Company: Comunicad, Arlington, Virginia
Company Description: Comunicad is a multicultural marketing communications company headquartered in the Washington, DC area, with a presence in Miami, New York, Los Angeles, Austin, Detroit, San Juan, Mexico, Argentina, and Spain. We apply a 360° strategic approach that magnifies client results by uniting public relations, advertising, segment research, and brand presence.
Nomination Category: Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Lifetime Achievement Award

Nomination Title: Gloria Rodríguez, Founder/President and CEO, Comunicad

1. Describe for the judges the nominated individual's lifetime of accomplishments (up to 500 words):

After college, Ms. Rodríguez was an independent producer for Sal y Pimienta,
Puerto Rico’s first-ever children’s newscast on public television. Behind the
scenes, she taught the kids broadcast and reporting basics. She then helped
produce a CBS documentary with Maureen Bunyan on the reverse-migration of Puerto
Ricans, which won a local Emmy. She was invited to the Washington, DC ceremony,
which led to a production job offer with the Metromedia News team, now Fox
Television, Channel 5. As the only Hispanic producer in a major U.S. news
market, she had an impact on issues affecting the community locally, globally
and nationally.

Her unique position inspired her to become an entrepreneur in multicultural
communications. She left Metromedia News to serve as Vice President of the
National Puerto Rican Forum, the oldest Puerto Rican social service organization
in the U.S., for a year while they sought out an official leader. During this
time, she laid the groundwork for MAPA Communications, a company she founded in
1985 and now functions under the umbrella company Comunicad.

In her role as President and CEO, Ms. Rodríguez has direct responsibility for
the external and internal management of the company, which includes providing
overall strategic guidance and development, financial oversight, new business
development, client relations management, staff development in accordance with
company ethics, and staff leadership development and mentorship. She also is the
company’s official spokesperson on issues relating to the industries Comunicad
represents with clients. Under her leadership, Comunicad has met and surpassed
ROI goals for clients including Ford Motor Company, Verizon, Pepsico, AARP,
Freddie Mac, and Coors.

Throughout the 90s until 2003, Ms. Rodríguez worked with the Urban Mujeres de
Argentina, an organization that helps Argentine women achieve higher political
positions through political and infrastructure development. In 1995, Ms.
Rodríguez was appointed Founding Fellow of the Gallup International Institute at
Princeton University, a position she held until 2001. In 1998, the Gallup
Organization performed a 360 evaluation on her leadership style, which won her
Gallup’s highest Leadership Award, “Visionary Leader for the 21st Century.” Four
years later, she was named to the Faculty of the University of Nebraska/Gallup
University’s School of Executive Leadership. In 2005, she began her tenure as a
member of Harvard University’s prestigious John F. Kennedy School of Government
Women’s Leadership Board.

Ms. Rodríguez has also helped establish various Corporate Advisory Boards of
non-profit organizations, many of which she sits on. She is a founding Board
Member, past Chair, past Vice-Chair, and current Director of the National Latino
Children’s Institute, a non-profit that focuses national attention on Latino
children and empowers communities for the full and healthy development of young
Latinos in a culturally relevant environment. She also serves on the Centro Fox
Advisory Board to help establish the first Presidential Library in Latin
America, and as a corporate advisor for the National Hispana Leadership
Institute (NHLI), a non-profit she co-founded that is dedicated to the
development of ethical Hispanic leaders through training, professional
development, relationship building, and community and world activism.

2. List the URLs (web addresses) of any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that you would like the judges to see that support your entry. IMPORTANT: List each URL on a separate line, begin each URL with http://, and enclose each URL in square brackets. For example, [http://www.yourcompany.com/pressrelease.html]:

http://media.prsa.org/article_display.cfm?article_id=1134
http://www.iabcdc.org/news/
http://www.hispanicprwire.com/news.php?l=in&id=10517&cha=13
http://www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/2005/12/16/prsa_national_capital_chapter_selects_diversity.htm
http://www.hermana.org/organization/lasprim.htm
http://www.nhli.org/mujer_workshops.htm
http://www.prweekus.com/Plans-for-national-Latino-museum-get-underway/article/111072/

3. Provide a brief biography of the nominated individual (up to 100 words):

Gloria Rodríguez is Founder and President/CEO of Comunicad, a multicultural
marketing communications firm. For 23 years, she has developed and executed
philanthropic and corporate communications campaigns and programs for the U.S.
private, non-profit and federal sector as well as for governments in the Americas.

Gloria has received numerous awards, which includes Public Relations Society of
America’s 2007 D. Parke Gibson Multicultural Award and International Association
of Business Communicator’s DC Chapter 2008 Pinnacle Award. She is currently
developing a leadership scholarship through the Gallup University to provide
deserving Latinas with top-level leadership instruction.