Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez

For decades a voice for the voiceless, in her current position as NYC’s Commissioner for the Aging, Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez works to create equity and increase diversity around the older adult centers across NYC, advancing the mission to eliminate ageism, ensure the dignity of quality of life of older adults and support caregivers. Previously, Lorraine was SVP of Corporate Relations and Government Affairs at EmblemHealth.

Her steadfast leadership at AARP made engaging multicultural communities a strategic priority and embarked AARP on a 5-year campaign that included advertising, community outreach and a refreshed value proposition to meet the needs of Multicultural communities, at a time where most national brands were not investing in the 50-plus Multicultural audiences. Before joining AARP, Lorraine was New York State’s 65th Secretary of State, the first Hispanic appointee to serve in that role.

In the view of Cortés-Vázquez, for any social impact mission to be successful, it needs to work hand in hand with the instruments of public communications. She served as VP of Government and Public Affairs at Cablevision, and from 1998 to 2004, Lorraine served as President of the highly effective Hispanic Federation, the powerful non-profit network of Latino health and human service agencies with a footprint throughout the East Coast. She has unequaled experience creating community partnerships to leverage civic participation and increasing the visibility of educational initiatives. In the early 1990s, she served as Executive Director of ASPIRA of New York, the nation’s oldest and largest non-profit Latino youth leadership development and education advocacy agency.

As a modelic community leader of fearless commitment, Lorraine took upon herself – with the support of an accomplished team – the mission of rebuilding the largest celebration of Latino culture in America: The National Puerto Rican Day Parade. She joined the Parade’s reconstituted Board of Directors in February 2014 and served as Chair from through 2017. Under her leadership, the Board ushered in a new era for the Parade, with a renewed commitment to culture, education and celebration of Boricua art. Additionally, the Board expanded its successful scholarship program 20-fold and now works with Parade sponsors to make their presentations more about corporate responsibility and less about corporate merchandising. Recently, the Parade turned into a two-time Emmy Award-winning event for the entertaining cultural content created for its television broadcast.

A truly inspiring leader with unyielding commitment to driving positive impact for all, we are delighted to include Lorraine in our tribute to powerful Latina’s this Women’s History Month.