National Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from September 15th to October 15th each year. This year, MMTC paid tribute to former FCC Commissioners Henry M. Rivera, Patricia Diaz Dennis, and Gloria Tristani; and the contributions of the Hispanic Technology & Telecommunications Partnership (HTTP), League of Latin American Citizens (LULAC), MANA, A National Latina Organization, and National Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce to the media, telecom, and tech industries.
Hon. Rivera became the first Hispanic FCC Commissioner after being appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981. During his tenure at the FCC (1981-1985), Rivera served as the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Alternative Financing for Minority Opportunities in Telecommunications (1982), the Supervisory Commissioner of the Telecommunications Industry Advisory Group to Revise Uniform System of Accounts (1982), and a member of the Federal-State Joint Board on Separations (1983-1985). In 1986, he became the founding chair of MMTC’s Board of Directors and later served the organization for 25 years. In addition, he served as the President of the Federal Communications Bar Association and co-chaired President Barack Obama’s FCC Science Transition team. Currently, he practices telecom, media, and tech law as a partner at Wiley Rein in Washington, D.C.
Read MMTC’s Broadband and Social Justice Blog post, “MMTC Chair Henry Rivera Celebrates 25 Years of Service” (December 2011). Go here to learn more about his accomplishments.
Hon. Dennis holds the distinction of being the first Hispanic woman to serve as an FCC Commissioner from 1986 to 1989. Prior to her FCC appointment by President Reagan, she served as a member of the National Labor Relations Board (1983). She was appointed by President George H. Bush as an assistant secretary of state for humanitarian affairs (1992). After she completed her government service, she worked as special counsel to Sullivan & Cromwell for communications matters and a partner and the head of the communications section at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. In 1995, she joined AT&T (formerly SBC Communications) and was responsible for AT&T Corporate Litigation, Procurement, Corporate Real Estate, Environmental, Corporate Compliance, IT, Trademark and Copyright legal matters. She retired from AT&T as Senior Vice President & Assistant General Counsel in 2008.
Dennis was Chair of the Girl Scouts of the USA from 2005 until 2008 and served on its Board from 199 until 2008. Currently, she serves on the Boards of Directors of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, Entravsion, and NPR. In addition, she is Chair of The Global Fund Sanctions Panel.
MMTC honored her and other current and former FCC Commissioners including Hon. Tristani at its Women’s History Month celebration in 2013. Read MMTC’s Broadband and Social Justice Blog post, “Commissioner McDowell to Join FCC Women and MMTC As We Celebrate Women’s History April 10th” (April 2013). Learn more about her accomplishments here.
Hon. Tristani was appointed an FCC Commissioner by President Bill Clinton and served from 1997 to 2001. Prior to joining the FCC, Tristani was the first woman elected to the New Mexico State Corporate Commission (1995-1997). She also served as the managing director of the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ (2004-2006), President of the Benton Foundation (2006), and Of Counsel at Spiegel & McDiarmid where she represented the interests of clients including noncommercial radio stations, public educationa and governmental access channels, local and municipal governments, rural electric cooperatives, and nonprofit organizations. Most recently, she served as a special policy advsor at the National Hispanic Media Coalition where she worked to preserve net neutrality and an open internet.
Learn more about her accomplishments here.
