Rochelle Newman-Carrasco

A Latina by “cultural adoption,” Rochelle Newman-Carrasco, who hails from the Jewish community, credits her New York City roots and growing up in its vibrant Lower East Side for inspiring her eclectic and dexterous career in multicultural advertising and storytelling – a career fluidly marked by cross-culturalism. She started working in Hispanic advertising in the mid-80s, beginning at Font & Vaamonde (FoVa) on the P&G business. In 1992, she became CEO of Enlace Communications, serving in that role for sixteen years. In 2009, she joined Walton Isaacson as Chief Hispanic Marketing Strategy and is now the agency’s EVP Cross-Cultural Storyteller.

Rochelle’s keen interest in culture, as well as the endless potential of diversity, drove her to become a true expert in Latino culture, and, in return, she has been embraced by her peers and the Latino community as a whole. Her cross-cultural journey is representative of a member of U.S.-born Hispanic Marketing practitioners – men and women – who have enjoyed the same reverse path, from a one-culture-centric world to a Hispanic-influenced, multicultural milieu.

Given her extensive contributions to Hispanic marketing and its evolution, Rochelle has been tapped by major news outlets and publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Newsweek, Advertising Age, and others. Unbeknownst to many, Rochelle’s multi-faceted talents and her beautiful creative spirit have allowed her to write and produce award-winning works for the stage and screen, including – undoubtedly a consequence of her boundless sense of humor – writing and performing stand-up comedy and a one-woman show, Hip Bones and Cool Whip. She has been published in literary journals, including Nailed and LunchTicket, and she wrote a bilingual children’s book, Zig-Zag, co-authored with Alonso Núñez.

Having married a black Panamanian actor, Carlos Carrasco, director of Panamanian International Film Festival in Los Angeles, Rochelle frequently travels to and writes about Panama and what she calls “its unique mash-up of people and cultures.” The latter a fitting statement and an affirmation of her wide view of life.