The Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) announced today an impactful change to its national board of directors. Five leading industry professionals have been added to the national board of the foremost organization of Hispanic public relations practitioners. Joining the Board are Alejandra Molinari, Senior PR Communications Manager at Intuit, Carla Santiago, Acting General Manager at Edelman, Carlos Correcha-Price, Chief Executive Officer-USA at LLYC, Darcy Brito, Business PR Manager at Aflac and Oscar Suris, Executive Managing Director at Zeno Group.

"HPRA's leadership is strong and I look forward to working alongside this stellar group of seasoned professionals to move forward the organizations' mission of advancing the practice; serving as the voice for professionals working in Hispanic communications; empowering our members through support, resources and education; and offering guidance and assistance to students pursuing careers in the field," stated Andy Checo, president of the Hispanic Public Relations Association. "During these challenging times, I am confident that the contributions of our new and established board members will be valuable not only to our organization, but to our overall industry."

The new board members bring on a wealth of experience to the organization which expands decades and include the following:

• Molinari spearheads Latino and Self-Employed communication strategy for the TurboTax brand. Prior to Intuit, she worked at Entravision San Diego and Jenny Craig.
• Santiago oversees the U.S. Hispanic Strategy at Edelman. Prior to Edelman, she served in communications roles at Hyatt Hotels Corporation, FleishmanHillard and Univision Communications.
• Prior to joining LLYC, Correcha-Price was General Manager for Edelman's Miami and Colombia offices and oversaw the firm's public affairs efforts in Latin America and was responsible for Edelman's Hispanic-Outreach Center of Excellence.
• With Aflac since 2007, Brito has received numerous industry recognitions including, 2019 Top Woman in PR by PR News, 2018 American Business Awards' Silver Stevie honoree in the Communications Professional of the Year and 2017 Women World Awards' Silver honoree in the Female Executive of the Year. She currently serves on the board of Girls Inc. of Columbus, the Muscogee County Library Foundation and the CSR Board.
• Prior to his current role leading C-suite and Crisis Strategy at Zeno Group, Suris was EVP of Communications at Wells Fargo and held communications roles at Ford and AutoNation. Earlier on, Oscar was a reporter at The Wall Street Journal and the Orlando Sentinel and assistant to the chairman and publisher of The Miami Herald Publishing Company.

The new group is part of the expanded board of directors who voted to implement the following resources available at no charge to industry professionals, agencies and corporations, all who have been impacted by the unprecedent COVID-19 environment.

• Complimentary Job Board: Effective immediately, HPRA is waiving job postings fees on its website and encourages agencies and corporations with open positions to leverage this resource to connect with talent.
• Introduction of a Talent Board: The free online resource will feature individuals who are looking for work or more opportunities. To be featured, individuals are asked to upload their professional information and resume onto the HPRA portal. The platform will leverage HPRA's network to maximize connections between candidates including recent college grads and talent-seeking professionals.

In addition to the above mentioned, the HPRA National Board of Directors is comprised of the following individuals: Brenda Mendoza, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, Jennifer Morales, Entercom, Lourdes Rodriguez, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Maggie Hernandez, Cision/PR Newswire, Maria Amor, Havas FORMULATIN, Mario Flores, Sportivo, Mayra Ramos-Miro, Red Heels PR, Sabrina Macias, DraftKings, Sonia Diaz, Balsera Communications, Veronica Salcedo, NBCUniversal and Yvonne Lorie, ReFresh PR.

Local HPRA Chapters are led by the following Chapter Presidents: Erika Sanchez, Braid Communications - New York, Erika Souza Cruz, Edelman - Miami, Natalia Flores, APR, AC&M Group - The Carolinas and Sandra Bernardo, Experian - Orange County (CA) and Stephen Chavez, Chavez PR - Los Angeles Chapter President (Los Angeles)

The Hispanic Public Relations Student Association chapter at the University of Florida is led by Martha Paz-Soldan with Catalina Santana taking over as president for the 2020-2021 academic year.