AWARDS CEREMONY
ABOUT THE HONOREES
Monica Gil is Senior Vice President of Public Affairs and Government Relations for Nielsen, a global provider of information and insights, located in 100 countries. In this role, Ms. Gil works extensively with elected officials, community leaders and Nielsen’s media, entertainment and consumer businesses to promote the company’s education, philanthropic, government and public affairs initiatives related to multicultural consumers. She also manages Nielsen’s national Latino Strategic Outreach. She recently launched the “Latina Power Shift” report, a data-driven document highlighting Latina influence in this country. Prior to joining Nielsen, Ms. Gil served as Senior Vice President for Greer, Margolis, Mitchell & Burns (GMMB) and Director of Public Affairs and Community Outreach for the Los Angeles market’s Telemundo stations KVEA and KWHY. Ms. Gil serves on the Girls Scouts National Board of Directors and The Getty House Foundation. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley where she received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. Ms. Gil received her Master’s degree in Public Policy from the University of Southern California, School of Public Administration.
Eliana Murillo is head of multicultural marketing at Google, Inc. She focuses on cross-product strategy to engage multicultural users and business owners. She founded the US Hispanic business development and community outreach team at Google, and has spearheaded programs that support diversity in entrepreneurship, education, and civic engagement with the use of technology. Eliana’s previous roles at Google include diversity business development, global sales people operations, and regional Latin American human resources. Prior to joining Google in 2010, Eliana worked at Target Corporation in the food merchandising division, where she handled internal buying strategies and supply chain optimization.
Eliana currently serves as the chief marketing officer of Tequila Alquimia her family’s award-winning USDA certified 100% organic tequila company. Her family’s mission is to influence agricultural practices in Mexico and consumption in the US through sustainable, eco-friendly practices. Eliana is a graduate of Harvard University, where she studied sociology of economics. She also studied international business at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus. She is originally from Oxnard, California.
Martin Mares is the Founder of the Ivy League Project, an educator, Fresno State University graduate and now nationally syndicated columnist. The Ivy League Project (ILP) has its beginnings in the small farming communities of the San Joaquin Valley. In 1992, encouraged by Ruben Navarrette, Mares took a group of local high school students to visit Harvard and other prestigious colleges on the East Coast.
Within the first four years of the program, Martin’s students were accepted to both Brown and Princeton University. This made headlines within the community for few had dreamed of going to college, let alone attending the preeminent universities of the world. Nineteen years later, over 800 students have participated in the Ivy League Project. Of those 130+ students have been accepted, graduated, or currently attending a prestigious East Coast school. ILP alumni include doctors, lawyers, educators, engineers and the leading innovators in their respected industries.
ABOUT LATINAS THINK BIG LA
On Friday, October 11, 2013, hundreds of innovative and socially-minded Latinas met at Google’s Los Angeles Office for the second stop on the LATINAS THINK BIG™ national tour.
Sponsored by Google and broadcast to virtual viewers via Google+ Hangout On Air, LATINAS THINK BIG™ LA featured presentations by five talented Latina innovators–Noramay Cadena, Estefania Ortiz, Veronica Villafañe, Pamela Campos Palma, and Rocio Romero–and honored three innovative Latino professionals–Monica Gil, Eliana Murillo, and Martin Mares–for the outstanding leadership and commitment they have contributed to the Latino community.