studio. In 2021, she gave her first TedX talk speaking vulnerably and courageously on self-worth, checking our inner critic and accepting life as it is. Throughout her lifetime, Liz has served as staff and volunteer leader for nonprofit businesses in the Tampa Bay and Keys communities. Prior to opening her consulting firm in 2009, she worked in communications, fundraising and program development for the nonprofit sector. In addition to her business, she volunteers her time generously to a variety of organizations including the USF Alumni Association, USF MPA Ambassadors, and the School Advisory Council and Parent Teacher Association member of her children’s elementary school.

Liz began her professional career as an English teacher and dance-team coach in the Florida public school system teaching both middle and high school in Tampa and Key West. These experiences as well as the many educators in her family have instilled a deep belief that continual education is crucial to individual and agency success. Liz’s personal and professional work truly embodies her life motto, passed down to her by her grandmother: “The truly educated never graduate”. Liz first moved to Tampa Bay to pursue her undergraduate degree at the University of South Florida, where she later earned her graduate degree and graduated with honors. She is a fourth generation Floridian with a passion for education, the arts and animal rights, and is an active mother of four children, one dog, one cat and two fish. Additional information about Liz can be found on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizwootenreschke or at the CFM website: www.ConnectforMore.com.

Meriel Martínez 

Meriel Martínez is the program director at the Nonprofit Leadership Center. She focuses on training and development in diversity, equity and inclusion and manages the organization’s small-group leadership programs (cohorts).

Originally from Newark, New Jersey, Meriel began her professional journey as an editor for a major educational publisher. Years later, a move to Virginia prompted a career shift toward nonprofit work, an area of long-standing personal engagement. Meriel served as logistics coordinator for the Virginia Latino Higher Education Network’s (VALHEN) Hispanic College Institute. She then became education and training coordinator at the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities. In that role, she designed and facilitated educational programs on diversity and inclusion for schools, workplaces and communities across the state.

Meriel received her master’s degree in speech and interpersonal communication from New York University. While at NYU, she participated in an intensive summer program based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She studied at both Chestnut Hill College and William Paterson University, where she completed her bachelor’s degree in communication.

Thai Nguyen

After he graduated from a California Bay Area high school in 2015, Thai Nguyen enlisted in the USMC Reserves and was attached to the 6th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company. Thai’s military occupation specialty was Fire Support Marine, and he was a Combat Marksmanship Coach. After serving in the Marine Corps, Thai moved to Florida in 2020 where he continued his education through the Year Up program in Tampa Bay. Thai graduated from Year Up in July 2021 having completed an internship with JP Morgan Chase. He was then hired as a Cybersecurity Analyst, and he continues to grow in his career at JPMC. Thai loves cooking at home and plans on opening his own food business one day!

Virginia Vasquez

Virginia Vasquez, who immigrated with her family to Florida from Venezuela 6 years ago, will be starting her senior year at Sickles High School in Tampa this fall.  At Sickles High, she is a representative of the Latin Culture Club, and she is the #1 Teacher’s Assistant.  She supports her community through her volunteer coordinator role at the Hispanic Services Council and her ongoing involvement with Community Tampa Bay’s ANYTOWN and Advocacy Academy. Through her participation in her school activities and local organizations, Virginia has developed strong leadership skills and a passion for social justice. She is interested in attending FSU or FIU after graduation to study psychology or juvenile justice.  In her free time, she paints and sometimes sells her artwork.

Marcus Brooks

Marcus is the Executive Director of the Center for Health Equity. “Whatever gifts you are believed to have, are not yours. They were gifted to you for a finite amount of time, to be passed on and used in service of others.” These words are a daily affirmation for Marcus A. Brooks, and he takes them to heart in his role as Executive Director at the Center for Health Equity.

In this role, Marcus leads a diverse team of equity advocates who are all deeply invested in St. Petersburg, both personally and professionally. Together, they work to create a space and experience that fosters cross-community collaboration to advance racial equity and improve the overall health of Pinellas County. Marcus is a fourth-generation St. Pete resident who split his youth between Clearwater and South St. Petersburg. His upbringing was a contrasting racial experience that ultimately gave him the perspective and insight that shapes who he is today. A passionate advocate for this work, Marcus brings over 15 years of experience in the nonprofit world to this position, along with a wide range of experience—from racial equity facilitation and partnership cultivation to fundraising and board development. Marcus is a graduate of Florida State University and resides in St. Petersburg with his family.

Register Now

Register: https://spcollege.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kN3ddNljSpWVUOEeQJ0f_w

 For Sponsorship opportunities and information please contact conference@hispanicoutreachcenter.org