Additional HPRA ¡BRAVO! honorees include industry leaders Marisol Martinez, Trisch Smith and Patrick Ford

MIAMI, July 7, 2022 /PRNewswire-HISPANIC PR WIRE/ — The Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA) is proud to announce that it will recognize award-winning journalist and author Maria Elena Salinas as its recipient of the 2022 HPRA ¡BRAVO! Journalist of the Year Award. Other honorees at this year’s event will include Pioneer of the Year Award recipient and Charter Communications Vice President of Multicultural Marketing Marisol Martinez and Diversity & Inclusion Professional of the Year and Edelman Global Chief DEI Officer Trisch Smith. Former Burson-Marsteller Global Vice Chair and University of Florida Full-time Lecturer Patrick Ford will receive the President’s Award. The 2022 HPRA National ¡BRAVO! Awards will take place September 29, 2022 at the Fairmont Austin in Austin, Texas.

“HPRA is honored to celebrate these distinguished professionals for their unrivaled leadership in advancing the multicultural communications industry while enabling the diversification of our national economy,” said Sonia V. Diaz, national HPRA president. “Maria Elena, Trisch, Marisol and Pat have truly paved the way for media, brands, and marketers to pay attention to these vital segments, and most importantly, they have helped to enrich the representation and experience of multicultural communities through the work we all do.”

Now in its eighth year, the 2022 HPRA ¡BRAVO! Awards celebrate the best corporate, agency, non-profit PR and marketing teams, and the breakthrough work they produced. Honorees for the 2022 National ¡BRAVO! Awards were nominated and chosen collectively by HPRA executive leadership and its board of directors. The honorees were selected for their pivotal work in shaping the industry and establishing progress for Hispanic and multicultural consumer segments in public relations and communications. 

Journalist of the Year:  Maria Elena Salinas

Peabody award-winning anchor, María Elena Salinas, is described as the “Voice of Hispanic America” by the New York Times and is one of the most recognized and influential journalists in the United States. After more than three decades as network anchor at Univision, she continued as an independent journalist and producer as well as a contributor for CBS News, and now ABC News. Maria Elena is the first Latina to receive a lifetime achievement Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Her career began in 1981, where she served as a reporter, anchor and public affairs host for KMEX-TV, Univision’s affiliate in Los Angeles. Maria Elena’s philanthropic work includes providing scholarships for Latino journalism students, serving on the board of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and collaborating with several Latino civic engagement organizations. She continues her mission to inform, inspire, educate, and empower the Latino community and recently formed part of the advisory board for the newly established Latino Media Network.

Pioneer of the Year: Marisol Martinez, VP Multicultural Marketing, Charter Communications

An award-winning executive, Marisol develops strategies to reach multicultural audiences across all marketing platforms for Charter and directs the company’s multicultural acquisition and customer relationship management for Spectrum products. She joined Time Warner Cable in 2008 as Director of Marketing and remained with Charter when its transactions with Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks closed in 2016. Marisol joined Time Warner Cable from Unilever where she was Multicultural Brand Manager. Before Unilever, she served as Senior Marketing Manager at Verizon Communications. Earlier in her career, she held several positions at multicultural advertising agencies where she managed campaigns for several brands, including Procter & Gamble’s Downy, Pantene and Head & Shoulders, MetroPlus Health Plans and Scholastic. She is a member of Women in Cable Telecommunications (WICT) and the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity In Communications (NAMIC).

Diversity & Inclusion Professional of the Year:  Trisch Smith, Chief Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer, Edelman

Diversity and inclusion champion, communications expert, and public relations agency veteran are just a few words used to describe Trisch L. Smith. During her tenure with Edelman, the world’s leading global communications marketing agency, Smith has managed stakeholder outreach, strategic positioning, crisis and reputation management campaigns for a host of Fortune 500 corporations and non-profits seeking to engage a broad spectrum of stakeholders, including Walmart, Starbucks, Unilever, HP, United Way of America, 4-H Council, Toyota, and Prudential, among several others.

For a decade, Smith led the firm’s award-winning Multicultural practice providing senior counsel to a wide range of clients to protect, promote and evolve their brands and effectively engage diverse thought leaders, consumers and other stakeholders. In 2015, Smith was appointed to serve as the U.S. Managing Director of Diversity and Inclusion, and in fall 2018 she was named Edelman’s first Global Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer. In this role, Smith actively works to create an Edelman workforce that represents the increasingly diverse marketplace and offers an equitable and inclusive workplace.

President’s Award:  Patrick Ford, Full-time Lecturer, University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications & Former Burson-Marsteller Global Vice Chair

With more than 38 years of PR experience, Pat teaches corporate reputation, crisis management and corporate communications essentials at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. He previously spent 28 years at Burson-Marsteller, most recently as worldwide vice chair for client service and chief client officer. His background in corporate reputation and issues management has helped companies in a wide range of industries build and protect the reputations of their corporate and product brands. He started his career as a local reporter in New Jersey and currently serves on several boards and advisory councils, including the Diversity Action Alliance, an organization dedicated to improving diversity, equity and inclusion in the public relations industry; the Institute for Public Relations, which focuses on “the science beneath the art of public relations”; the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations, which promotes mentorship; and the Museum of Public Relations.

For more information about the awards program, visit:  https://hprausa.org/bravo/.

For information about HPRA National ¡BRAVO! Awards sponsorship opportunities, please contact the HPRA National Office at info@hprausa.org.

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SOURCE Hispanic Public Relations Association (HPRA)