DIALOGUE’S QUARTER CENTURY CELEBRATION

 Technology   Sat, September 26, 2015 10:37 AM

Washington, DC - Dialogue on Diversity, marking is 25th Anniversary as a policy and educational organization on the Washington and National scenes, presented its yearly Entrepreneurship/Information Technology Conference September 21st in a dual program culminating in an evening Anniversary celebration and presentation of the Quarter Century Awards.  Honoring figures from around the country who are luminaries in their fields and who have contributed to Dialogue on Diversity’s programming on the major areas of its policy and economic concerns.  The site for the festivities was the Microsoft Innovation & Policy Center in Washington, D.C.  Microsoft, a major sponsor and host for the day, was represented by Frank Torres, its Senior Director for Consumer Affairs, Privacy, and Internet Safety, who was the recipient of the evening‘s Entrepreneurship and Privacy Award in recognition of his career long creativity in the developing legal structures taking shape for protection of consumer privacy interests.

Among highlights of the Entrepreneurship/IT Conference was the discussion of Gregory L. Rohde, former NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Agency in DOC) head, of the developments now in gestation for a still more enhanced information-handling capacity, with technological advances enriching the “spectrum” to be available in the future for multiplied carrying capacity – for example, embedded heart monitors emitting information on certain precursors of heart attacks, so that medical personnel might be dispatched even before the patient experiences any tangible symptoms.  The IT revolution has not run its course.  Deborah Salons of the LermanSenter law firm laid out the immensely complex statutory and regulatory landscape of Federal and State privacy law. Lidia Soto-Harmon, CEO of the Washington area Girl Scout  organization, detailed the entrepreneurship training these young women now are gaining in scientifically managed cookie sales!  Supplier Diversity, choice of organizational form for new firms,  and the contemporary budget of management skills were further topics.  Cristina Mossi, heading the software development firm DEVIS, summed up the modern manager as the master of agility,  flexibility, and the faculty for redesigning plans on the fly, aided by the speed of IT applications.    

The evening’s awards were presented by Dialogue on Diversity President Ma Cristina Caballero and members of the Dialogue on Diversity Board gathered in Washington for the occasion.  Andrew Gelfuso, Vice President, and head of Trade Promotion at Washington’s International Trade Center, stands at the intersection of two of Dialogue on Diversity’s central concerns – the international trade aspects of its Entrepreneurship programs, and its Holiday Fair, the quite different enterprise presented at the ITC’s elegant Horizon Ballroom, treating scores of children from the city’s economically disadvantaged households, in early December each year.  In recognition of his essential role the Community Leadership award was bestowed on Mr. Gelfuso.   An Award for Health Care Leadership was conferred on Dr. Malcolm N. Joseph,  Medical Director of CareFirst,  the Mid-Atlantic division of the national BlueCross  BlueShield complex.   CareFirst has been a steady supporter of Dialogue programing, and Dr. Joseph, alongside his generous counsel in our planning process, has himself been on hand as a speaker and panel moderator in the annual Health Care Symposia.  The Medical Data Privacy Award went to Dr. Deborah C. Peel, the redoubtable battler for sturdy barriers to the inappropriate breaches of the veil of confidentiality that must cloak the intimate content of patients’ medical histories.  The Ana G. Mendez University System received the Higher Education Award, a recognition of this rapidly expanding educational institution in outfitting still another young generation of Puerto Rican youth, now augmented by ethnically Latino students residing in several portions of Florida and in Washington’s Maryland suburban districts, with agile bi-lingual capabilities in a variety of essential business and academic skill areas.   Another education-related Award, the Education Leadership Award, honored the broad gauge work of César Mono Pérez, Associate Director for Community Affairs and Human Rights at the American Federation of teachers.  A final Award recognized D&P Creative Strategies as Enterprise of the Year.  The astute and tireless efforts of D&P co-founders Catherine Pino and Ingrid Duran have propelled this public relations firm to an enviable position in its highly competitive industry.

About Dialogue on Diversity:  Dialogue on Diversity is a national network of women entrepreneurs and professionals of the Latino and other ethnic communities, civil society staff and executives, and others with a lively policy concern, bringing together diverse ethnic and cultural communities for interchange of experience and ideas in colloquia and symposia, educating audiences on Internet Privacy, Women’s History, Health Care Policy and Practice, Entrepreneurship, and Domestic Violence Awareness and Immigration – all aiming for  empowerment in civil, economic, and social dimensions.   Dialogue on Diversity is a §501(c)(3) organization.

 

CONTACT:
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dialog.div@prodigy.net
 
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