Chapter Contributors
Chapter 6 Perseverance, Achieving American Dreams Isidro Ortiz, Ph.D. Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies, San Diego State University Maria Nieto Senour, Ph.D. Professor Emerita, Department of Psychology, San Diego State University
Chapter 8 Facing COVID-19 Norma Chávez-Peterson, B.A. Executive Director of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties
Norma Chávez-Peterson attended San Diego State University where she earned a B.A. in Political Science and Chicano/a Studies. She is an integral member of San Diego’s civil rights community, with nearly two decades of visionary leadership, organizing, and advocacy experience in California’s second-most populous county and southern borderlands. She joined the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of San Diego & Imperial Counties (“ACLU SDIC”), a non-profit, non-partisan organization, as its organizing director in 2012 and became the affiliate’s executive director in 2013.
Senour served as the President of the San Diego Community College District Board of Trustees from 2015-2023 and has served as a member since 1990. She was the first Latina elected to a city-wide school or college board office in San Diego. Senour retired from the Department of Counseling and School Psychology at San Diego State University in 2016 where she directed the Community-Based Block (CBB) program, which specialized in preparing counselors from diverse ethnic groups to be multicultural specialists. She received her bachelor’s degree from Marygrove College in Detroit, her master’s degree from the University of Toledo in Ohio and her Ph.D. from Wayne State University.
Chapter 9 Proudly We Serve Peter D. Haro, M.A. Professor U.S. History, San Diego City College
Maria Velasquez, B.A. Emmy Award-winning Television Journalist & Producer
Maria is a proud journalism graduate of San Diego State University. The long-time San Diegan also earned a Marketing Certificate from the University of California, San Diego Extension. An Emmy Award-winning television journalist and producer, Maria was one of San Diego’s first Latina TV on-air personalities and journalists. Maria’s TV news and public affairs career spanned almost three decades. She was recognized for her news instincts, Tijuana coverage, as well as her storytelling of San Diego’s multicultural community. She is also the Visionary of the 100 Portraits, Pioneers, Visionaries & Role Models photographic book, featuring the contributions of Mexican Americans in San Diego (1994).
Haro was born and raised in San Diego and graduated from Saint Augustine High School. He continued his education at University of California, Berkeley, earning his B.A. in history. He also received his master’s degree in history from Northwestern University. Afterwards, he worked in the computer industry for about four years in the field of educational sales. He has been teaching history since 1999 at various colleges in San Diego and has been at San Diego City College since 2005. His areas of expertise and focus are U.S., Latin American and Military History.
Chapter 7 Latino Notables Sylvia Mendoza, M.A. Adjunct Professor, Media Studies, Palomar College
With journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and National University, award-winning journalist and author Mendoza has written more than 1,000 articles for a variety of publications and authored six books, including The Book of Latina Women: 150 Vidas of Passion, Strength, and Success (2013) and Sonia Sotomayor: A Biography (2019). With certifications in copy editing and women’s studies, she launched Mendoza Communications, becoming a developmental editor for writers looking to publish and a copy editor for a nonprofit education organization. While teaching journalism and media studies at San Diego colleges, she was named one of “50 Voices of the Future in Journalism” at the University of California San Diego Extension.
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San Diego Latino Legacy – Timeline • Milestones • Stories
Contributors
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