September 7, 2009

National Hispanic Month
Latino Civil Rights Leader, José A. Velazquez, to Kick off National Hispanic Month at CBU

Memphis – Christian Brothers University (CBU) will kick off its annual National Hispanic Month Celebration with guest speaker Dr. José A. Velazquez, Director of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S., which works to improve opportunities for Hispanic Americans. The program will be held on Tuesday, September 15, at 6:00 p.m., in Spain Auditorium on the CBU campus. A reception will follow Velazquez's address.  It is free and open to the public.

Velazquez will speak on issues related to the Hispanic culture, including health care, immigration reform, rise in hate crimes, and education. His area of expertise is development and growth of community-based organizations; nonprofit management; health access issues of limited-English-proficient individuals; and higher education. Velazquez holds a doctoral degree from the Spanish Universidad de Valladolid, Spain in language and culture.

Prior to being named the Director of NCLR, Velazquez served as the Executive Director, Latino Memphis, Inc.; Southeast representative of NCLR Affiliate Council; Director of Hablamos Juntos, Regional Medical Center at Memphis; Latin American Global Specialist, Governor’s School for International Studies, and on faculty at numerous colleges and universities.

In addition, CBU will host the National Hispanic Month Forum on Wednesday, September 16 Noon-12:45 p.m. in the Sabbatini Lounge. The forum will feature Hispanic professionals from the Memphis community.  This event is also free and open to the public.

For additional information on either event, contact Karen Conway Barnett at kconway@cbu.edu or (901) 321-3536.  ###