Polly Baca
Polly Baca served in both the Colorado House of Representatives (1975-1978) and the Colorado Senate (1979-1986). She was the first woman elected to chair the Democratic Caucus of the Colorado House (1977), the first minority woman and first Hispanic woman elected to the Colorado State Senate (1978-1986), the first Hispanic woman in the nation to serve in both the House and Senate of her state legislature (1975-86), the first Hispanic woman to be nominated by a major political party for the United States Congress (1980 Democratic Party Congressional nominee), the first Hispanic woman to co-chair a National Democratic Convention (1980 and 1984), and the first Hispanic woman to serve in leadership in a State Senate in the U.S. (Chair, Colorado Senate Democratic Caucus, 1985-1986), Ms. Baca has worked for three Presidents of the United States. In April 2012, the Denver Post listed Ms. Baca as one of the 75 Most Influential Women of Colorado.
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Ranger Duran
Ranger Duran is a fifth generation Coloradoan born in Antonito, Colorado and grew up on a ranch with his four sisters. He graduated from Adams State College with a degree in Education in 1973 and taught school at the Guadalupe Elementary School in Antonito for 7 years. During that time, he was elected Conejos County Commissioner, the youngest elected in the state at that time, at the age of 26. He held the position for 12 years. In 1980, he left education and became an office manager for an independent insurance agency. In 1986, he broke out on his own and started his own agency with American Family Insurance. After having grown his business to 1200 policies and over a million in premiums, he was promoted to District Manager in Pueblo, Colorado. In 1997, he moved to Denver Colorado as the 1st Hispanic Sales Director in the history of the company. In 2000, he was elected to the position of Sales Vice President for the Midland Region. In 2007, he was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to make a lateral move and came back to Colorado as the Vice President of Sales for the Mountain region. During his career with American Family Insurance, he received numerous awards for leading the company in sales and production. At the beginning of this year the company made a move that would have required him to move to Madison, Wisconsin. His wife and he chose not to move but to retire in thier home state of Colorado.
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Steve Harvey
Steve Harvey is a teacher and a lawyer with a background in social sciences (ABD in Ph.D. program, professional research, a lecturer and adjunct faculty member at the Universities of Connecticut and New Mexico, respectively). He is a published author and avid blogger and essayist. Steve has recently worked as a public policy researcher and analyst and as an independent policy consultant, addressing issues of child and family welfare and mental health services. He is a former candidate for the state legislature, actively engaged in civic and political affairs, including a legal internship with Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network giving legal rights presentations to detainees in removal proceedings and doing legal research in search of remedies on their behalf. He is a world traveler, has lived in Mexico for two years, is married to a Mexican national, and is strongly committed to the development of our consciousness and our compassion in service to humanity. Steve lives in South Jeffco with his wife and daughter.
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Tony Hernandez
Tony Hernandez is the Director of the Division of Local Government in the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) and he focuses on enhancing the sustainability of communities by assisting communities to integrate the development of jobs, housing, education, transportation, environment and health. He is responsible for the management and supervision of nine grant programs which will provide nearly $176.5 million in this fiscal year. In addition, he is responsible for providing technical assistance for local governments in budgeting, financial management, land use planning, special district administration, election and water and waste water. He also assists the department in policy development and legislative liaison with the Colorado General Assembly.Prior to joining the Department of Local Affairs, Tony served as director of the Fannie Mae Corporation’s Colorado Business Center for nine and half years. Under the Clinton Administration, he was the Regional Administrator in the Rocky Mountain Region for U.S. Housing and Urban Development, (HUD).Tony served five terms as a State Representative for Denver County from 1984-1994 and was recognized with the Legislator of Year 1989 award from the Economic Development Councils of Colorado. He was an IBM Business Planner and Marketing Representative and Senior Analyst with the Colorado Legislative Council. Tony is married to Virginia Sanchez, a writer, and they have a son, Eric Hernandez, an 18 year-old who has just begun his adventure as a freshman at Elon University in North Carolina.
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Kontar Tonee Mwamba
Kontar Tonee Mwamba, ChFC, is the current chair and founding board member of CLLARO. He joined the organization, originally known as Latin American Research and Service Agency (LARASA) in 2007 and helped facilitate the merger between LARASA and the Colorado Latino Forum, creating CLLARO. He is Vice-President of the Denver financial planning firm Pinnacor Financial Group. A University of Colorado Alumnus, Kontar is originally from Hyde Park, Chicago, but has made Colorado his home for the last 22 years. He volunteers with various non-profits in Denver and Aurora, and is a member of the City of Aurora Business Advisory Board where he councils representatives and city staff on the needs of small businesses.
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Ray Rodriguez
Ray Rodriguez is a Fort Morgan high school graduate and CO native and is pursuing a Bachelors in Business at FRCC and although he has been a resident of Longmont, CO, since 2001, he grew up in the small northeastern Colorado town of Fort Morgan. His father was a migrant worker from Jalisco, Mexico and his mother from Mountainaire, New Mexico. As a highly motivated social justice advocate, he has found his passions working for the advancement of equal rights for the LGBT and Latino Communities. He was elected to the State Board of the Colorado Latino Forum in 2009 and is a current second year member of the State Board of the Colorado Latino Leadership And Research Organization. He is also a member of Out Boulder's SpeakOUT program which advocates understanding of how bullying in schools can affect the LGBT youth. He is an active member of the Longmont Area Democrats, One Colorado, El Comite de Longmont and Longmont Youth For Equality. He is a 2010 graduate of the Colorado Progressive Leadership Academy and 2010 - 2012 classes of CLLARO's Civic Training Program. In his spare time you can find Ray supporting and attending events of his nieces and nephews or any of his 6 siblings including brothers professional rapper Angelo “Geelo” Garcia, DJ Jimmy “Justus” Garcia or with any of the others of what he feels is his greatest asset as a Latino…his familia.
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Tom Romero
Professor Tom Romero teaches and researches in the areas of the legal history of the American West, Latinos and the law, school desegregation in multiracial contexts, property, land use, water law, and urban development and local government in the United States and Latin America. His work on such topics have appeared in the Colorado Law Review, the Utah Law Review, the New Mexico Law Review, Michigan State Law Review, the Albany Law Review, the Michigan State Law Review, the Journal of Gender, Race, and Justice, the Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review, the Seattle Journal for Social Justice, the Oregon Review of International Law, and the Chicano-Latino Law Review, among others. Dr. Romero is graduate of the University of Michigan where he received his J.D. and Ph.D. in history. Prior to joining the faculty of the University of Denver Sturm College of Law in 2010, Dr. Romero was a Professor of Law and History at Hamline University School of Law. From 2000-2003, he also served as the Western Legal Studies Fellow at the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Center of the American West, Law School and Department of History. There, he completed a statewide survey of resources related to the legal history of Colorado and wrote a regular “historical perspectives” column for the state bar journal, The Colorado Lawyer. At the University of Michigan, Dr. Romero acted as a contributing editor of the Michigan Journal of Race and Law, worked with the legal counsel of the student interveners in Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 US 244 (2003), and spent time in Lima, Peru as a consultant on 19th century American property law for Hernando De Soto in his book: The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else. Currently, Dr. Romero is revising a book manuscript on multiracial formation and the law in post-World War II Denver, Colorado. He also is the author of a forthcoming chapter on State Responses to Immigration analyzing the history of state-level immigration enforcement against Mexicans in the United States.
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Eugene R. Lucero
Eugene R. Lucero is the CEO and principal of the Lucero Financial Group that includes Lucero Real Estate and Colorado Tierra Mortgage in Denver, CO. Gene is a founding board member of the Colorado Latino Forum and is a current Co-Chairperson along with former senator Polly Baca. His Chicano/Latino and community activism began as an elementary student at Annunciation Grade School in Northeast Denver and has continued through his college experience at University of Colorado and throughout his professional career. He is the founding chairperson of the Colorado Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals and a founding member of the University of Colorado Hispanic Alumni Association now known as the CU Boulder Latino Alumni Association. In 2007, Gene was appointed by Governor Ritter to the State Housing Board for the State of Colorado and re-appointed by Governor Hickenlooper in 2011. He served as Secretary of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals Board of Directors (NAHREP) in 2004. Additionally, at the national level, Gene served on the National Housing Impact Advisory Committee for FANNIE MAE and the Taxation, Housing Needs, Equal Opportunity and Diversity, and the Federal Housing Policy Committees of the National Association of REALTORSÒ. The Denver Board of REALTORS® honored him as the 2004 REALTOR of the Year while having received recognition as a Broker of the Month by Broker/Associate magazine in August 2007. He is a former President of the Denver Board of REALTORSâ, a Past Division Vice President for Member Policy of the Colorado Association of REALTORSâ, and the Founding Chairperson of the Colorado Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, (CAHREP) a NAHREP affiliate. He served on the Colorado Blue Ribbon Panel on Housing and is the former Federal Political Coordinator to Senator Ken Salazar for NAR and CAR. He has served on the boards of Colorado Affordable Housing Partnership, the City of Denver Mayor’s Office of Workforce Development, and Metro Brokers, Inc. Gene was recognized as the 2003 Hispanic Businessman of the Year by the Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and as a finalist for the 2003 HOPE Award for Leadership. He is recognized as a leader for equal opportunity, diversity, and affordable housing. Lucero is a Denver native, married to Teresa, (CU-BS Business Admin 78) his college sweetheart, with whom he has built The Lucero Financial Group. He is father of Sonrisa Lucero, also a Colorado Latino Forum Board member.
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