National Hispanic Leader Chavez to Discuss Women in Leadership at Aurora University Feb. 8

AURORA, Ill.-"Leaders and Women in Leadership" will be discussed by Linda Chavez, a national Hispanic leader, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 8, at Aurora University.

Chavez is chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a Sterling, Va.-based non-profit public policy research organization. She will speak on leadership in business, the public sector and current affairs in Perry Theatre at the Aurora Foundation Center for Community Enrichment at 1305 Kenilworth Place in Aurora.

The public is invited. Admission is free. Co-sponsors are AU and the Aurora Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Robert Enriquez, president of the Aurora Hispanic Chamber of Commerce said,"Linda Chavez is a Hispanic leader on a national scale.  We are very proud to help host her visit to Aurora University, and I am certain many of our members will appreciate her words to its students."

Chavez serves on the board of directors of ABM Industries, Inc., Pilgrim's Pride, and IDT Capital, a subsidiary of IDT Corporation, as well as on boards of several non-profit organizations. She is also active in the Republican Party and chairs the Latino Alliance, a federally registered political action committee.

Chavez also writes a weekly syndicated column that appears in newspapers across the country and is a political analyst for FOX News Channel. She authored Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation (Basic Books 1991), which the Denver Post described as a book that "should explode the stereotypes about Hispanics that have clouded the minds of patronizing liberals and xenophobic conservatives alike."

National Review described Chavez's memoir, An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal (Basic Books 2002), as a "brilliant, provocative, and moving book."

In 2000, Chavez was honored by the Library of Congress as a "Living Legend" for her contributions to America's cultural and historical legacy. In January 2001, she was President George W. Bush's nominee for Secretary of Labor until she withdrew her name from consideration.

Chavez has held a number of appointed positions, among them chairman, National Commission on Migrant Education (1988-1992); White House Director of Public Liaison (1985); staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1983-1985); and she was a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States (1984-1986).

Chavez was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Maryland in 1986. In 1992, she was elected by the United Nations' Human Rights Commission to serve a four-year term as U.S. Expert to the U.N. Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.

Chavez was also editor of the prize-winning quarterly journal American Educator (1977-1983), published by the American Federation of Teachers, where she also served as assistant to AFT president Al Shanker (1982-1983) and assistant director of legislation (1975-1977).

A native of Albuquerque, N.M., Chavez received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Colorado in 1970. She is married and is the mother of three sons. Her son Rudy serves as director of operations at the Center for Equal Opportunity. Chavez currently lives in Purcellville, Va.

For more information, call Aurora University at 630-844-5527.

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