Joseph M. Guzman
Director of Planning, Policy, and Liaison
Biometrics Management Office, U.S. Department of Defense
Dr. Joseph M. Guzman assumed the position as director of the Biometrics Management Office (BMO) for the Department of Defense after joining the office in January 2005, on loan through the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) program, to lead efforts in biometric policy implementation and planning. He comes to the BMO from the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) Corporation, a federally funded research and development center serving the Department of the Navy and other defense agencies, where he was a senior economist working on educational assessment, program development and biometrics policy. In addition to a Ph.D. in Economic Analysis and Policy from Stanford University, Dr. Guzman holds advanced degrees in economics, statistics, and business research from Stanford. Dr. Guzman also holds an MBA and an undergraduate degree in engineering from the University of Arizona. Additionally, Dr. Guzman is a co-founder of the American Society of Hispanic Economists.
Lourdes M. Hassler
CEO
National Society of Hispanic MBAs
In January of this year, Lourdes M. Hassler assumed the role of CEO for the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA), a non-profit organization created in 1988 that now has 29 chapters and more than 7,000 members in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. As CEO, Ms. Hassler directs the overall current affairs of the organization, including the strategic direction, finance, human resources, and general operations. She will lead the growth initiatives and develop national partnerships to effectively position NSHMBA into the next century. Before joining NSHMBA, Ms. Hassler was director of Latin America sales and marketing for American Airlines, a career that spanned more than 20 successful years in strategic operations, international marketing, and operational finance. She holds a Marketing Degree from California State University at Northridge, and graduated this May from the Executive MBA program at Texas Christian University.
Oscar Hijuelos
Author
Oscar Hijuelos became the first Hispanic to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction with The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1989), the story of Cuban musicians in New York in the early 1950s – when Latin music first swept the United States. A second-generation Cuban American, Mr. Hijuelos grew up in New York and earned a master's in creative writing from City College. In 1983, he published the novel Our House in the Last World, the first of his rich explorations of memory and family life. His fifth novel, Empress of the Splendid Season, was published in 1999. Three years later, in A Simple Habana Melody, Hijuelos returned to "when the world was good," in 1920s Havana with a love story told by a Cuban composer whose infatuation inspires him to write the most famous song of his career.
Miguel Marquez
Correspondent
ABC News
From Iraqi battlegrounds to storm-torn Keys, Miguel Marquez has seen a lot of things since joining ABC News as a correspondent in May 2005. Though based in Los Angeles, Mr. Marquez spent a month in Iraq covering one of the biggest months for U.S. casualties since the war began, and also reported on Iraq's constitutional process. He also braved Hurricane Dennis to report from storm-prone Key West, Florida. Prior to ABC, Mr. Marquez had served as a Los Angeles-based correspondent for CNN since 2003. On assignment he covered the California wildfires and mudslides, the gubernatorial election, and the Michael Jackson trials. Previous to his reporting career, he also spent several years in Washington, D.C., as a legislative aide to then-United States Representative Bill Richardson and as a researcher for the Congressional Research Service. Mr. Marquez earned an associate's degree from the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico, a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of New Mexico, and a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University.
