Washington, DC—The National Council of La Raza (NCLR) announced today that Andrea Bazán, President of Triangle Community Foundation, has been elected as Chair of the NCLR Board of Directors. Ms. Bazán succeeds Monica Lozano, Publisher and CEO of La Opinión, the nation’s largest Spanish-language daily.

  

As president of the Triangle Community Foundation, a charitable foundation in Durham, North Carolina, Ms Bazán  is responsible for leading the 25-year-old organization which has made grants of nearly $120 million to a wide rage of community nonprofits with a special emphasis on civic engagement and youth.

  

Ms. Bazán has served on the NCLR Board of Directors since 2002, most recently as Vice Chair. Before working with the foundation, Ms. Bazán co-founded and served as the first Executive Director of El Pueblo, a North Carolina statewide advocacy and public policy organization and an NCLR Affiliate, based in Raleigh.  She holds a master’s degree in social work and a master’s in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. One of a hand full of Latina heads of philanthropic foundations in the county, she has had a career in academia and state government and serves on a variety of boards including BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina and several others.

  

“As a former Executive Director of an NCLR Affiliate, Andrea brings community-grown leadership and the valuable insight and perspective of our most important constituency to her work on the Board. I am especially excited that NCLR will benefit from Andrea’s guidance and direction in this important time in our organization’s development and our community’s history,” said Janet Murguía, NCLR President and CEO.

  

“Being elected to serve as NCLR’s Board Chair is truly a proud moment for me, both personally and professionally,” said Andrea Bazán, NCLR Board of Directors Chair.  “NCLR is an historic and influential national organization. I am both humbled and honored to work with Janet and the Board as we move forward during the next three years.”

  

NCLR’s Board is a 26-member body made up of elected officials and representatives of community-based organizations, the corporate sector, and academia. Board members reflect the diversity of Hispanic nationality groups and geographic distribution of the Hispanic population and, by mandate, the Board must include equal representation of men and women.

  

NCLR also named four new members at the June 2008 Board of Directors meeting in San Diego: César Álvarez, Chief Executive Officer, Greenberg Traurig, Miami, FL; Linda Mazón-Gutiérrez, President, Hispanic Women's Corporation, Phoenix, AZ; Dr. Clara Rodríguez, Professor at Fordham University, New York, NY; and Cid Wilson, Director of Equity Research, Kevin Dann & Partners, Leonia, NJ.