LISTA and ADE partnership will work to facilitate digital advocacy, digital literacy,

job creation and economic development in regards to digital empowerment initiatives

Today, Latinos in Information Science and Technology Association (LISTA), the nation’s leading organization of Latino technology professionals and the Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE), a nonprofit organization that provides broadband solutions and broadband related services to underserved and un-served communities, are excited to announce a partnership to facilitate digital empowerment initiatives.

The strategic alliance of ADE and LISTA combines the collective skills, knowledge and experience of two diverse technology-based organizations, enabling them to work together to facilitate digital advocacy, digital literacy, job creation and economic development in regards to digital empowerment initiatives. In particular, the MSI Wireless Technology Act, the Workforce Investment Act, the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA), among others.

“We are forming this partnership right now because this is a pivotal time in the race to close the digital divide. Access to affordable high-speed Internet and broadband technology is a stepping stone to the opportunities of economic prosperity,” said Julius H. Hollis, Chairman of ADE. “As we focus on turning our economy around, we must make sure that those Americans currently in un-served and underserved communities are not left behind and further marginalized in this economy.”

“Both  LISTA and ADE have worked hard individually to provide and enhance digital empowerment opportunities for communities of color, now as LISTA joins ADE’s Board of Directors we will combine our unique strengths and expand our reach,” said Jose Marquez, President and CEO of Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association. “This will strengthen our ability to make a difference. I am very excited to work with the ADE leadership team to further these important goals.”

Together, ADE and LISTA will pursue initiatives in order to increase Latino and African American employment opportunities within American based information sciences, telecommunication, and technology industries. The partners will target project opportunities that make technology applications available to communities of color for educational purposes, for job training and development, and to enable fuller participation in the learning, civic engagement and cultural opportunities afforded jointly or separately by ADE-LISTA utilizing online technologies.

“As part of the LISTA/ADE Partnership, we will conduct a series of surveys of African Americans and Latinos in the tech sector to measure which tech companies are leading the way in corporate responsibility relative to their Latino and African American inclusion in higher management within their company. While Latinos have made strides there are areas in the tech industry we still have little to no representation, boards, upper management and key decision making positions are still scarce at some of the most successful tech companies, we can’t ignore Latinos in high tech anymore, it is just bad business,” said Marquez.

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About Latinos in Information Science and Technology Association (LISTA) (www.a-lista.org)

Latinos in Information Science and Technology Association (LISTA) promotes the utilization of the technology sectors for the empowerment of the Latino community. We are an organization that is committed to bringing various elements of Technology under one central hub to facilitate our partners, members and the community with the leverage and education they need to succeed in a highly advanced technologically driven society. LISTA Mission is to educate, motivate and encourage the use of technology in the Latino community and empowering them to bridge the digital divide.

About The Alliance for Digital Equality

 The Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE), headquartered in Atlanta, GA, is a national, non-profit consumer advocacy organization that serves to facilitate and ensure equal access to technology in underserved and un-served communities. The Alliance also serves as a bridge between policymakers and minority individuals in order to help the public understand how legislative and regulatory policies regarding new technologies can impact and empower their daily lives. For more information on The Alliance for Digital Equality, please visit www.alliancefordigitalequality.org

RESULTS OF MENENDEZ’S MAJOR FORTUNE 500 DIVERSITY SURVEY: REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN AND MINORITIES ON CORPORATE BOARDS STILL LAGS FAR BEHIND NATIONAL POPULATION.

Minorities represent 14.5% of corporate boards; women 18%

One of most successful corporate diversity surveys ever — 219 of Fortune 500 responded; 71 of Fortune 100

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chairman of the Senate Democratic Task Force and the lone Hispanic Senator, today unveiled the results of his survey on women and minority representati on among the senior management of Fortune 500 companies, as well as their use of minority and women-owned businesses in the contracting and procurement process. The survey found that women and minority representation on corporate boards continues to lag far behind the national population percentages. Menendez’s survey was one of the most successful of its kind, garnering input from 219 corporations on the Fortune 500 list and 71 on the Fortune 100 list.

The study found minorities to represent a total of 14.5% of directors on corporate boards and overall have less representation on executive teams than they do on corporate boards. Hispanics are least proportionately represented on boards and fared even worse on executive teams. They comprise 3.28% of board members and and 2.90% on executive teams, about one-fifth of the 15% they represent in the U.S. population. Among minority groups, African Americans have the highest representation on boards compared to their population, but saw greatest decline in representation from boards to executive management teams, from 8.77% to 4.23%. Women on the other hand fared better on executive teams than on corporate boards, with 18.04% and 19.87% of representation respectively, but these figures still represent less than one-half of their proportion of the national population.

Senator Menendez and others also offered concrete recommendations, including the creation of a task force with select corporations, executive search firms, board members, and other experts to help companies move in this direction.

“As Chair of the Senate Democratic Hispanic Task Force, one of my top priorities has always been promoting and expanding diversity at all levels of our economic, political and social sectors, and the basic understanding that has resulted from this survey will help guide us in doing so,” said Senator Menendez. “This report clearly confirms what we had suspected all along – that American corporations need to do better when it comes to having the board rooms on Wall Street reflect the reality on Main Street. We need to change the dynamic and make it commonplace for minorities to be part of the American corporate structure. It is not just about doing what’s right, but it’s a good business decision that will benefit both corporations and the communities they’re tapping into and making investments in. That’s why I’m offering my recommendations and to work one-on-one with companies who want to move those numbers and company executives who want to make a difference in the community.”

“At the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (USHCC) as an organization that represents more than 200 local Hispanic Chambers across the United States, and speaks for 3 million small and minority-owned businesses throughout the nation, we believe that embracing diversity is not just the right thing to do, but is a smart business decision. To us, diversity is not an abstract concept – we measure success by the qualified Hispanic employees hired, developed, advanced and flourishing with their corporate employers and we applaud Senator Menendez’s leadership in holding corporate America accountable to their commitments to diversity.” Said Javier Palomarez, President & CEO of the US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

“A diverse workforce is critical to providing the best service to our global clients, supporting our business initiatives and creating a workplace environment that promotes respect and fairness,” said Jose Manuel Souto, Chief Financial Officer for Visa in Latin America.

“Our country is very rich in diversity, and our economic progress resides largely in our ability to harness that diversity. In our industry we experience first hand the enormous amount of untapped investment talent, thirsty for opportunities to prove to institutional investors its ability to compete and deliver. We commend Sen Menendez for his vision and leadership, and invite corporate America to see these efforts as an opportunity to find new competitive advantages. By exploring the utilization of fresh and capable diverse talent Corporate America wins and our country’s economic progress accelerates.” Said Monika Mantilla, President & CEO of Altura Capital, and New America Alliance Board Member.

“Ethnic diversity on public company boards is ultimately good business. When 40% or more of your customers in America are going to be minorities, companies, to be competitive, need the insights and expertise of Board members who understand how to market to those segments.  Senator Menendez is to be commended for making this issue one of public discussion and dialogue.” Said Roel Campos, former SEC Commissioner and Board member of the New America Alliance.

This survey is one of the largest studies of women and minority diversity among corporate leadership with one of the highest response rates. A total of 219 Fortune 500 companies participated, including 71 Fortune 100 companies, making this one of the largest surveys on women and minority representation in corporate leadership ever. It requested the following information from corporations: 1) whether or not they have written diversity plans with targets, 2) data on diversity at the Board and executive management level, and 3) information on supplier diversity.

Click here to view a PDF of the survey: http://menendez.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Menendez%20Diversity%20Survey2.pdf

Click here to read a PDF of the findings and recommendations report: http://menendez.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/CorporateDiversityReport2.pdf

Most important findings of the survey and recommendations based on this data:

KEY FINDINGS

Diversity on Corporate Boards

-Women represent 18.04% of Directors; 1 out of every 5 Board members is female. The proportional representation of women on Boards is less than one-half of their proportion to the overall U.S. population.

-Minorities represent 14.45% of Directors; 1 out of every 7 Board members is a minority.  Minorities represent less than half of the 35% of the population they comprise overall in this country.

-Blacks/African Americans have the highest representation at 8.77% compared to their population, reporting a Board ratio of about 69%.

-Hispanics have one of the poorest representations on Boards.  They comprise about 3.28% of Board members, one-fifth of the 15% they represent in the U.S. population.

Native Americans made up about .04% of Board members, approximately 5% of their actual population.

Diversity on Executive Teams (CEO and direct reports)

-Women represent 19.87 percent of Directors; 1 out of every 5 Board members is female. Although women fared slightly better on executive teams than on corporate Boards, they still represent less than one-half of their population.

-Minorities overall have less representation on executive teams than they do on corporate Boards, representing 10.44% of executive managers, compared to 30% of their actual proportion to the U.S. population.

-Blacks/African Americans saw the greatest decline in representation from Boards to executive management teams, 8.77% to 4.23%.  In fact, they went from about one out of every 11 Board members to one out of every 24 executive team members.  When compared to population statistics, Blacks/African Americans on executive boards represented only about one-third of their U.S. population.

-Hispanics/Latinos fare worse on executive teams versus corporate Boards at 2.90%, Asians and Native Americans do slightly better at 2.55% and .25% respectively.

Supplier Diversity

Only 98 corporations (less than half of respondents) provided some form of data on supplier diversity, whether it was by racial/ethnic category or just overall procurement with Minority Business Enterprises (MBEs).  118 corporations either chose not to answer the question or said they do not track this data at all.

Of the data collected:

· Hispanic/Latino-owned firms represent 2.69% of total procurement.

· Black/African American-owned firms represent 2.58% of total procurement.

· Asian-owned firms represent 3.21% of total procurement.

· Native American-owned firms represent 0.83% of total procurement.

· Other minority-owned firms represent 3.31% of total procurement

RECOMMENDATIONS

The following are recommendations that corporations can implement today if they are serious about improving diversity at the top:

Ø Develop Relationships with Expert Organizations Outside of Traditional Networks. Nominating committees should never use the excuse that they cannot find a qualified minority or a woman to nominate to their Board.  This was actually a common response over the course of this survey.  There are numerous organizations that may be outside of the traditional network but have extensive contacts, resources and expertise in different communities and know who the right people are.  Those organizations should be engaged to the fullest extent.

Ø Do Not Recruit Solely at the Ivy League Schools. Expanding recruitment from Ivy League schools to other top schools can be another way to get qualified diverse candidates into the corporate pipeline. Also, developing relationships with professional organizations that can help identify qualified people through their memberships.

Ø Utilize Executive Search Firms with Expertise in Diverse Communities or Require Them to Seriously Consider Diversity. The survey showed that a discussion of diversity when using executive search firms did not necessarily correlate with improved diversity. Therefore, steps should be taken beyond just a simple discussion.  All search firms should be obligated to look for and provide companies with diverse, qualified candidates rather than simply pulling from traditional pools of candidates.  For example, diverse candidates who have experience running large non-profits or government agencies should not be ruled out, especially if their issue expertise aligns with the company mission. A search firm should be able to provide detailed information on what they are doing proactively to recruit diverse candidates.  In addition, search firms that have unique expertise with diverse communities should be recruited to help identify candidates for Board and executive management positions.  Insight into diverse communities can create a lot of business for a search firm that is effective in a niche space.

Ø Interview at Least One Diverse Candidate When Filling Board or Leadership Positions. Similar to the National Football League’s self-imposed “Rooney Rule,” where at least one minority candidate is interviewed for head coaching and senior football operations opportunities, nominating committees, CEOs and Human Resources personnel should aim to interview at least one minority candidate when looking to fill leadership positions.  These interviews should be done in a serious and meaningful manner, not simply to check a box.

Ø Link Success with Diversity to Bonuses. Corporations should link diversity among each business department to the bonuses and annual performance reviews of business leaders.  The survey found that corporations that do this tend to have better diversity among their workforce and among the top leadership.  

Ø Hire Chief Diversity Officers from Diverse Communities.  It is crucial that diversity chiefs at a company come from the communities they are recruiting from and working with.  These individuals are more likely to have ties to the communities they represent and can use those relationships to recruit diverse candidates for positions at all levels.

Ø Hold More than Human Resources and Chief Diversity Officer Accountable for Diversity. Diversity should be a goal in every aspect of a company’s operations not only in the areas of procurement, Board and senior management levels, but also in a company’s treasury office where financial oversight lies.  Diversity should be considered among brokerage fees that extend to professional services like legal fees, mergers and acquisitions, pension fund management, and other services.  Many times the budget for these types of services significantly exceeds that for suppliers.  These areas should be part of a corporation’s diversity plan. While this particular survey did not ask questions related to brokerage fees and professional services, the next one will.

Ø Create External Advisory Councils to Assist with Diversity. Forming an external advisory council to focus on diversity is a good step to developing relationships within specific communities and identifying potential candidates for positions.  These Councils should not be formed only when there is a crisis.  There should be a separate council for each diverse group, i.e. women, Asians, etc, and each should report to the CEO.  These councils should be composed of outside community leaders that do work and have extensive networks with these communities.

Ø Be Clear on the Difference Between U.S. Employees and Foreign Employees When Filling Directorships and Other Leadership Positions. Although this survey did not ask corporations to differentiate between U.S. and foreign employees, future surveys will.  Foreign Nationals should be considered separately from the levels of diversity for U.S. employees.

Ø Groom Senior Employees for Top Positions. It is critical that corporations implement meaningful succession planning, whether in the form of a mentoring program or other similar mechanism, for senior employees of a company who can be groomed for top leadership positions in the future.  Such a program should require a significant time investment from the CEO and his or her leadership team.  These programs help identify people who not only could be future leaders of the company, but could be tapped for Director positions on other corporate Boards.

Ø Track Supplier Diversity So It Becomes a Priority. The lack of data shared regarding diverse suppliers, specifically in terms of a breakdown by ethnic/racial category, proves that this is an area that needs work. According to the latest census figures, there are more than 7.8 million women-owned businesses and 5.8 million minority-owned businesses.  It is important to make an effort to procure with diverse suppliers and track this progress over time. If a corporation does not know where it stands, it cannot take action to improve.

Ø Philanthropy is Good, but Not Enough. This survey showed two things, among others: that there is much philanthropy, but less diversity.  Although philanthropy is good and should be part of a corporation’s diversity plan, philanthropy alone is simply not enough. Diversity at all levels should be made a priority not only because it is the right thing to do, but because it is a good business decision.

Ø Opportunities for Board Diversity When Companies Go Public.  Some companies have been bought by private equity firms that will take them public very soon.  In the process, companies will have to rename an entirely new Board of Directors.  This provides a prime opportunity to seek the most diverse, qualified candidates for Director positions and can have the quickest impact on improving Board diversity.  Corporations that fall into this category will be watched closely over the coming year.

Ø Do Not Rely Solely on Written Diversity Plans. While corporations with written plans are more likely to have better diversity among their leadership as well as with suppliers, the gains were only slight. Therefore, corporations should not rely solely on written diversity plans, but should also implement more far-reaching changes that can have an even greater impact.  Implementing some of the aforementioned recommendations should provide corporations a good step in the right direction.

In a press release distributed Tuesday the Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE) called on the organization Free Press to explain the true motives behind a disturbing 40-page guide detailing a strategy to manipulate poor, rural, Southern African Americans and women in an attempt to advance their own political agenda.  As reported in The Hill, Free Press recently commissioned the study Net Neutrality For the Win:  How Entertainment and the Science of Influence Can Save Your Internet which includes messages, research data, and strategies for convincing “targets” that the future of the Internet is in jeopardy in order to gain support for Net Neutrality policies.

The forty-page guide, produced by the Harmony Institute, identifies poor, rural African Americans and women as “persuadable” and thus the primary targets for Net Neutrality messaging.  Instead of having an honest debate, Free Press has reverted to unacceptable tactics to promote their way of thinking at any cost.

“The cynical and demeaning manipulation and stereotyping of poor, rural, minorities and women to advance a political agenda is inexcusable,” said ADE Chairman Julius H. Hollis.  “Free Press needs to immediately explain their actions and intentions.”

The Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE) is a non-profit consumer advocacy organization that serves to facilitate and ensure equal access to technology in underserved and un-served communities.  The Alliance also serves as a bridge between policymakers and minority individuals in order to help the public understand how legislative and regulatory policies regarding new technologies can impact and empower their daily lives.  For more information on The Alliance for Digital Equality, please visit www.alliancefordigitalequality.org.

New York, NY, June 14th, 2010 – Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association’s President and CEO, Jose A. Marquez-Leon proudly announced today that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski will deliver remarks on the National Broadband Plan at LISTA’s upcoming 3^rd Annual National Tech-Latino 2030 Legislative Forum on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC at 6:00 pm – 8:30pm on Tuesday June 22^nd 2010.

“It is a great honor to have Chairman Genachowski address our members at our 3rd Annual National Tech-Latino 2030 Legislative Forum,” said Tony Jimenez LISTA National Board of Directors Chairman. “Chairman Genachowski has been an advocate for the Latino community and understands the critical role broadband plays in developing businesses and improving the economy for all Americans.”

 “We are extremely pleased to have Chairman Genachowski address our members at our 3^rd Annual National Tech-Latino Legislative Forum,” said Jose A. Marquez Leon. “Chairman Genachowski recognizes the role of the nation’s Latino technology sector and how broadband will help the Latino community continue to develop businesses and our positive impact on the economy of the United States.  He understands that closing the digital divide once and for all will give all Americans the chance to achieve the American Dream of financial independence and economic empowerment.”

 “Having Chairman Genachowski participate in LISTA’s Tech-Latino Legislative Forum is a testament to the recognized impact Latinos will have in our nation’s high-tech future,” said Danny Vargas.  He added, “We sincerely appreciate the Chairman’s interest and dedication to ensuring that the FCC continues to engage all segments of American society and encourages Latinos to take a leading role in not only telecommunications but all aspects of innovation.”

The 3^rd Annual National Tech-Latino Legislative Forum will provide Latino IT professionals an opportunity to dialogue with members of Congress about key concerns in the industries of Science, Technology Math and Engineering. It will also provide LISTA an opportunity to continue to raise awareness of the digital divide and how to bridge it, develop ideas on how to stimulate the growth of technology business, and be a catalyst of change in the high-technology and science sectors.

Event Information

3^rd Annual National Tech-Latino Legislative Forum is generously sponsored by MicroTech, Capitol Wire PR. Uber Operations, Broadband for America, NTIA, ADE, State Farm, Aetna and Comcast

Date: Tuesday, June 22 2010

Time: 6pm – 9 pm
Opening Reception Venue:  

Rayburn House Office Building,

Room B-338, Basement, Washington, DC 20515                       
To Attend Please Visit:  www.techlatino2030.org 

About Chairman Genachowski

Julius Genachowski was nominated by President Barack Obama as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on March 3, 2009, and sworn into office on June 29, 2009.

Chairman Genachowski has two decades of experience in public service and the private sector. Prior to his appointment, he spent more than 10 years working in the technology industry as an executive and entrepreneur. He co-founded LaunchBox Digital and Rock Creek Ventures, where he served as Managing Director, and he was a Special Advisor at General Atlantic. In these capacities, he worked to start, accelerate, and invest in early- and mid-stage technology and other companies. From 1997-2005, he was a senior executive at IAC/InterActiveCorp, a Fortune 500 company, where his positions included Chief of Business Operations and General Counsel.

Genachowski’s public service spanned broadly across government. His confirmation as FCC Chairman returns him to the agency where, from 1994 until 1997, he served as Chief Counsel to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, and, before that, as Special Counsel to then-FCC General Counsel (later Chairman) William Kennard. Previously, he was a law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice David Souter and Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. , and at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for Chief Judge Abner Mikva. Genachowski also worked in Congress for then-U.S. Representative (now Senator) Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), and on the staff of the House select committee investigating the Iran-Contra Affair.

Genachowski has been active at the intersection of social responsibility and the marketplace. He was part of the founding group of New Resource Bank, which specializes in serving the needs of green entrepreneurs and sustainable businesses, and has served on the Advisory Board of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). He also served as a board member of Common Sense Media, a leading non-partisan, non-profit organization seeking to improve the media lives of children and families.

Genachowski received a J.D from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude), where he was co-Notes Editor of the Harvard Law Review. He received a B.A. from Columbia College (magna cum laude), where he was Editor of Columbia Spectator’s Broadway Magazine, re-established Columbia’s oldest newspaper (Acta Columbiana), and was a writer and researcher for Fred Friendly. He was also a certified Emergency Medical Technician who served on the Columbia Area Volunteer Ambulance, and taught cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

About Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association (LISTA)

LISTA (www.a-lista.org) promotes the utilization of the technology sectors for the empowerment of the Latino community. We are an organization that is committed to bringing various elements of Technology under one central hub to facilitate our partners, members and the community with the leverage and education they need to succeed in a highly advanced technologically driven society.

Guest Blogger: Luis J. Diaz, Esq.

President and CEO

The United States Hispanic Advocate Association (USHAA)

Luis J. Diaz has over 20 years of extensive experience in a wide range of complex matters including intellectual property law, technology related joint ventures and strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, sales and marketing, and government relations. Mr. Diaz provides legal and business counsel to business units,  » read more »
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So What’s Wrong With Arizona’s New Immigration Law?

Arizona’s recently enacted immigration law (SB 1070, as amended by HB2162) makes the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and requires the local police to check immigration status and to detain anyone on mere “reasonable suspicion“ of being in the country illegally following a “lawful stop, detention or arrest.”  The law has generated great debate. Advocates say it is needed to fight crime resulting from illegal immigration. Opponents say it will result in the violation of civil liberties.  It is an issue that requires a subtantial analysis based on facts, an understanding of American history, and a review of legal precedents involving the abuse and limits of police power. 

FACTS & ISSUES
As confirmed by a recent study from PEW Research Center, the fact is that one in four Americans believe that Hispanics are the racial/ethnic group subject to the most discrimination in America. The study found that 32% of Hispanics 16 or older say they or someone they know has experienced discrimination. Less than half of Hispanics believe that police officers in their community treat Latinos fairly. And, most police chiefs around the country, concerned about the chilling effect of this law, oppose it because of its negative impact on their ability to fight crime, obtain witness cooperation, and other concerns. 

Despite recent amendments to fix the more obvious problems of SB 1070, the law still provides no guidelines as to what is meant by “reasonable suspicion” in the context of alien status: is it 3 or more Hispanics in a car, a red bandana, a plaid shirt, a migrant worker in the field, or someone speaking Spanish? The reality is that “reasonable suspicion” likely will mean those looking like, sounding like, or acting like the stereotypical undocumented immigrant. However, police officers will be trained to write down things not related to race on their reports like the swerving car, a crooked license plate, talking on a mobile, the seatbelt being unfastened, or some other similar statement that will be difficult to disprove in a court of law and that will pit the relative credibility of a uniformed officer against that of a stereotypical poor immigrant.  Notably, Governor Brewer has already announced training on the the subject of “reasonable suspicion” for police officers that one assumes are already experts on the subject.

If the Arizona law is really targeted at crime prevention stemming from the border, then it would be logical and workable if it simply required “probable cause” of some “criminal activity” before police could check immigration status. While the difference between “probable cause” and “reasonable suspicion” may not seem apparent to a lay person, these are two very different legal standards. 

HISTORY & PRECEDENTS
Millions of Americans have shed blood in many wars to preserve the civil rights we now treasure. There are 200 years of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence supporting the proposition that police powers must be narrowly limited to prevent abuse of individual rights – something our founding fathers recognized. Also, the mission of police officers is to fight crime – not to act as immigration agents. Thus, any law that creates supercops with immigration superpowers and that, in its actual application, makes it possible to target, arrest, search and seize persons with certain physical attributes is by its nature suspect and should require a higher standard.  On a cursory reading of the law, we are reminded of the phrase made famous by Hitler’s infamous Gestapo: “Show me your papers, are your papers in order?” The main difference is that with SB 1070 no “jewish star of David” is necessary for an Arizona supercop to identify the stereotypical immigrant.

Like the Japanese interment laws of the 1940’s, the Arizona law undermines the very notions of equal justice and basic fairness that are fundamental values of every American. As with the interment laws, this legislation is being driven by fear and hysteria and it is expressly directed at a group of people whose physical attributes identify them on first glance as members of a specific racial group. The failure of political leadership in Arizona has allowed people that may “look Mexican” to be singled out whether citizens or not.

Based on our history, we can now anticipate the development of a laundry list of “permissible factors” that can be cited after the fact to justify a “reasonable suspicion” even though race was in fact the first glance consideration in the initial stop. As noted, Governor Brewer has announced training on the the subject of “reasonable suspicion.” It is forseeable that Arizona’s effort to create supercops with immigration powers will spread like a cancer to other states across the country that do not border Mexico, thereby greatly magnifying the potential civil rights violations to all Hispanic citizens that may look “illegal.” 

If left unchecked, history teaches that this law could place this great nation on the same slippery slope created by the interment laws, the House Un-American efforts of Senator McCarthy, and similar dark episodes in our history where fear has been used to justify the breach of American civil rights. The eventual apology will ring hollow as it has in times past. In 1988 Congress ultimately passed and President Ronald Reagan signed legislation which apologized for the interment of Japanese Americans and acknowledged that the government actions were based on “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”

SO WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

The problem starts in Mexico. Thus, any real solution to the problem of illegal immigration and related criminal activity must involve (i) securing our borders, (ii) enacting stronger anti-crime measures, (iii) passing immigration reforms that make economic sense, and (iv) imposing economic sanctions against trade countries that contribute to these types of problems.  The Arizona law does not address any of these issues. Instead, it targets the victims of failed policies by both Mexico and the United States.  This is equivalent to trying to stop drug trafficking by targeting users and not pushers.  We must call on Congress to pass comprehensive immigration legislation to fix our broken immigration laws and to hold our preferred trade partners like Mexico accountable, whether or not it hurts the economic interests of some large Mexican companies and their American partners in the short run. 

ABOUT USHAA:

USHAA is an award-winning non-profit providing economic advocacy, benefits and education programs to ensure that its business and individual members have equal access to contracts, jobs, education and other opportunities provided by our great nation.

Dombrowski

Part two of a two-part series

Along with the push to ramp up the use of health information technology in hospitals and doctors’ offices comes the need for a highly skilled labor force to get the job done.

Dixon-Lee said that today many AHIMA members are doing the work of IT specialists at their hospitals and physician offices while others can be retrained for these new positions. CAHIIM-accredited programs graduate between 3,000 and 3,500 students a year, of which 600 receive bachelor’s degrees and the rest associate’s degrees, she said.

“Our data show a 95% placement rate, but we aren’t producing them fast enough,” said Dixon-Lee, who cited a 2009 private workforce study commissioned by AHIMA last year projecting the need for anywhere between 12,000 and 50,000 new health information professionals over the next eight years.

Many Modern Healthcare readers who participated in our most recent annual IT survey reported having a tough time recruiting and retaining IT staff. A majority of survey respondents (58%) indicated they’ll need to hire more IT staff in the next 12 months. Meanwhile, 49% of responding executives said they have a hard time hiring or retaining IT workers, most commonly, because of a scarcity of trained personnel, but also because of low wages for IT workers in healthcare compared with other industries.

Officials at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology think the demand for workers skilled in health IT will be even greater than the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests, but perhaps near the upper end of the numbers that Dixon-Lee cited.

“In the aggregate, we have estimated to get to meaningful use by almost all care venues in the country we’re going to need something like 50,000 more trained healthcare workers in these roles than the educational system as it currently exists can produce,” said Charles Friedman, chief scientific officer for the ONC and its point man on ONC-funded educational and workforce development programs. The goal is to have 10,500 new healthcare IT workers trained each year over five years.

“We believe most of the people who can benefit from this program will come into it already possessing part of what they will need to know,” Friedman said. “They will be either IT people who will need to know more about health, or health people who will need to know more about IT. I can’t say what the balance between those two is.”

Friedman said the ONC picked the six “career paths” that the community colleges will train students to take. Those jobs are: clinician/practitioner consultants; implementation managers; implementation support specialists; practice workflow and information management redesign specialists; technical/software support staffers; and trainers.

“We looked at the field as it was evolving, not as it is today, but as we expect it to evolve,” Friedman said. ONC staffers looked at all the activities under the stimulus law and the low EHR adoption rate “and said, OK, what’s going to be necessary to get these practices from paper to electronic, and what roles are needed,” and what is needed to do it properly?

Under the ONC-supported, six-month certificate programs, U.S. community colleges are expected to train 10,500 students a year over five years. For those programs, there will be no certification organization required to look over the shoulder of the 70 community colleges expected to churn out those graduates.

“It’s a bit early to be contemplating that,” Friedman said.

Instead, Friedman said, the ONC has awarded a $6 million grant to Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale, to create and administer a competency examination for graduates of the community college training programs. AHIMA is “very much involved” in the grant, Friedman said.

The individual competency testing program was chosen as an alternative to certification, Friedman said, “to make it very clear this grant award is to assess objectively a certain set of competencies in each examinee who sits for the exam.

“This could evolve in the future into some kind of certification program,” he said.

Community college graduates of the six-month certificate programs won’t be required to sit for the competency exam, “but we hope they will,” Friedman said. Part of the money for the competency testing grant is to underwrite the cost of 20,000 students to sit for the exam for free, he said. “We’re considering this as a pump-priming mechanism to ensure enough sit for the exam to demonstrate its value.”

For the new student certificate holders, “We think it will improve their job prospects. Think of how colleges use the SAT exam to complement a student’s grades to enhance admission. I think in the same way, this exam will be a comparable assessment of a certain set of competencies,” Friedman said.

“For a prospective employer, it will be information above and beyond” the educational program, Friedman said. Data on pass-fail rates from the competency exams could be aggregated and reported back to the community colleges to help them assess their programs, he added.

Back to school

The university was a triple winner in the federal workforce grant competition, receiving a total of $5.8 million in funding for three programs—nearly $3.1 million for advanced training to medical professionals in healthcare informatics; more than $1.8 million to develop curricula to be used by community colleges to train healthcare IT workers; and $900,000 to serve as the National Training and Dissemination Center for the curriculum-development program.

Oregon Health & Science has an established, nationally recognized medical informatics program. At any given time, Hersh said, the university may have as many as 200 people enrolled in its postgraduate, 24-credit-hour certificate program and its 52-credit-hour, master’s degree in biomedical informatics program.

About two-thirds of the current enrollment in those programs consists of clinical professionals—with half of that group being physicians—and the remaining third being computer people, Hersh said.

The federal, advanced-education grants will be for scholarships to those programs, Hersh said, with the caveat being that enrollees in the federally funded graduate certificate programs must complete their work in 12 months, whereas in the past, a typical enrollee, who works and goes to school at the same time, often takes longer to complete the same course.

“If they do our graduate certificate program, they have to do it all in a year,” Hersh said, but the trade-off for the rush is, “in essence, people can get a free education.” Tuition for the certificate program is about $12,000. “We have 45 slots per year,” Hersh says. “The people who don’t get funded can still do the program.” It just won’t be subsidized, he added.

Aid recipients under this one-year, advanced educational grant program also must choose from six career paths: clinician/public health leader; health information management and exchange specialist; health information privacy and security specialist; research and development scientist; programmers and software engineers; and health IT subspecialist.

In addition to Oregon Health & Science, eight other universities will share in a total of $32 million in stimulus law funding for university-based, advanced IT education programs. They are: Columbia University; the University of Colorado at Denver’s College of Nursing; Duke University; George Washington University; Indiana University; Johns Hopkins University; the University of Minnesota; and Texas State University, San Marcos.

Along with its graduate-level programs, Oregon Health & Science, as part of its triple-win, will join Columbia, Duke and Johns Hopkins as well as the University of Alabama at Birmingham in sharing ONC grants totaling $10 million to develop curricula to support the six-month, community college IT certificate programs.

The new curricula will cover 20 different content categories, including history of health IT, installation and maintenance of health IT systems, project management, and the use of IT in quality improvement.

“The people who got funded were all experts in informatics who have been doing this kind of instruction,” Hersh said, although none of them has ever developed curricula for community colleges.

To make up for lack of community college experience, each of the contracting universities was obliged to enlist “a suitable number of community college partners,” Hersh said. “In my center, there are four community colleges partners. There are faculty that will work with us as subject-matter experts that will come up with curricula suitable for the community college setting.”

Work on curriculum development by the five universities and their community college partners began almost immediately after the grants were awarded in early April, Hersh said.

The schools have less than four months to complete their curriculum development work before Oregon Health & Science welcomes 400 community college educators to Portland in August for a crash course in the new IT training program outlines.

“It will be a pretty intensive week late that month,” Hersh said. After that, the newly trained faculty will return home and get ready for a hoped-for influx of new IT students. By the end of September, the entire first wave of new IT students is expected to be enrolled.

The participating 70 community colleges will form five consortia, each geographically dispersed, although not every state will have a participating community college. The five consortia will each be led by one community college—Bellevue (Wash.) College; Los Rios Community College, Sacramento, Calif.; Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland; Pitt Community College, Greenville, N.C., and Tidewater Community College, Norfolk, Va. Grants awarded to these schools could total $70 million over the next two years—$36 million this year and up to $34 million the next.

At Bellevue College, administrators years ago foresaw the looming demand for health IT workers and began developing training programs to meet the industry’s needs. Patricia Dombrowski, director of the school’s life-science informatics center, said the college has graduated about 17 health IT workers a year over the past six years from its 12-month, 30-credit-hour health IT training program.

In 2008, as doldrums beset the Puget Sound IT job market, the college responded by creating a six-month program aimed at providing experienced IT workers from other industries with a background in healthcare IT. The 18-credit-hour program for these IT veterans opened this January with students to spare.

“We could have probably seated 50 or more, but we limited it to 25,” Dombrowski said.

In addition, Bellevue this summer will offer a three-month program for incumbent physician-office practice managers on IT project management and EHR support, she said. “Now we’re ready to scale up” for the HHS-funded training program, Dombrowski said.

Community colleges are not obligated to use the curricula developed by Oregon Health & Science and the other four universities, but all must focus their training programs on the six federally designated career paths. Although no single school is required to offer courses on all six job targets, each consortium must see that all six are covered within their group.

“I doubt we’ll do all six,” Dombrowski said. “We have to see a little more about the curriculum before we make a decision about that.”

Bellevue could get by with just some tweaks to its existing courses and curricula to adapt them to the federal program, Dombrowski said.

“We think we’re spot on and at the very worst, very close, but we have not seen the standard, and we’ve made some suggestions about the ONC accepting the existing curriculum,” she said. If required, “We stand ready to implement the national curricula.”

Bellevue will receive $1 million from the ONC grant to oversee its consortium, which includes seven other community colleges. Each community college, including Bellevue, will receive the same $625,000 in federal grant money to run its training programs and other services. Bellevue’s additional $375,000 will go to administer the consortium.

Beyond providing teachers and course materials, Dombrowski said, Bellevue will offer tutoring and counseling and employment services. The amount of money the ONC is providing “seems adequate to the task,” she added.

Will there be enough time to develop and disseminate the curricula, train educators and be ready for the first day of school by September?

Dombrowski thinks so.

“It’s wonderful in these tough times for people to be able to draw a direct line from training to be put to work,” she said. “The beauty of this is it’s so directly related to people who need work.”

New York, N.Y. – Today Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association (LISTA) President and CEO, Jose Marquez-Leon released the following statement in response to the May 24, 2010 letter to the Federal Communications Commission on the importance of broadband adoption and deployment over regulation.

LISTA is pleased to see 74 members of Congress join together and speak with one voice on the importance of broadband technology to transform the communities where we live and work. Broadband technology can revitalize the Hispanic community – providing access to first class schools and job training for high-paying American jobs.

Members of Congress have shown the Federal Communications Commission the importance of broadband – and the importance of focusing on policy goals before implementing net neutrality rules that threaten delay and deter broadband investment. We simply can not afford to keep high-speed Internet out of reach from the communities with schools and businesses that need to be online.

Congress has shown the Commission that there is much work to be done to bring broadband to all of America – I hope they will take the leadership to promote access and adoption with sensible policies that encourage investment, innovation, and collaboration.

Monday, May 24, 2010; A18 

JULIUS GENACHOWSKI, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, cannot win for losing. 

Internet service providers (ISPs), including Comcast and AT&T, insist that a light touch is needed when regulating the Internet to guard against innovation-stifling intervention. Some public interest groups and businesses, including Google, argue that the FCC must seriously police the Internet to ensure ISPs do not discriminate against certain technologies. (Disclosure: The Washington Post Co. has interests in broadcast and cable television and businesses that depend on the Internet, all of which could be affected by FCC action or inaction.) 

The debate intensified dramatically last month after a D.C. federal appeals court struck down the FCC’s relatively relaxed regulatory approach. 

From Mr. Genachowski’s perspective, the ruling left the agency with a distasteful choice: Either abandon efforts to regulate broadband or reclassify the service to subject it to more muscular legal provisions typically reserved for telephone companies and other common carriers. Mr. Genachowski, in an effort at compromise, chose a third way: apply only a few of the common-carrier provisions to parts of broadband delivery. 

This approach is also unacceptable. For some eight years, the agency has argued that broadband constitutes an “information service” and that it should be subject only to a light regulatory touch. To reverse course now by classifying broadband as a telecommunications service would require the agency to throw out years of its own data and analysis. While agencies have broad latitude in reevaluating regulatory schemes, reversals should be linked to significant market shifts. The facts do not support such a conclusion, and the FCC should not now try to shoehorn broadband into an existing — but incompatible — regulatory scheme. 

What is needed is a fourth way: The agency, industry, consumer groups and other interested parties should work with Congress to craft clear but limited rules tailored to broadband. Advocates of increased oversight worry that the often-protracted legislative process will leave a gaping regulatory void that ISPs will exploit to engage in mischief. This is nonsense. It ignores the ISPs’ need to provide good service to keep their customers, and it does not take into account the healthy oversight provided by those consumers and Internet watchdog groups. The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department also have the power to police anticompetitive or fraudulent acts. 

At the moment, the FCC appears powerless to follow through with its national broadband plan, which includes the goal of expanding service to minority and poor communities. While we do not agree with much of the plan, there are worthwhile elements, including reporting, monitoring and transparency requirements, that the FCC could not enact without explicit legal authority. This is yet another reason why the agency should make a trek to Capitol Hill. 

Washington, DC [CapitalWirePR] May 24, 2010 – Recently, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) treated Puerto Rico and its elected representatives with disregard and disrespect.  It held that Puerto Ricans don’t deserve the same quality of access to telecommunications services that other Americans enjoy.  This is wrong and this must be reversed.

Congress created the FCC for the express purpose of ensuring that “all the people of the United States” have comparable access to telecommunications services “without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex.”  In furtherance of this fundamental right, Congress directed the FCC to provide funding to ensure universal access to communications services.  And Congress specifically required the FCC to provide the financial support necessary to ensure that equal quality telecommunications services in “insular areas,” like Puerto Rico, are both available and affordable.

The FCC, however, turned its back on this duty and the Commonwealth. The FCC decided not to provide the funding necessary to ensure Puerto Rico has equal quality universal telephone service.   Instead, the Commission said that having affordable wire line telephone service isn’t important in Puerto Rico because, in the FCC’s view, we can make do with cell phone service.  What the FCC did not say is that this is a double standard that discriminates against Puerto Rico because the FCC’s policies on the mainland have ensured affordable access to both wire line and wireless services.

At bottom, we have a real need for the support Congress directed the FCC to provide.  Despite the advances seen in other parts of the country, many in Puerto Rico still lack access to basic telephone and Internet services.  In fact, Puerto Rico has the largest population of persons who lack access to any wire line telecommunications service—a staggeringly high 200,000 individuals and approximately 200 communities.  Moreover, many of these same communities lack access to wireless telecommunications due to weak coverage in the inland mountains. 

Had the FCC followed Congress’s direction, Puerto Ricans would be assured of the affordable access to equal quality telecommunications they are entitled to.  And we are not just talking about voice services.  Before the FCC made its decision, the Puerto Rico Telephone Company offered a commitment to use these funds to deploy voice and broadband-capable infrastructure.  This would not only have ensured access to wired telephone service, it would have provided a running start toward efforts to bring broadband to more of the citizens of the Commonwealth.

On the same day that the FCC turned its back on the people of Puerto Rico, it granted a substantial increase in financial support to wire line systems in Wyoming—despite the fact that Puerto Rico has seven times the population of Wyoming and 40 percent of Puerto Rico’s population is living below the poverty line.  For those of us who want to ascribe a neutral, objective basis to the FCC’s decision-making, this decision simply makes no sense.

It is time to let the FCC know that it can no longer relegate Puerto Ricans to steerage while the rest of the United States goes first class.  Thankfully, the fight is not over and we are not alone.  Representatives in Washington—including Resident Commissioner Pedro R. Pierluisi, Representative Nydia M. Velázquez, Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, and Representative José E. Serrano—have been working hard to urge the FCC to treat Puerto Ricans fairly, as federal law requires.  The FCC’s decision to ignore these requests reveals a profound disrespect not only for those living in Puerto Rico but for these representatives as well.  We must urge them to continue to fight for us and support them in the coming days as they tell the FCC to do its job and reverse its discriminatory decision.

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The author is President and CEO of the National Puerto Rican Coalition, Inc., a nonpartisan, non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., whose mission is to strengthen and enhance the social, political, and economic well-being of Puerto Ricans throughout the U.S and Puerto Rico, with a special focus on the most vulnerable.

CONTACT:

info@capitalwirepr.com

National Puerto Rican Coalition

202 223 3915

www.nprcinc.org

rfantauzzi@nprcinc.org

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