Latina Professionals

June 30, 2021

Latina Professionals

Silicon Valley Latino Advisory Board Member and serial entrepreneur, Nancy Rosales is among the women leading the new chapter of "Latina Professionals" in San Francisco. This organization creates a community and offers a variety of personal and professional development opportunities for professional women.

In 2020, the Bay Area welcomed a new chapter of the emerging national organization, Latina Professionals, which is focused on building camaraderie in the Latina community. Through programming aimed at personal and professional growth and organized networking opportunities, Latina Professionals is poised to grow its membership and advocate for Latinas in the Bay Area.

A group of ambitious local Latina women from various industries is driving this new Bay Area chapter. These Latinas seek to invest in social, professional, and educational resources and programming that open doors to new opportunities for other Latinas in the region while improving equity.

Through its community of colleagues, mentors, and role models, Latina Professionals aims to nurture personal and professional growth and development through a series of quarterly events and career development program, Acelera. Additionally, a slate of casual social events will offer members the opportunity to form genuine, long-lasting friendships.

Though Latinas are making significant strides in education, health, and other areas, racial and ethnic disparities still exist. Latina Professionals seek to make meaningful strides in closing these gaps.

"Latina Professionals will embrace virtual environments and serve as an imperative bridge to build greater resiliency for Latina women in the workforce and enable our members to recover for a future that looks very different from the pre-pandemic world. We are focused on rebuilding and re-imagining a new idea of women & allies, together, supporting women, a concept we should all champion.", said Marisela Garcia Marquez, National Board Member and President of the San Francisco Advisory Council.

"Currently in the US, one in five women identifies as Latina, and those numbers are projected to grow to nearly one-third of the female population by 2060. With Latinas poised to comprise a significant portion of the US population, it’s important to recognize our contributions and social and economic power, and Latina Professionals seeks to do this through meaningful networking and programming opportunities.”, said Melinda Chacon, Chair Signature Events Advisory Council, San Francisco.

Over the last several months, Latina Professionals has been working diligently to create its first career development program for working Latinas. Their program, Acelera, is a four-month virtual program that will support Latinas in getting to the next level of their careers and in becoming leaders of their industries and beyond. With this program, they aim to build an unstoppable sisterhood ready to evolve the lives of its members and to transform the world.

In a duration of two years, Latina Professionals established a national audience of 47,000 women of all ages and stages in life. They've accomplished this through daily active digital engagement focused on highlighting, promoting, and connecting with rising Latinas across all industries on LinkedIn and other social platforms.

The Latina Professionals Advisory Council of San Francisco was founded in July 2020 and is comprised of Marisela Garcia Marquez, President, Melody Estrada, Vice President Lizbeth Duran, Secretary, Gabriela Lopez, Treasurer, Nancy Rosales, Chair of Public Relations, Melinda Chacon, Chair of Signature Events, Clarisse Baca, Chair of Sponsorships, Danelis Padron, Chair of Community Relations, and Alejandra Ruiz, Chair of Membership.

We invite you to learn more about Latina Professionals' offerings by visiting latinaprofessionals.org. Silicon Valley Latino will certainly stay tuned to the launch of their Acelera program.