Hispanic Heritage Month
Air Force Academy graduate and former U-2 reconnaissance pilot, Cholene Espinoza knows firsthand the experiences soldiers have faced in battle. She was an embedded journalist in the Iraq War.
On Thursday, the Española native is scheduled to speak at the Laboratory as part of Los Alamos' Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM) observance. In keeping with this year’s HHM theme, "Hispanic Americans: Our Rich Culture Contributing to America’s Future,” Espinoza will discuss Hispanic Americans, a Culture of Love, Leadership and Legacy at 11:30 a.m. in the Physics Building Auditorium at Technical Area 3.The talk includes a ten-minute question and answer period from 12:20-12:30 pm. The talk is open to the Laboratory work force.
Espinoza was the second woman to fly the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft in the U.S. Air Force and was awarded the Air Medal and the Aerial Achievement Medal. She is a military correspondent for Talk Radio News Service and was an embedded journalist with the U.S. Marine Corps 1st Tank Battalion during the Iraq War. She received a National Press Woman’s award and was a finalist for the New York Festival’s Radio Award for her coverage of the war in 2003.
Espinoza wrote Through the Eye of the Storm: A Book Dedicated to Rebuilding what Katrina Washed Away about her experiences in the Deep South during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Espinoza is now a captain for United Airlines, a consultant to Medley Global Advisors, and a director of CornerPost Software, LLC (a company that protects children from potentially harmful Internet content).
Espinoza received the Girl Scouts Woman of Distinction award in 2004, was a White House Fellowship Northeast Regional Finalist in 2004. She received the New Mexico Trailblazer Award in 2000, was named Squadron Officer of the Year in 1990, and received the Lance P. Sijan U.S. Air Force Leadership Award in 1991.
Espinoza is from Española, New Mexico and currently lives in New York City.
A second Hispanic Heritage Month event is scheduled in October - a Diversity Cinema screening of the movie Stand and Deliver. Part one of the movie will be shown on October 10, and the second part is scheduled to show the next day. Both screenings are from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. in the MSL Auditorium at TA-3.
The movie is about Jaime Escalante, a mathematics teacher at a school in Los Angeles. Escalante, played by actor Edward James Olmos, is convinced that his students have potential, so he adopts unconventional teaching methods to try to turn gang members into some of the country’s top algebra and calculus students.
Hispanic Heritage Month at the Lab is sponsored by the Hispanic Diversity Working Group, the Diversity Affirmative Action Board, and the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity (HR-OEOD).
For more information, go to http://int.lanl.gov/orgs/hr/oeod/groups/hdwg/events.shtml online.
