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NHMC Staff
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Elected President of the NHMC in the late nineties, Alex has virulently advocated for the Latino community. He led boycotts against the advertisers of the syndicated “Howard Stern” radio show as a means of getting Stern off the air when he offended the Latino community and the family of the late singing star, Selena Quintanilla-Perez, with his repugnant comments following the singer’s tragic murder. Under Nogales’ leadership, the NHMC has filed over fifty petitions to deny broadcast licenses with the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), including one against a Spanish-language radio company for encouraging its DJs to air pornographic radio programming to boost their ratings. Nogales also led high-profile demonstrations against ABC and its parent company, Disney, for its lack of diversity and apparent exclusion of American Latinos from local news reporters and anchor jobs, and intensified discussions with local TV stations across the country. As leader of one of the more visible organizations under the umbrella of the National Latino Media Council (NLMC), for which NHMC acts as secretariat and staff, Alex was instrumental in the signing of Memoranda of Understanding with NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox in the year 2000. And when Latinos in both English and Spanish language television were undercounted by the A.C. Nielsen Research Company, Mr. Nogales led the NLMC fight to force Nielsen to address this shortfall. In his estimation, Nielsen’s undercount limited Latino employment opportunities in English-language television as well as discouraged the development of Latino-themed programming. Fox Television, Nogales’ ally in the fight, recently signed an agreement with Nielsen whereby Nielsen committed fifty million dollars to better train its field representatives to coach Nielsen households on how to correctly use their measuring equipment. Currently, Nogales is evaluating the diversity performance of the four major television networks, pushing for diversity initiatives, and challenging media entities that are demonizing the Latino immigrant community to boost their radio and television ratings. Indeed, in the past few years the NHMC has emerged as a leader in the fight against hate speech in media. On the heels of the 2006 immigration debate – and the often violent and inaccurate anti-Latino rhetoric associated therewith – the FBI documented a 40% increase in hate crimes against Latinos. Not only has the NHMC called on the government to examine the link between hate speech and hate crimes and to bring light to this serious problem, it has also commissioned the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center to study the issue in the absence of government action. At the same time, Mr. Nogales has met with top cable and broadcast television executives, urging them to ensure fairness and accuracy in their stories that touch on the Latino community. In one such meeting, in late 2009, Alex met with CNN President Jon Klein and urged him to hold Lou Dobbs accountable as a credible journalist or to fire him. Not a week later, Dobbs resigned from CNN. In addition to the NHMC’s work on hate speech, under Alex’s leadership the organization has increasingly engaged on media and telecommunications policies that impact the Latino community. NHMC now has a virtual office in Washington, D.C., and serves as the voice of the Latino community on such issues as diversifying media ownership, broadband deployment and adoption, network neutrality, and many other issues that affect how Latinos communicate and are perceived in mainstream media.
Inez González joined the NHMC team in 2005 as the Media Policy Director to manage the newly created media policy program. Inez developed NHMC's media policy priorities and established strong national, statewide and local alliances with other groups concerned with media and telecom policy issues. In 2008, Inez was promoted to Vice President of Media Policy and moved to the East Coast to open NHMC's virtual office in Washington, D.C. where she helped establish a greater national presence for NHMC. After two years in the Beltway, Inez was promoted to Executive Vice President and moved back to California. Previous to joining NHMC, Inez was the District Director for Congressman Bob Filner (D-51) overseeing the management and operations of two district offices that served over 650,000 constituents. Inez’ professional experience includes tenures as Public Relations & Communications Manager for a California Health Management Organization; and Contract Compliance Officer for the public transportation agency in San Diego, CA where she managed Equal Opportunity Programs for the agency. Inez is a fellow of Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) Leadership Training Institute, the Women’s Policy Institute a program of the California’s Women Foundation and the National Hispana Leadership Institute (NHLI). She is a Board Member of the Media and Democracy Coalition (MADC), a collaboration of over two dozen local and national organizations committed to amplifying the public's voice in shaping media and telecommunications policy. She has served as Board Member of San Diego MANA in several capacities, including serving as Vice President of Operations. Inez has a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from the University of San Diego and a Master’s in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix.
Jessica is NHMC's DC-based Policy Counsel. In this capacity, Jessica executues NHMC’s federal policy priorities before the federal agencies and in Congress. Before joining NHMC, Jessica was a staff attorney and clinical teaching fellow at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Public Representation (IPR), where NHMC was one of her clients. At IPR Jessica also represented other consumer, civil rights and public interest organizations before the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and in the Courts of Appeal. While in law school, Jessica was a law clerk at the Media Access Project in Washington, DC, and prior to law school she was a public high school teacher in Los Angeles, California. Jessica is a LLM degree candidate at Georgetown Law. She earned her JD at Southwestern Law School, where she worked on the Journal of Law and Trade in the Americas and the Journal of International Media and Entertainment Law, and her BA from Loyola Marymount University. In her spare time, Jessica acts as co-chair of the Federal Communications Bar Association’s Diversity Committee.
Tatiana Arizaga is a graduate of the University of San Diego where she obtained her degree in Communication Studies with an emphasis in Media and Culture. She began working at NHMC in January 2010 as the Communications Coordinator. Previous to working at NHMC, Tatiana interned at Univision San Diego KBNT 17 where she assisted in the news production department. She also interned at the Department of Public Affairs at the University of San Diego. In her spare time, Tatiana volunteers for different programs and organizations throughout the community.
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Brenda Rivas is a graduate from the University of Southern California where she obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Cinematic Arts with an emphasis in Critical Studies and a minor in Spanish. She began working at NHMC in June 2010 as the Executive Assistant to Alex Nogales. Previous to working at NHMC, Brenda worked at Management 360 where she was part of the Manager-Mailroom Trainee Program. She has also interned at Mandate Pictures in Beverly Hills. While in film school, Brenda was a Special Projects Coordinator at USC El Centro Chicano and was part of the Latino Floor Residential Program.
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Alex Nogales
Inez Gonzalez
Jessica Gonzalez
Tatiana Arizaga