OFFICERS
  

 

PRESIDENT

  
Gregory Torrales, owner of Torrales Interpretation & Transportation

He is of Puerto Rican descent and calls Columbia, SC, home for the last 8 months. Mr Torrales is new to the area but not new to the issues that affect Hispanics. Greg has served on various Board of Directors for the past 11 years, dealing with health, education and employment issues, relating to Hispanics. He graduated from Northampton College with a degree in Counseling and his passion is to help Hispanics reach their potential.

Treasurer, Immediate Past President

Ivan Segura

Ivan Segura is a Workforce Development Consultant for the Connecting People to Jobs/WIA Program, a workforce development initiative that aims to move low-income Hispanic/Latino Midlands residents out of poverty and into living wage jobs by connecting them with job training, education, and support services. Mr. Segura works for two renowned not profit organizations in the midlands area: Family Service Center and Acercamiento Hispano/Hispanic Outreach. Ivan was born in Mexico and has a solid background in business administration and financial planning. He also works for the ContraSIDA Program, a project that delivers culturally and linguistically appropriate HIV/AIDS prevention, information, counseling and testing to achieve its goal of promoting education and early detection among the Hispanic community.

Ivan Segura, was born in Mexico.  Within this organization, he is the Coordinator for the REACH Youth Project (Role Models Encouraging Academics and Challenging Hispanics) and Coordinator for the Expresiones Project, a collaborative effort among community-based organizations, media, and cultural venues to promote artistic creation in the Latino community in SC.

A firm believer in collaboration, Mr. Segura has established several alliances and partnerships with different organizations across the Midlands that allow the programs he is working on to deliver direct services to a greater number of Hispanics.

DIRECTORS

 
  Tom Turnipseed

Founder, Turnipseed & Associates.

Turnipseed & Associates works for the rights of injured workers and serves them although they might not be US citizens or have a visa. Tom is an advocate for consumer, environmental and civil rights, the civil justice system and has created several committees to examine the practice of racial profiling in South Carolina.

Tom received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He is a former President of The South Carolina Trial Lawyer's Association and former SC State Senator. Tom is a board member of the Carolina Peace Resource Center and is active in efforts to make peace in the Middle East and to end the war in Iraq.

Tom is former Chairman of the Board of the Center for Democratic Renewal (CDR), a civil rights organization based in Atlanta. CDR, in partnership with the National Council of Churches and the Center for Constitutional Rights, was instrumental in bringing national attention to racially motivated church burnings and was co-counsel for the Macedonia Baptist Church in Clarendon County, S.C. in their case against the Ku Klux Klan for burning their church in 1997. The African-American congregation won a $37,000,000 jury verdict against the Klan in 1998. In 1998, Tom received the Holmes-Weatherly Award, the Unitarian-Universalist Association's highest honor for the pursuit of social justice.

Tom's political and social activism has been reflected in his local radio and television shows. His shows featured community leaders, public affairs, sports, and arts and entertainment, providing a forum for discussing diverse issues. Tom has spoken and written on political and human rights and has been published in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlanta Constitution, The Charlotte Observer, along with many other newspapers.