Empowerment

Gisela Girard, President and Chief Operating Officer of San Antonio-based advertising agency Creative Civilization and Chair of the National Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA), has been named one of the 101 Most Influential Leaders in Hispanic U.S.A. by Latino Leaders Magazine.

I am writing to share with you the inspiring story of Ana Maria Montero, Group Account Director at Accentmarketing and the agency’s unofficial Director of Good Deeds.

Evelyn Soto (Media Buyer) and Francisco Garabito (Sr. Copywriter) are the driving force behind Casanova Pendrill’s efforts to collect and deliver donations for various charitable institutions in Orange County, California.

Rafael Monteiro, President of HOLA Networks and his daughter Virginia share a special holiday tradition. For the past several years, they have brought holiday cheer to hundreds of troubled children in Miami by appearing as Santa and Elf and visiting local children’s centers to distribute donated toys and candy.

Upon the news that his dad, back home in Caracas, was terminally ill with cancer and had no more than a month to live, Alejandro Sánchez, a media strategist at The San Jose Group, booked a flight and told his boss that he’d be flying out the next day. Sánchez’ teammates were understanding and helped plan to cover his workload. By the end of the day, Maria Flores, an SJG administrative assistant, picked up a sympathy card and had it signed by almost all of the employees at the agency, and collected cash from them to help him out with travel expenses.

I wanted to respond to your call for submissions of stories about Hispanic Advertising industry employees that go above and beyond the call of duty in their communities. Somewhat nepotistic, I want to nominate my brother, Kelly Kirschner, acting VP of Papel Multimedia Network.

Its common knowledge around Lopez Negrete Communications that account supervisor Milagros Cerda, affectionately known as Millie, is a self-admitted “goal-oriented, fierce go-getter.”