OFFICERS

    PRESIDENT

Lad Santiago, Commissioner,
Human Relations Commission of the City of Spartanburg.

Lad Santiago is of Puerto Rican descent, born and raised in New York City. He received his B.A. degree in Molecular Biology from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. He completed his premedical education at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. After moving to South Carolina in 1976, he received his doctorate as a healthcare provider, but continued his postgraduate education in Preventive Medicine at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. During his years of practice, he served a disenfranchised community in a large southern metropolitan city for a substantial number of years.

As a result of his love for the arts and humanities, in recent years he has undergone further education in the arts. He received an M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing, and another M.F.A. degree in Digital Cinema. Presently, he is a candidate for the Ph.D. from the University of Wales in the United Kingdom.

In years past, he has served as a health manpower consultant to the Office of Health Manpower Opportunity at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He was also a key organizer of the first National Latino Health Manpower Conference held in Chicago, Illinois; a national conference sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. He served as an executive director of a national health manpower advocacy organization for Latinos. He has also served as an executive director for a statewide association for healthcare professionals. Currently, he is a member of the Community Advisory Council of the Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg. Within this organization, he has and continues to work for the inclusion and participation of minority communities in artistic programs and functions. These include theater, dance, visual arts, music, and other artistic disciplines. He is also a member of the Southeastern Writers Association, the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, Pen American Center, National Association of Latino Independent Producers, and the Upstate Film Society.

Lad Santiago has been honored as an Outstanding Young Man of America, and has been included in Oxford’s Who’s Who in America. At the present time, he is serving a three-year term as a Commissioner in the Human Relations Commission of the City of Spartanburg. Through the Commission, he is working to resolve social, economic, health, and educational concerns in the Spartanburg community.

For matters dealing with the SC Hispanic Leadership Council, he can be reached via e-mail as President, SCHLC.by clicking here

  VICEPRESIDENT
Luz Rodriguez-Arpan
President
Hispanic Connections

One of the greatest joys in Luz Rodriguez Arpan’s life is teaching others about her Hispanic culture so they will have a better appreciation for what it brings to South Carolina and Columbia. Arpan is the owner and President of Hispanic Connections, Inc., an organization dedicated to connecting businesses and organizations with the Hispanic community.

Throughout her career, Luz has always been a “connector” between the English and Spanish speaking worlds. A native of Puerto Rico, she graduated from Inter-American University and taught English as a second language at the Antilles Military Academy. She moved to Washington, DC, where she served as an assistant to the Chairman of the US White House Cabinet Committee on Opportunities for Spanish Speaking People, an editorial assistant for the Migrant Legal Action Program, and an assistant in the Governor of Puerto Rico’s office.

Arpan serves on the Board of Directors for the South Carolina Hispanic Leadership Council, which she is a founding member, the Greater Columbia Community Relations Council, the Advisory Committee for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research’s project on the Status of Women in South Carolina, the Red Cross SC Region Blood Services, and the Board of Directors for the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce. She feels very honored to have recently been named as the Small Business Diversity Advocate of the Year and the featured Business Person of the Month.

For more information, visit http://www.hispanicconnections.com/

   SECRETARY
Ana Taboada-Drummond -  Bilingual Marketing - Agil Staff

She is a Cuban-American born in Miami, FL. She attended Florida International University in Miami, FL where she obtained her Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Marketing and has a MBA in Marketing from the American Intercontinental University. She has been a healthcare marketing professional for over sixteen years. She is currently secretary of the South Carolina Hispanic Leadership Council.

  TREASURER
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.

    Tammy Besherse
Staff Attorney - SCALJC

  Reverend Sonia Ely Ortigoza
Coordinator for Hispanic Ministry
for the South Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

She was born in Rio de Janeiro Brazil and also is an ordained elder for the Rio de Janeiro Conference of the Methodist Church of Brazil.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and a Bachelor of Theology Degree from the Faculty of Methodist University in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She also holds Master in Education from the University of Panama.

She served as missionary in Panama for 8 years where she was the Coordinator for the School of Theology and the Chaplain of the Pan-American Institute of Panama.

   Ingrid Diaz
Owner, Latino Express Multiservices, LLC

She is dedicated to help the Hispanic community through a diversity of services. Born in Dominican Republic, she finished her college education in Santo Domingo and holds a Bachelor in Arts in Business Administration.

Jose  Lozano
Rev. Jose O. Lozano, Pastor of Luz De Cristo AME Church

President/CEO
MGR Enterprises, Inc.

Manny, as he is commonly addressed, holds a doctorate degree in Management Engineering. He is very proud of his affiliation with the University of South Carolina, details of which appear on his website also. He has cultivated that relationship with USC since he arrived in Columbia, SC in 1970.

For some time, Manny has been an active advocate of issues that concern the Hispanic community. In addition to being one of the original founding members and director of the SCHLC, he is also an advisor to the board of Hispanic Connections, Inc. He also served as chairman of the Columbia World Affairs Council. Manny is frequently asked to lecture on Hispanic issues.

Under that same MGR banner, there is a photography training division. Information about these by-lingual tutorial courses can be found in www.MasteringPhotography.com.

 
  Ken Carey
Owner
Agil Staff, Inc.

served three years in the United States Marine Corps.

Agil Staff connects employers to bilingual professionals and the Hispanic workforce. Ken and his peers at Agil Staff are committed to serving the Hispanic community and the all encompassing community by connecting employers with qualified job seekers. Ken specializes in staffing call centers, construction, retail, light industrial and select sales positions. It’s important to Ken that Agil Staff, Inc. only works with employers who are seeking career oriented job seekers. More details about current openings and areas of specialty can be found at www.agilstaff.com

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.

  Ivan Segura - Immediate Past President of the SCHLC

COMMITTEES

Programs, Education, Fund Raising, Legislative, Website, Special Events