Public Affairs’ Medina named a 2017 National Top Latino Leader

David Medina ’83, director of multicultural community relations in the Office of Public Affairs, has been named one of the 2017 National Top Latino Leaders by the Council for Latino Workplace Equity, an initiative of the National Diversity Council.

David Medina

He will be honored at the third annual National Latino Leadership Conference Sept. 21 in San Antonio, along with 16 other leaders, including engineer and former NASA astronaut José Hernández, Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and U.S. Rep. Joaquín Castro, D-Texas.

“This country has benefited from the loyalty, talent and hard work of Latinos from many backgrounds,” said Dennis Kennedy, founder and chairman of the National Diversity Council. “It is in the spirit of highlighting their accomplishments that we have established the National Latino Leadership conference.” The council is the first nonprofit organization that brought together the private, public and nonprofit sectors to discuss the many dimensions and benefits of a multicultural environment.

Medina has served since 1991 as director of multicultural community relations – a role in which he enhances relationships between the ethnic communities of Houston and Rice University. He has served on the Houston Mayor’s Hispanic Advisory Board for the past six years and was a fellow of the 2010-11 class of the American Leadership Forum’s Houston/Gulf Coast chapter. In 2012 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Houston Association of Hispanic Media Professionals. A former reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek, Medina has a B.A. in Spanish from Drake University, an M.A. in Spanish from Rice and a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. He is the father of two children who are also Rice alumni.

The Council for Latino Workplace Equity highlights pertinent issues concerning Latinos in the workplace to advance equal opportunities and incite change within organizations. More information about the council is available at www.clwe.org.