Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce - The SHCC strives to maximize the success of our members’ businesses through networking, advocacy and education in the Sacramento and the Northern California region's business community.

Panel Discussion:
Latina Women Breaking Barriers in Male Dominant Industries

Moderator:

A former UC Davis mile-relay runner and 400 meter hurdler, Mrs. Andrade Casanova has decided to build a practice by helping women become “physically” sound. She does this by recommending women exercise their option to learn about finances. Norma strongly believes women are instrumental in helping families achieve their ideal lifestyles. Through her personally developed “Triangles of Life” presentation, Norma has made learning about “physical” responsibility meaningful and enjoyable. Her commitment as a financial advisor has not gone unnoticed. She was recently recognized amongst the 2010 Five Star Wealth Managers by Sacramento Magazine. Mrs. Andrade Casanova’s mission is to continue to encourage women to embrace the financial lead provided by their predecessor(s) and strive to conserve or enhance the lead further for the generation that follows.

Born and raised in Sacramento, Dr. Heredia has been a professor in the Bilingual Multicultural Education Department (BMED) at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) since 1995. Currently, she is the Department Chair and the Director of the Cross-Cultural Resource Center. Dr. Heredia’s life of advocacy and service on the part of ethnic and language minority communities include: the board of trustees for the Natomas Unified School District, where she is Board Vice-President; the California School Board Association (CSBA) Director-At-Large, Hispanic, where she was re-elected for an unprecedented third term, and is the only Latina to serve; the Hispanic Research Special Interest Group for the American Educational Research Association; the California Latino School Board Association; the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO). Dr. Heredia earned a doctorate in socio-cultural studies in education from UCD and a master of arts in education, a bachelor of arts in liberal studies, and a teaching credential with an emphasis in bilingual education from CSUS.

Maria is a native of Mexico City and grew up on the Sacramento valley. Maria graduated from C.K. McClatchy High School in Sacramento and received her AA in Business Management from Cosumnes River College. She began her career with State Farm Insurance in 1989 as a Data Tech Operator in the Sacramento Claims Department. Over the past 20 years she has had numerous operations positions within the Claims Department, Operations, Public Affairs Department and Agency. Maria was appointed as a State Farm Agent in Woodland CA on October 1, 2001. Maria volunteers at Douglas Middle School and Pioneer High School in Woodland CA once a month as part of her commitment to her community. Maria’s passion is in helping build stronger communities and families by being a mentor and being a positive role model for young people and being an advocate in her community. She has a long and active history in community involvement and expects to continue this labor of love. Maria has been married for 20 years to Jason Kwong and they have two children, Andrew 18 and Anthony 14.

Melinda Guzman is a partner of the law firm of Goldsberry Freeman Guzman & Ditora, LLP. Ms. Guzman is a former partner of Diepenbrock, Wulff, Plant & Hannegan, LLP, where she became the first Latina to be named partner in a majority owned firm in Sacramento and in most of Northern California. Ms. Guzman was appointed by Governor Gray Davis to serve as a member of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges and served until November 2003. She has also served as the General Counsel of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Chairwoman of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce and a Past President of the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Guzman serves on the Board of Directors of Pac-West Telecomm, Inc., as Chair of the Nehemiah Corporation of America and as a member of the Board of Trustees for the U.C. Davis Foundation. She has received several awards including “The 100 Influentials” by Hispanic Business Magazine, the National Association of Women Business Owners Luminary Award and Business Woman of the Year by the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Ms. Guzman was born and raised in Fairfield and is a first generation graduate of the University of California at Davis.

Jeannette Herrera Larson is an engineering project manager at Hewlett-Packard. She manages 18 engineers who contribute to the firmware development of HP’s Superdome enterprise servers. Jeannette recently established collaborations with engineering groups in India and Brazil. She leads lab-wide initiatives to connect engineers with enterprise customers. She also sponsors a lab-wide reward and recognition program for employees. Prior roles at HP include program management and hardware design engineering. She has a BS in Electrical Engineering from UC Davis and is currently pursuing a MBA at UC Davis.